“I thought it sounded lifeless. We really didn’t like the results, so we didn’t give permission for it to be released”: How Richard and Linda Thompson regrouped to record a folk-rock classic after Gerry Rafferty tried to turn them “pop”

Richard Thompson performs live onstage in the early '80s.

By 1982, Richard and Linda Thompson had been married and recording together as a duo for about a decade.

They’d had some success, but things had gone lean – not only musically, but also in their marriage. However, things seemed to be looking up when Stealers Wheel founder Gerry Rafferty, who had enjoyed a 1978 hit with Baker Street, contacted the Thompsons about making an album.