Customer Reviews

Dreams Fly Away: A History Of Linda Thompson

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This compilation showcases Linda Thompson's monumental contribution to rock and folk music from 1973 to 1988. It contains 10 previously unreleased songs, including four duets with Richard Thompson: live versions of Pavanne, The Great Valerio, Walking On A Wire produced by Gerry Rafferty plus a demo of First Light. My favourites include her interpretations of Sandy Denny's I'm A Dreamer and the old standard Blackwaterside plus her solo version of Dimming Of The Day. And the beautiful track Sisters and the yearning I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. With Richard, Linda was an originator of a seamless blend of rock and folk. Dreams Fly Away proves her prowess as an emotive vocalist and her great achievement as a musician. These timeless songs with their poignant words and gripping melodies will never fail to move the serious music lover. The classy CD packaging contains witty and informative historical notes by Linda. I also recommend the classic albums Pour Down Like Silver and Shoot Out The Lights, for more of Linda and Richard's exquisite and memorable music.

Richard is the better known and much more prolific of the former duo, but Linda's voice and presence make any recording she works on worthwhile. Dreams Fly Away consists of a mixture of previously released tracks (from her work with her former husband), live recordings, remixes (the remixes of the One Clear Moment tracks are an actual improvement. The annoying echo producer Hugh Murphy put on her vocals is much less noticable if not altogether gone) and demos.

The notes and interviews are interesting and provide a unique perspective on Linda and her step out of the limelight. Her medical condition has obviously been overcome to some extent (her latest marvelous album is ironically titled Fashionably Late)but, for a while, this was the last word on Linda's music. While Linda may have been Richard's muse for a brief period and his voice for a number of their classics, she deserves recognition as an artist in her own right. This collection puts things right.

I usually don't buy compilations - to me, most are merely commercial and do not break any new ground. Well, here's a noticeable exception. Dreams fly away has a great selection of tracks, and it's very well designed. Sisters and Lonely hearts (from Richard & Linda Thompson's Sunnyvista) are remarkable in every way. Lonely hearts, in particular, has the greatest opening words I've ever heard. I could do without the (slightly) irritating backing vocals - she has a great presence and doesn't need anybody else - but why, nobody's perfect. I'm not going to quibble.
Another favourite of mine is the cover of Sandy Denny's I'm a dreamer - it's really, really great, and so is the Dimming of the day.
As to the live versions of Pavane or the Great Valerio, I think they are weaker than the original studio releases, but still very emotional. She sounds so tense on stage it almost makes us uncomfortable.
I'm glad that, on the whole, I wasn't disappointed by this release. Before I got it, I had hardly ever heard of Linda Thompson. The fact is, I went for Dreams fly away after hearing her cover a traditionnal song on a Simon Nicol solo album. I was stunned by what I heard and decided at once to go for more - that's how I picked this one.
I think she's really a great singer. I mean, when she sings, it's as if she's walking on a wire - she's likely to fall any minute, and her voice may break into a hundred of pieces. I find that truly amazing.
Another enjoyable thing about the record is the inner sleeve. She wrote funny and wistful notes for the songs, and Richard Williams did a nice job too, summing up the ups and downs of her intermittent musical career (I think she would resent the word "career" !).
To make it short, Dreams fly away is a wonderful document to her contribution .. and a welcome addition to my Cds collection.

Cruising the internet, I've found many adjectives describing the voice of Linda Thompson: including reflective, passionate, bittersweet, gentle, organic, theatrical, elegant, earnest and melancholy. My least favorite description is "theatrical." Kate Bush is theatrical, Linda Thompson's delivery is far from melodramatic. My favorite description is "elegant." Perhaps it's her phrasing or High British accent, either way, the voice of Linda Thompson is one of the most graceful and elegant instruments on record. I see no point engaging in a frivolous "better than" argument. Better than Sandy Denny, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant, Judy Collins, Margo Timmins? Nonsense. Whether Linda Thompson is at the top of the pile, in the middle, or at the bottom; does not diminish her admirable contribution to popular music (and neither does it deflate the stature of the other artists named).

Solo, Linda Thompson is impressive. Working with her musical accomplice, Richard Thompson, Linda surpasses excellence into the realm of exalted. Linda and Richard are a musical marriage born in heaven: the majesty of their partnership is not one of commonality, but of contrast. Linda's grace and elegance opposes Richard's acerbic and gruff delivery. Their duets are an alluring mix of silk and sandpaper (Walking On A Wire, For Shame Of Doing Wrong).

I'm hesitant when buying CD compilations including previously unreleased material and outtakes. Often, "unreleased" material should have remained unreleased, and "outtakes" were deleted from the original albums for good reason: their inferior recordings. Not so here, executive producer Joe Boyd's selection is first rate: the quality of the material equals or surpasses the "real" stuff. All of Dreams Fly Away is tantalizing, but several tracks are a pleasant surprise. At odds with the expected British Folk-Rock is the lyrical perplexing synth-heavy "Talking Like A Man, " the bouncing Pop of "One Clear Moment", and the country slide-guitar touches on "Dimming Of The Day."

Dreams Fly Away may break your heart (Insult To Injury, Telling Me Lies, I'm A Dreamer), or transport you inside azure clouds of harmonic beauty (I Live Not Where I Love, Sisters, Many Dreams Must Fly Away): seventy-eight minutes of grace and elegance.

A superb, exceedingly lovely tribute to the career of the great British folk rock singer and her supremely talented singer/songwriter/guitarist husband, Richard Thompson. The poignant songs are beautifully realized and sung with consummate skill and grace. Most are unreleased demo or live versions of their songs. Linda Thompson was once asked in an interview if she really enjoyed singing. She replied, "No, I always found it a painful thing to do- not physically, but emotionally- it was quite draining because I put so much into it." This brilliant and haunting compilation certainly illustrates that there is no finer and more expressive singer in pop than Linda Thompson.

I am a long-time fan of Linda and Richard Thompson.
This retrospect is a showcase for Linda's vocals...this is a welcome addition to my CD collection.

Many of the tracks on this CD are available on other
albums, but the tracks that were previously unreleased
are more than worth the price. Some of the standouts are:
I Live Not Where I Love, Lonely Hearts, One Clear Moment,
and my all-time favorite Linda Thompson vocal, Walking On
a Wire. This track on the CD is an alternate version that
is just as powerful as the original release.

"Hysterical Dysphonia" -- which sounds amazingly like the name of an electronica act -- was the end of what could have been a truly astonishing career. From Linda's notes, it just got too hard to sing, and that's truly sad, because, along with the late Sandy Denny and Steeleye Span's long-time singer, Maddy Prior, Linda was one of the truly unique and beautiful voices to come from the late-Sixties London folk/rock scene.

I'd give this album five stars for performances, but it only gets four stars overall based on its exclusion of songs i had hoped it would include -- most specifically, "You Can't Stop the Girl", the opening track from her one solo album, "One Clear Moment", which has been covered by folkies, rockers, local riot grrl groups and country artists.

That gripe aside, there is enough to the good on this album that i unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone who enjoys folk/rock or simply beautiful vocal music, or to anyone who has listened to the albums Linda recorded with ex-husband Richard Thompson and thought of her as nothing more than "Richard's vocalist".

The version of RT's "Dimming of the Day" included here is almost worth the price of admission all by itself, for that matter, even without the accompanying story in the liner notes about holding hands with one of the Everly Brothers as they sang "Dimming of the Day" to *her*...

When Linda Thompson released her debut solo, One Clear Moment, in 1985, I passed. After all, she was only the singer on the classic Richard & Linda Thompson albums. So when this anthology came out in 1996 I picked it up only because of Richard's appearance on more than half the tracks. The amazing thing is the whole album is great. Every track is a standout.

In her liner notes Linda reflects on her vocals as being "lovely, heartfelt and true." They are indeed. Listen to the aching beauty of "I Live Not Where I Love" or the ethereal charm of "Shay Fan Yan Ley" and you'll be hooked.

She's no slouch as a songwriter either. With collaborator Betsy Cook she offers three tracks ("One Clear Moment," "Many Dreams Must Fly Away," and "Telling Me Lies") that hold their own against the more familiar Richard Thompson-penned songs. [Note: "Telling Me Lies" was nominated for a Grammy when it was covered by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on their Trio album.]

As Richard Williams says in his liner notes to this CD: "One function of Dreams Fly Away is to bury the myth that Linda Thompson was her husband's mouthpiece, and no more." I was victim of that myth before purchasing this CD; I am no longer.

This long overdue CD issue devoted to the magnificent Linda Thompson is a must for anyone remotely interested in the genre of British folk/rock.

As the former wife of Richard Thompson, Linda recorded six album with him. Four of these albums were merely brilliant and astonishing, while two, "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" (their first) and "Shoot Out The Lights" (their last) rank as two of the greatest albums EVER.

This compilation includes lots of out takes and alternate takes of songs from that period, as well as cuts for Linda's all too brief (and now sadly abandoned) solo career. It is all extraordinary and sung with her ever glorious vocals.

If you are reading this review you must have some interest in "Dreams Fly Away." So buy it already.

In 1983, an old boyfriend gave me Shoot out the Lights as a birthday gift. I remember as he handed it to me he said "Now, please, please cool it with Stevie Nicks"- well, I gave him the gate but I kept the record. It took some time to get used to Richard"s droning vocals and the somber material, but I grew to realize the Linda Thompson was singing like no one else. I bought all the other albums and soon became totally in love with her voice! Now, thhis might seem a bit radical to some people, but I really think that Linda's only rival in the world is Aretha Franklin. I'm talking emotion. I'm talking about the use of the voice within the range, the elegance of the voice. Aretha Franklin is a totally different genre, but the 2 voices share an integrity that can't be matched. And the compilation shows that. The music itself might put some people off at first, but she is truly worth the time and effort.