In 1972, Richard Thompson — baby-faced guitar wizard of Fairport Convention, England's homegrown folk-rock (make that Morris-rock) heroes — was in sessions for his first solo album. It was then that he met, fooled around and fell in love with little-known singer Linda Peters. Richard & Linda Thompson: Best Of The Island Years is an exquisite retrospective look at the initial creative sparks of what ultimately would be an ill-fated 10-year union, as tempestuous as it was fertile. Still, it was a fabulous match while it lasted, especially in the early stages, which are so vividly brought back to life here.

Linda got Richard, a true Triple Crown winner: a restlessly intelligent, preeminent musician and songwriter. Richard got Linda: a partner who stretched his songs (there was no sexier voice from Britain, save Dusty Springfield) and playing further than he probably ever imagined while also providing him his great themes — loss and regret. And we got the music: as powerful and moving today as then, maybe more so.

The first tracks here, "Roll Over, Vaughn Williams," a power jig, and "Poor Ditching Boy," a brand-new ancient ballad, are from Richard's aforementioned 1972 solo album, Henry the Human Fly. Enter Linda as full-fledged musical/life partner — and three memorable albums in two years, all amply excerpted on this collection. Thompson's modal chord sequences, truly dazzling acoustic and electric guitar playing, doleful baritone and cold-eyed worldview had found their richest expression and (it says here) finest hour. The duo's first official album together, 1974's I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight is still much beloved by British critics and rightly so. It's represented here to the tune of a half-dozen songs. Linda's rich contralto is the anatomy of melancholy on "Withered and Died," jaunty and reckless on the title tune, aching (Could she ache!) and resonant on "Down Where the Drunkards Roll" and "The Great Valerio."

"Hokey Pokey" (RealAudio excerpt) follows, the title track of their 1975-released second album — an edgy, salacious hoedown in praise of, er, ice cream, I guess. "A Heart Needs a Home" (RealAudio excerpt), as sincere a clear-eyed love song as he could write and as warmly seductive a vocal of troth-plighting as she could sing, is transcendent. That is, until it runs head on into "For Shame of Doing Wrong." (RealAudio excerpt), one of several stunners from late-'75's Pour Down Like Silver, the third (and, it also says here, best) album in the Thompsons' amazing sequence of mid-70's works. Using the lower half of her range, Linda makes the most illusion-free plea for another chance this side of Ernest Tubb, and Richard joins her to echo the song's unforgettable chorus: "I wish I was a fool for you again." With its angular, wistful guitar lines and sad, dancing button accordion, it's been a touchstone for the last 25 years. The set closes majestically, too, with the extended, resonant guitar meditations "Night Comes In" and "Calvary Cross" sandwiched around the profound resignation of "Beat the Retreat" and the tender erotic duet, "Dimming of the Day," which brims with resignation of another sort.

The story, of course, didn't end here. Richard and Linda Thompson's subsequent, sporadic recordings for other labels were met with indifference until, at marriage's (and wit's) end, they delivered 1982's urgent and aptly titled Shoot Out the Lights, and then proceeded to do just that. I will never forget a set at New York's Bottom Line that year, during which they could not bear to even look at each other. Linda, without her writer, made a solo album and slipped into silence. Richard, with his considerable skills and folk base, has continued a solid career, singing his own songs. In any event, having listened to Richard & Linda Thompson: Best Of The Island Years, all I can say is, I'm still a fool for them.