TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I just received the Japanese issue of Sweet Warrior with the extra tracks "Dust & Wine" and "Any Old Body". Besides the Island Richard & Linda reissues, are there any other Richard Thompson cd's with extra tracks on them? I believe I have everything released pre-Capitol Records, was curious if there were some gems lurking on cd singles or Japanese issues from the late 80's onward.

Thank you,
Thomas

"Shoot out the lights" with "Living in luxury". "Hand of kindness" with "Where the wind don't whine" springs to mind. And I would be very very surprised if there werenb't others...

Oh, and "Across a crowded room" with "Shine on love". There's a "Small town romance" CD with three extra tracks compared to the LP. And there is, of course, the expanded "Shoot out the lights" with an entire CD's worth of live tracks...

Bonus tracks in some regions only is a despicable trick

Agreed.  Especially as I didn't know about the Hand Of Kindness or Small Town Romance ones.   >:(

Jules

Is "Where The Wind Don't Whine" a bonus track ? On my Hannibal cd, it's no. 5 on the tracklisting - don't bonus tracks normally get plonked on the end of albums ?

Bonus tracks are de-rigeur on Japanese discs of Western music....

Oh, wait, then I have that one.  Phew.

Jules

 AfaiK, the bonus 'Living in Luxury' is only now available on the Japanese edition of SOTL. It was on an early version  on HAnnibal, identifiable by the corner flash on the sleeve, but Joe decided to remove it for the later release, for some reason.

 

AT RT's request I believe as he dislikes the track and thought it detracted from the album.

Indeed.  I think he made some joke about it being a special reissue with that track missing, kind of "now without Living In Luxury!".  It is a pretty weak song, to be fair.

So naturally I made sure I got the version that includes it.   ::)

Jules

Right, Joe not to blame then. And wasn't it also due to RT himself that Small Town Romance took so long to come out on CD at all? STR  is actually on e of my favourite Thompson releases.

As did I, though to be fair it was the only version available at the time.

There was some sort of "settlement" between RT and Boyd in the mid-nineties relating to the Hannibal reissues of Island albums. One of RT's demands was that the vinyl/CD of Small Town Romance be immediately deleted as he disliked it at the time. He did relax about it years later though and was happy for the CD to come out again.

It is a bonus track cos it wasn't on the original LP. Yes, I agree bonus trax are normally at the end. But this one wasn't for some strange reason. "Where the Wind don't whine" was also issued as a single B-side...

You're absolutely right, after digging a little deeper (www.discogs.com and the Patrick Humphries RT biography), have discovered this song is an extra track on cd versions of this album. Doesn't sound like an afterthought, though, and fits in very well ; it's actually one of my favourite songs from Hand Of Kindness...

Never caught that before either, and I agree with Dan. It doesn't have that close but not quite touch that bonus tracks seem to have. The other thought I have is at 8 tracks, that's a short album in its original version, though I suppose one could say the same about Shoot Out The Lights.

Richard's official on-line discography is exhaustive, including detailed notations for every album and alternative version, identifying bonus tracks as such:  http://www.richardthompson-music.com/browse.asp

For example, he notes that the UK BGO CD release of "Across a Crowded Room" was mastered from the same source as a vinyl LP and thus omits the song "Shine on Love."

I'v e never heard or heard of Shine of Love, as I only have the LP of AACR, purchased when it came out. So I've learned something.  8)

It's commonplace in Japan, most Japanese record companies insist on it these days. CDs are so expensive there it's usually cheaper for buyers to get them on import - so adding bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere is their way of persuading people to get the domestic version, even if it means paying a premium price.

So why does HMV have Japanese imports in their racks? Surely, there are cheaper versions to be had elsewhere if your logic holds true.

The US versions are cheaper in Japan.  The Japanese versions, on the other hand, are imported here for collectors wanted the extra tracks, so the Japanese versions do well at home and abroad.

Jules

And a handy way of squeezing the punters elsewhere

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I completely forgot about the song-o-matic on RT's site; that's a great resource.

It sure is.  It's helped me big time with info for buying Richard's back catalogue.

Jules

Late arrival - blame my boss for starting a procedure to fire me, as if work itself isn't time consuming enough ;)

"Living in Luxury", weak or not, wasn't something found on the cutting floor.
It was the b-side of the only single from "Shoot Out The Lights", the a-side was "Don't Renege On Our Love". Everyone who wanted it could buy it, provided you could find a copy.
So it is and was an appropriate choice for a bonustrack.
RT, or someone else, really must hate it, as it isnt only left off of the Deluxe Rhino Handmade version of SOTL, which has room enough for a bonus disc of live material, but also sort of written out of history as it isn't mentioned in the liner notes at all.
The single is mentioned, the a-side that is, there's a picture of it included too, but the title of the b-side is strategically obscured by another pic.

And (as if you really wanted to know) there were even two versions of said single, same picture sleeve, different colours

here's the complete picture...

[Photo over 400 days old. Removed by Admin.]

Somewhere (probably among his FAQs or answers to fan questions on his website) RT has said "Living in Luxury" was never intended for inclusion on the album "Shoot Out the Lights," and that its inclusion on the first Hannibal CD release of SOTL was contrary to his wish to preserve the integrity of the album.  His wishes were respected when LIL disappeared from subsequent CD editions.

He has said similar things about live and bonus tracks tacked on to other items in his catalogue in recent years, for instance with the Island reissues of the R&L Thompson catalogue.  I gather that the song selection and sequencing are an important part of his artistic process and revision/addition/meddling by others is never welcome.  (He has also complained about the compression on the Island reissues, but has noted that Island owns the tapes and can do whatever they want with them.)

Though I think it's sad about 'Living in Luxury' (it's not that bad, IMO) I'm with RT about the Island remasters. Overdone noise reduction/compression there, and no mistake

For people like me who are late on the scene, the bonus tracks are an absolute godsend. Dark End of the Street , Together Again and some of the live versions are surely among the best. I'd love to see Crying in the Rain, Strange Affair etc live from 1980 on official release in similar quality.