Editing Richard Thompson (musician) (section)

==1970s: Richard and Linda Thompson==
By the 1970s, Thompson had begun a relationship with the singer [[Linda Thompson (singer)|Linda Peters]], who had sung on ''Henry the Human Fly''. In October 1972 the couple were married at [[Hampstead Town Hall]] and honeymooned in [[Corsica]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/richard-thompson-school-of-rock|title=Richard Thompson: conventional wisdom|website=Camden New Journal|access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/linda-thompson-scenes-from-a-rock-roll-marriage-68405/|title=Linda Thompson: Scenes From a Rock & Roll Marriage|first=Kurt|last=Loder|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=9 May 1985|access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref> Thompson, with Linda now effectively his front woman, regrouped for his next album and the next phase of his career.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

The first Richard and [[Linda Thompson (singer)|Linda Thompson]] album, ''[[I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight]]'', was recorded in May 1973 in short time and on a small budget. Largely because of the petrol shortage in Britain and its impact on the availability of vinyl for records, ''Bright Lights'' was held back by [[Island Records]] for nearly a year before being released in April 1974. The album was well received by critics, though sales were less than stellar.

Thompson's lyrics expressed a rather dismal world view, and it has been suggested that the bleak subject matter of his songs helped to keep his recordings off the hit parade. A more likely explanation was given by ex-[[Island Records|Island]] [[Artist and repertoire|A&R]] man Richard Williams in the 2003 [[BBC TV]] documentary ''Solitary Life'': Thompson was just not interested in fame and its trappings.<ref name="SolitaryLife"/>

The Thompsons recorded two more albums—''[[Hokey Pokey (album)|Hokey Pokey]]'' and ''[[Pour Down Like Silver]]'', both released in 1975—before Richard Thompson decided to leave the music business. The couple moved to a [[Abdalqadir as-Sufi|Sufi community]] in [[East Anglia]].

It was not apparent from their records at first, but the Thompsons had embraced an esoteric [[Sufi]] strand of [[Islam]] in early 1974.{{sfn|Humphries|1997|pp=151–154|ps=}} ''I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight'' was recorded before this conversion, but released some time afterwards. The songs for the second Richard and Linda album, ''Hokey Pokey'', were similarly written some time ahead of the album's recording and eventual release. It was ''Pour Down Like Silver'', with its cover photo of a turbaned Richard Thompson, that tipped the public off to the Thompsons' growing preoccupation with their faith.

The trilogy of albums released before and after his sojourn in the commune was heavily influenced by Thompson's beliefs and by Sufi scripture, but in the long run his religious beliefs have not influenced his work in an obvious manner. The outlook expressed in his songs, his musical style, the subjects addressed by his lyrics have not shown any fundamental change.{{sfn|Smith|2004|p=21|ps=}} He remains a committed [[Muslim]].<ref name = "SolitaryLife"/>

Thompson started to re-engage with the world of professional music in 1977. He played on an album by [[Sandy Denny]], and had undertaken a short tour and started recording with a group of musicians who were also Sufis. Thompson asked [[Joe Boyd]] to produce these sessions, and two days were spent on the initial recordings. Boyd recalls that the sessions were not a success: "It was really, I felt, very poor. I didn't have much confidence in the musicians that he was working with. The atmosphere was very strange and it just didn't seem to work."{{sfn|Humphries|1997|p=175|ps=}}

At about this time the Thompsons and their family moved out of the commune and back to their old home in [[Hampstead]].{{sfn|Humphries|1997|p=181|ps=}} Boyd had already invited Richard Thompson to play on [[Julie Covington]]'s debut album. With spare studio time and the American [[session musician]]s hired to work on the Covington album available, the Thompsons went back into the studio to record under their own name for the first time in three years.

The resulting album, ''[[First Light (Richard and Linda Thompson album)|First Light]]'', was warmly received by critics<ref name = "SolitaryLife"/> but did not sell particularly well. Neither did its follow up, 1979's harder-edged and more cynical ''[[Sunnyvista]]''. [[Chrysalis Records]] did not take up their option to renew the contract, and the Thompsons found themselves without one.