“We thought, ‘He’s a massively successful artist – what could possibly go wrong?’ We really didn’t like the results, so we didn’t give permission for it to be released”: The folk-rock album recorded with an ’80s mega-star that never saw the light of day

Richard Thompson has looked back on the time he worked with an ’80s mega-star for a folk-rock record that ended up never seeing the light of day.

"What could possibly go wrong?" These famous last words are never to be uttered before a treacherous climb, attempting to cut your own hair, or lowering the Thanksgiving turkey into a vat of boiling oil – and especially not when making a record.

Putting an album together is as risky and it’s hard work. Like all of the above scenarios, you can be setting yourself up for a fall, to make yourself look stupid, and when it all goes wrong you are liable to get yourself burnt – and go to bed hungry.

Metaphorically speaking, this is what happened to English husband-and-wife folk rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson in 1981.

They had found themselves in need of a change of fortune. Sales of 1979’s Sunnyvista did not meet expectations, and Chrysalis Records wanted out of the deal (luckily, the pair retained the masters to the recordings).

As fate would have it, they went on tour with Gerry Rafferty, and this was a good time to be associated with him. They hit it off. And Rafferty was hot. The idea was that he would produce their next album, get them back up and running.

But in a recent interview with Guitar World, Thompson explains why it didn’t quite work out like that.

“Gerry wanted to produce a record for us, and we thought, ‘He’s a massively successful artist and just had a hit with Baker Street, so why not? What could possibly go wrong?’” says Thompson.

Yup, there’s those words again. He and Linda both had the tracks ready. They even actually made the thing, too. But there’s a very good reason why we never got to hear what they did together.

“We went into the studio and recorded, but I thought it sounded too pop,” says Thompson. “You know, like, lots of triple tracking, lots of overdubs. I thought it sounded a bit lifeless at the end of the day. We really didn’t like the results, so we didn’t give permission for it to be released.”

The tracks were not completely junked. Six of them went on to be reworked and re-recorded and resurrected for Shoot Out the Lights. The Thompsons added a couple more and they had the album they needed, and in producer Joe Boyd, they had the producer and the label, too. He put it out on Hannibal and the rest is history.

“I’d known Joe forever,” says Thompson. “He said, ‘Why don’t we record it? We can do it very cheaply. Here’s the budget. Here are the musicians. Here’s how we do it – you know, here’s the promotional schedule.’ We had a whole plan for it. We thought, ‘Great!’”

You can read our interview with Thompson in full, coming soon to Guitar World.