Linda Thompson — A Performance to Remember

Try googling the name and you’ll be bombarded with references to one of Caitlyn Jenner’s ex-wives. But it’s her namesake to whom I pay tribute today.

She was born Linda Pettier and grew up is Glasgow.  She tried her hand at acting, then switched to singing before marrying Richard Thompson in 1972.  About three years later, Richard decided to end his career and join a Sufi commune.  Linda dutifully followed but was miserable. And when she tried to take up with a new band, she was given a dressing down by the resident “sheik.” Fortunately for the world, Richard eventually left the commune and resumed recording with her.

After six albums and three children together, Richard fell in love with another woman. Linda nevertheless accompanied him on a 1982 American tour in what she later described as a “pathetic” effort to win him back. Feelings ran so raw that at one point she hit him over the head with a coke bottle and stole a car. But their work on stage was said to be extraordinary.

The years that followed had their share of challenges. Linda increasingly suffered from spasmodic dysphonia, a voice disorder that forced her to give up singing. They also contained rewards: enduring second marriages to other people for both Linda and Richard; the chance to see their son Teddy and daughter Kamila grow up to be respected musicians themselves; and the restoration of Linda’s ability to sing, at least sporadically, with the aid of botox injections into the vocal cords. In 2014, she, Teddy, Kamila, and Richard appeared together on an album entitled “Family.”

But let’s return to an earlier day. On August 19, 1981, the BBC broadcast Linda and Richard performing a set of his songs, culminating with “The Dimming of the Day.” It’s been covered repeatedly and has deeply affected some of those who have covered it, including Emmy Lou Harris (who once called it “the greatest love song ever”), and Alison Krauss (who upon first attempting to sing it, broke down in the studio). I doubt, however, that this rendition by Linda, made when her marriage was falling apart, has been surpassed. What follows — at least to my gullible eyes — is a show of vulnerability seldom captured on video, held in check just enough to maintain full artistic control.

Linda Thompson leaves me grasping for words. Perhaps the word I’m grasping for is sublime.