Linda Thompson - I'll Show You How to Sing - Non-Album Tracks (1968-1972 )

In late 2020, the Richard and Linda Thompson box set "Hard Luck Stories" was released. It contains previously unreleased goodies from all parts of the duet's time together. Because of that, I'm upgrading all the albums from them with minor changes.

It so happens there was a bunch of extra material from the beginning of their musical partnership, which started around 1971 and 1972. I already have an album dealing with this time period, called "Shady Lies." You can find it here:

Richard & Linda Thompson - Shady Lies - Various Songs (1970-1972)

I've drastically changed that album, due to the new material, so I highly recommend you redownload that, if you're interested enough to be reading this. I realized there is a bunch of songs featuring Linda Thompson by herself or with others before she musically linked up with her soon-to-be husband Richard Thompson. So I've spun off all the early Linda Thompson material here. What's left on "Shade Lies" is more stuff with Linda and Richard together.

Linda Thompson was born Linda Pettifer, and changed that to the simpler Linda Peters for her stage name. You can read more about her and her career at her Wikipedia page, here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Thompson_(singer) 

Suffice to say that she put out a single with Paul McNeill in 1968, then another one with him in 1969. I've found three out of those four songs and included them here. I couldn't find "When I Hear Your Name," which is the B-side to the 1969 single. If you have it, let me know and I'll add it to this album.

After that, she did a number of songs that weren't released at the time, but came out on archival releases much later. A couple of those, the ones with Brian Patten, are from the "Hard Luck Stories" box set. Generally speaking, Linda does all the lead vocals, although Paul McNeill does share lead on a couple of their songs together. The songs she did with Elton John are related to the jobs he was doing to earn some extra money before he became famous. I have a whole album of those where he sings lead, which can be found here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/09/elton-john-hits-70-various-songs-1970.html

Anyway, Linda was in demand for these various projects because it was obvious that she had an excellent voice. However, she hadn't tried songwriting yet (she would much later in her career), so these are all covers. Note that I've edited "Get Back," which is the Beatles hit, because in her version she repeated one of the verses, and it seemed entirely unnecessary to me, so I cut that out.

Note that during most of the time period covered by this album, Linda Thompson was known as Linda Peters. But I've only called her "Linda Thompson" for consistency's sake with all of her later material. 

Oh, by the way, on the same day I posted this album, I updated ALL the Richard and Linda Thompson stray tracks albums. Typically, I've added a song or two to each one, mostly thanks to the "Hard Luck Stories" box set.

01 I'll Show You How to Sing (Paul McNeill & Linda Thompson)
02 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Paul McNeill & Linda Thompson)
03 You're Taking My Bag (Paul McNeill & Linda Thompson)
04 Story of Isaac (Linda Thompson)
05 Down River (Linda Thompson)
06 Fire and Rain (Linda Thompson)
07 From a City Balcony (Linda Thompson)
08 Get Back [Edit] (Linda Thompson)
09 I Don't Mind (Linda Thompson with Elton John)
10 This Moment (Linda Thompson with Elton John)
11 Pied Piper (Linda Thompson with Elton John)
12 You Get Brighter (Linda Thompson with Elton John)
13 Embroidered Butterflies (Brian Patten with Linda Thompson)
14 After Frost (Brian Patten with Linda Thompson)
15 Sometimes It Happens (Linda Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687536/LindThmp_1968-1972_IllShwYouHwSing_atse.zip.html

I'm really happy about the cover art photo I found here, because good photos of Richard and/or Linda Thompson from the early years of their time as a duo are very hard to find. I don't know when this photo is from, but I found it paired with one of Richard, and judging by their looks I'd guess it's from around 1973. It was in black and white, but I colorized it.