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Critic's Review
Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Legend has it that for several years Richard Thompson's first solo album, 1972's Henry the Human Fly, had the distinction of being the worst-selling album ever released by Warner Bros., and Thompson himself once joked that he was personally acquainted with every person who owned a copy. So when Richard completed his next album, his first effort with his new wife Linda Thompson entitled I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, it doubtless came as no great shock when Warners passed on its option to release it. By 1977, Richard Thompson was hardly a star, but he had developed a loyal and growing cult following, and Island Records decided to pair Bright Lights with an LP's worth of unreleased live recordings of Richard & Linda Thompson (a few studio outtakes were also thrown in for good measure), calling the double set Live (More or Less). I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight is quite simply one of the two or three finest albums of Thompson's highly distinguished career, and the live material on disc two is superb, particularly Linda Thompson's heartbreaking vocal on the soul classic "The Dark End of the Street" and Richard Thompson's 13-minute exploration through "Calvary Cross." But I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight was later released in the United States under its own title by Hannibal Records in 1983, and the live material appeared in more compatible surroundings on the fine rarities compilation Guitar, Vocal, leaving Live (More or Less) both redundant and out of print. It's now of interest solely to the sort of collector who salivates over cover misprints or label color variations -- not that they're not fine people.
