![]() 'Wall Of Death' was undeniably written well before their marriage officially fell apart but, not long after the album was completed, the couple parted. 'It's just wanting to drive yourself to the edge,' Thompson has explained, 'It's geeing yourself up to have the courage to live on the edge. The aforementioned 'Wall Of Death', for example, soars above its cliched fairground themes by virtue of its teeth-gritted, daredevil execution. Setting aside interpretations of the lyrics, there's no denying that Thompson delivers some of the most fiery playing of his career on this album, and that the band matches his intensity move for move. But they were all written a year before we split up, so people can think what they like'. "Don't Renege On Our Love", "Wall Of Death" and "Walking On A Wire" are dark, I suppose. But again, as Richard told Uncut, 'I know people call Shoot Out The Lights a break-up album, but I can honestly say that was never the intention. Given that their first album together had been titled I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, it is entirely possible to interpret the phrase 'Shoot Out The Lights' as a metaphor for dying love. Words such as 'Keep the pain on the inside' have been interpreted by at least one Thompson scholar as 'an insight into that very English, middle-class wish to repress anything approaching real emotion'. ![]() However, its lyric is deliberately vague, and open to interpretation. The album's title track, 'Shoot Out The Lights', is notionally about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 which, as a follower of Islam, would have understandably troubled Richard. And if, as Richard has asserted, their marriage was not already in trouble, why is the lyric of 'Walking On A Wire' so bleak? Written by Richard but sung by Linda in one of her most heartfelt vocals, the lyric includes the lines 'And where's the justice, and where's the sense, when all the pain is on my side of the fence?'. Intriguingly, Joe Boyd has advanced a theory that Richard wrote these songs for Linda to sing after he had left her, which implies that he was planning to leave before even the Rafferty versions were recorded. 'Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed' appears to be about a woman dying after a fall, but Linda's oblique comment about that track in the sleeve notes to the album's 2010 Rhino reissue, was, 'I can tell you right now she was pushed'. According to Linda, 'I was supposed to sing this, but my dysphonia was full-blown and I couldn't. The opening track, 'Don't Renege On Our Love', is clearly about a married couple in considerable despair but, surprisingly, Richard's gruff vocals seem to ring out with a new-found self-confidence. Whatever the reasons, many of the songs on the album have dark and bitter overtones, and the performances are sparky and sharp-edged.
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