Pour Down Like Silver is the third album by the British duo of singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard and singer Linda Thompson. It was recorded in the summer of 1975 and released in November 1975.

The Thompsons had adopted the Sufi faith in 1974 and had moved into a commune in London. The songs on this album reflect their new faith and the relief that Richard Thompson had found in that faith.

It seems that various and conflicting pressures were bearing down on the duo at the time.

And there was a recording contract. The Thompsons owed Island Records an album. The compromise seems to have been that the album to be delivered was to have a strong spiritual aspect.

Linda Thompson: 'Pour Down Like Silver was when Sheikh Abdul Q'adir said we could make music as long as it was to God... "Dimming of the Day", "Beat the Retreat", "Night Comes In", they're all about God, and considering they're all about God some of them aren't bad.'

Despite these surrounding constraints and conflicts, the album is recognisably a Richard and Linda Thompson album in terms of melodies and the lyrical style.

Pour Down Like Silver was recorded at Sound Techniques studio in London, with John Wood engineering. Richard Thompson would have been familiar with both engineer and studio from his time with Fairport Convention. Joe Boyd, who had both produced and managed Fairport, did the vast majority of his production work at Sound Techniques and with Wood at the controls.

Richard Thompson had left Fairport Convention in 1971 with a considerable reputation as an electric guitar soloist. However, the first few albums of his post-Fairport career had placed more emphasis on the vocals and the songs themselves. As noted above, Thompson was under increasing pressure from his spiritual teacher to abandon the electric guitar. Certainly what recent live work there had been had placed the emphasis on acoustic guitar.

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