Rumor and Sigh

Rumor and Sigh
File:RT Ras.jpg
Studio album by Richard Thompson
Released	May 1991
Recorded	1991 at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles and Konk Studios, London
Genre	Folk rock, alternative rock
Length	61:19
Label	Capitol
Producer	Mitchell Froom
Richard Thompson chronology
Sweet Talker (1991)Sweet Talker1991 Rumor And Sigh (1991) Watching The Dark (1993)Watching The Dark1993

Rumor and Sigh is the sixth solo album by British singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, released in 1991.

Release

The album peaked at number 32 on the UK Albums Chart and was Thompson's first Top 40 album in the UK. The album did not chart in the US, although the lead single "I Feel So Good" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, his second and highest charting single on that chart. Its follow-up single, "Read About Love" failed to chart.

Two videos, for "I Feel So Good" and album track "I Misunderstood" were produced to promote the album. Thompson also promoted the album's American release by performing "I Feel So Good" on Late Night with David Letterman.

The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992, but lost to R.E.M.'s Out of Time.

"1952 Vincent Black Lightning"

The track "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", despite not being issued as a single, became a fan favourite and is one of Thompson's most highly acclaimed solo compositions. Interviewed in the 2003 BBC documentary Solitary Life, Thompson said: "When I was a kid, that [the Vincent Black Lightning] was always the exotic bike, that was always the one, the one that you went "ooh, wow". I'd always been looking for English ideas that didn't sound corny, that had some romance to them, and around which you could pin a song. And this song started with a motorcycle, it started with the Vincent. It was a good lodestone around which the song could revolve".

In 2011 Time magazine listed the song in its "All TIME 100 Songs", a list of "the most extraordinary English-language popular recordings since the beginning of TIME magazine in 1923."

A live version of the song appears on Thompson's album Two Letter Words: Live 1994.

The song has been covered by several artists:

• Bob Dylan, during a concert on July 14, 2013.
• Bùrach, on The Weird Set (1995)
• Greg Brown, on The Live One (1995)
• Jeff Lang, on Disturbed Folk (1995) and Disturbed Folk vol. 2 (1999)
• Dick Gaughan, on Sail On (1996)
• Mary Lou Lord, on Live City Sounds (2001)
• Del McCoury Band, on Del and the Boys (2001)
• The Mammals, on Evolver (2002)
• Reckless Kelly on Reckless Kelly Was Here (2006)
• Joel Fafard on Cluck Old Hen (2010)
• Red Molly on The Red Album (2014) (the band is named after one of the characters in the song)
• Butch Ross on The Moonshiner's Atlas (2005)
• Robert Earl Keen on Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions (2015)

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson:

1. "Read About Love" – 3:34
2. "I Feel So Good" – 3:21
3. "I Misunderstood" – 4:05
4. "Grey Walls" – 4:21
5. "You Dream Too Much" – 4:06
6. "Why Must I Plead" – 4:58
7. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" – 4:43
8. "Backlash Love Affair" – 4:49
9. "Mystery Wind" – 4:35
10. "Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands" – 4:26
11. "Keep Your Distance" – 4:11
12. "Mother Knows Best" – 4:59
13. "God Loves A Drunk" – 4:43
14. "Psycho Street" – 4:28

Personnel

• Richard Thompson – guitar, vocals, mandolin, hurdy-gurdy
• Mitchell Froom – keyboards
• Jerry Scheff – bass guitar
• Mickey Curry – drums
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Alex Acuña – percussion
• Christine Collister and Clive Gregson – backing vocals
• John Kirkpatrick – accordion, concertina, backing vocals
• Phil Pickett – shawm, crumhorn, recorder
• Simon Nicol – guitar
• Aly Bain – fiddle

References

• Richard Thompson – The Biography by Patrick Humphries. Schirmer Books. 0-02-864752-1
• The Great Valerio by Dave Smith.
• Official website