S/D: Richard Thompson

Fairport:

Unhalfbricking Liege and Lief What We Did On Our Holidays (the first three are all pretty essential really) Full House

R<:

I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight Shoot Out the Lights Pour Down Like Silver Hokey Pokey

Solo Rich:

Across a Crowded Room Hand of Kindness Small Town Romance (solo acoustic live--pretty hard to find these days, I think) Daring Adventures

I more or less lost all interest after Amnesia . . .

-Fairport Convention
Meet On The Ledge
Fotheringhay
Sailor’s Life
Genesis Hall
Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Walk Awhile
Sloth
All of Liege & Leif

-Post FC
The Poor Ditching Boy
All of I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (except The Great Valerio)
For Shame Of Doing Wrong
Night Comes In
The Dimming Of The Day
Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair
Never Again
Calvary Cross (live)
Wall Of Death
Shoot Out The Lights*
Bogie’s Bonnie Belle
When The Spell Is Broken*
Little Blue Number*
From Galway To Graceland
Tear Stained Letter
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Feel So Good

+ the lead guitar on Nick Drake’s The Thoughts of Mary Jane (Time Of No Reply version)

(* made it just for the guitar playing)

Sorry for losing the chronology there.

'An introduction to Richard and Linda Thompson' on Island(?) is a good starting place.

destroy: i dunno, the rest? mirror blue led to one of bob christgau's best dismissive reviews "i thought she loved me but she didn't--why does this keep happening?"

The latest, 'The Old Kit Bag', is incredible, and possibly the best combo of production and songs since 'Shoot Out The Lights'. It's honestly that good.

oh, I love Thompson. oh, and Great Valerio is SO KEY. lies!

Billy Bragg was supporting, and he was pretty good too.

those reissues are really pricey (in the states) and i am allergic to arbitrary bonus tracks.

"henry the human fly" is underrated. i like it as much as the records that followed. it is going to be reissued later this month, so head's up.

he has a sizable following in the states partly because he is a very dependable concert artist.

"Shoot Out the Lights" hasn't been mentioned much on here; it is
excellent, but the R & L sound is more 'generic' than those 72-75 records, which have a ripe, sweet feel to them that "Shoot" tramples down. It's 'mature rock'. But bloody good.

also i still have really mixed feelings about linda's voice.

i've never seen a morris dance. the illustrations of "burr men" etc. on "liege and lief" are ace. but overall my love for fairport has really waned. i like "what we did on our holidays" and "unhalfbricking" more than "l&l" i think.

Search: ALL of the live "guitar vocal," especially the smoldering workouts on "Calvary Cross" and "Night Comes In." Song favorites: "When I Get To the Border," "I'll Regret It All in the Morning," "Beeswing."

Someone needs to compile a definitive list of RT's guest appearances (actually, I'm sure some obsessive fan already has). Some nice ones: mandolin bit on John Martyn's "Over the Hill," the entire "Rise Up Like the Sun" album by the Albion Band, "Blackwaterside" off Sandy Denny's "Northstar Grassmen," "Claudy Banks" by Shirley Collins, SO many more.

Anybody rate the second French Frith Kaiser Thompson LP? I've never heard that one.

Good to hear love for 'The Old Kit Bag', which I'm still enjoying. The power trio really suits him, and it's nice to hear a Christine Collister-surrogate again. I'll Tag Along, Gethsemane, Pearly Jim, and Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen stand out the most. Mock Tudor, on the other hand, is, well, almost without redemption. It's his only album since Sunnyvista that I'd delete wholesale.

If possible, track down the live versions of When the Spell Has Broken and Aint Gonna Drag My Feet No More from the Watching The Dark collection(which should be on your x-mas list anyway).

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=90

That version of "Calvary Cross" must be the same one on the boxed set. "Devonside" is an amazingly sad song. "Great Valerio" is another favorite of mine.

Sean; his 'Kiss', by Prince is incredible. find it.

post Linda output hit or miss, definitely mostly miss after rumor and sigh.

Basically, if he's wearing a beret on the cover art, buyer beware!!

Unhalbricking
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Pour Down Like Silver
Shoot Out the Lights
Henry the Human Fly
"Calvery Cross" (live)
"Sloth"

All Good

Fairport Convention (aka What We Did on our Holidays)
Hand of Kindness
Amnesia
Industry
The French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson Albums

Half Good

Liege and Lief
Rumour and Sigh
1000 Years of Popular Music

No Good

First Light
Sunnyvista

For Fans

Pretty much everything else

Waltzing's for Dreamers
Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne
Turning of the Tide
Tempted cover

RT songs that are pretty well regarded but that I still think are good:

Gethsemane
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Kiss cover

RT songs that I have a soft spot in my heart for but which I think may very well be overrated by now:

52 Vincent Black Lightning
Beeswing

WTF???!!! It's only the pinnacle of English folk rock (Along with No Roses natch)

Well, that's what they all tell us

Anyone have anything to say about the new album Sweet Warrior yet?

The Grizzly Man OST is awesome. My favorite record of 2006.

Also search the DVD of Grizzly Man for the hourlong documentary about the making of the soundtrack.

Sweet Warrior's very uneven - some great, tense stuff and some goofy awkward old-man bullshit too. I think I liked his last album, the acoustic Front Parlour Ballads, better.

So similar hit/miss ratio to Old Kit Bag?

It's on Shout Factory instead of Cooking Vinyl, so I can't cherry pick the good tracks off eMusic this time :(

Don't think anyone's mentioned 'How Will I ever be Simple Again?' - nearly up there with Beeswing as a late gem

i can't get enuf of this man's voice

Anyone have that huge 5 disc set of odds and ends that came out in the last year or two? I've heard mixed reviews, it seems like you've got to be insanely into RT to want it. I haven't been into his last 10 years, though the 1000 Years Of Popular Music shows were fun.

hey! sweet warrior is good. not very good, just good. the (locally owned and operated) classic rock station in my town plays "'dad's gonna kill me" constantly, which is ballsy and awesome, seeing as it's an explicitly anti-war song.

xmas present for my uncle, who's into dylan of all ages and early cohen. well he's also into late leonard cohen but i'm just not ready to provoke that.

i love "i want to see the bright lights," but i also think some more solo male rock stuff would be more up his alley -- suggestions?

Finally got IWTSTBLT, and I love it. Am most drawn to the first half, which is a bit more pop-oriented in songwriting. I like the second half, but am not so into the folk tropes. Where do I go next? Where can I find more songs like the first four songs on this record?

When I Get to the Border, Calvary Cross, Withered and Died, and title track, btw.

check out the albm R&L put out next, "Pour Down Like Silver."
Those are my favorite songs on Bright Lights too, and I like Pour Down Like SIlver even more.

Awesome, thanks. That would have been my natural thought, save for all the Shoot Out the Lights love above.

Pour Down Like Silver is my favorite Richard (with or without Linda) Thompson album. (Although Hokey Pokey was actually the followup to Bright Lights.) Based on the songs you like, you might prefer Hokey Pokey or Shoot Out the Lights to Pour Down, though.

oops, my bad. hokey pokey is okay too, though. i almost never listen to it for some reason. i picked it up long after i got bright lights & pour down like silver.

The arrangement+production of Calvary Cross is just killing me right now.

(not a big fan of Shoot Out The Lights, for some reason.)

xp.

You should check out the nearly side-long live version on RT's "(guitar, vocal)" LP of odds n ends. It's some heavy shit.

Search: see him in concert.

Yes. He's so much better live than on record.

yeah that 14 minute version is impossible. it got tacked on as a bonus track to 'Silver' once, and it's available right now on In Concert November 1975, which also has an 11 minute 'Night Comes In' and the way they start the show by just tearing into 'Bright Lights' is just HELL YES

I think Shoot Out The Lights is a great collection of songs and I wish it hadn't been produced all 1980 adult contemporary. Bright Lights & Silver are my favorites but all of their albums has at least one song you kinda need, even Sunnyvista has "Why Do You Turn Your Back?" Basically where you want to go next is backwards to the Thompson Fairport albums, they're different but you'll like the first three & my favorite song he wrote for them is "Sloth" on Full House.

unhalfbricking & what we did on our holiday = unimpeachable classics. i've heard the complaint that liege & leaf is a little bit "too renn faire" but i still dig it.

Basically where you want to go next is backwards to the Thompson Fairport albums

But aren't these more folky? Or am I wrong?

they're folky, but they also shred. liege & lief and full house are the "folk" albums, but they're extremely electric/fast. the records before that are a bit more rock-folk than folk-rock -- jefferson airplane influence, maybe? all thompson-era fairport records are worth getting though.
anyhow, I love richard. was just listening to this guitar lesson he recorded that I guess was released sometime in the 90s. obviously, there's no way i am ever going to sound like him, but it's fun to try out some of his tunings/tricks. and i'll chime in with others' recommendations to see him live -- he is stunning.

yes they are, especially Holidays, but they did it their own way. if you like Bright Lights, you'll like them both if you let them soak in.

I saw the Water CD reissues of Holidays and Unhalfbricking in Amoeba this weekend and wanted to buy them both again

are those reissues different from the ryko versions?

bonus tracks rescinded. I never heard them, are they key?

Don't remember them being so.

if i remember correctly, the bonus trax on those are drawn from other places, like guitar/vocal ... some good stuff, but probably nothing essential.

Of course, Stormy may come along and prove us wrong.

I don't recall there being any bonus tracks on the Ryko versions of those albums.

Henry The Human Fly is a great record btw, far better than the two albums Thompson released after IWTSTBLT.

yeah i think i actually had some island import versions of the fairport stuff -- that's the stuff with the bonus tracks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHx8xsp8EMI

bonus trax are good but dispensable... BBC session covers, mostly.

the Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief extra tracks are really great! Unhalfbricking has two unreleased covers, Dylan + The Byrds, I think - 'Ballad of Easy Rider' and 'Dear Landlord' that are easily as good as their general cover repertoire. Liege and Lief has a huge 10 minute version of 'Quiet Joys of Brotherhood', just Sandy singing over a drone, some violin, quiet drums. One of my favourite, most stretched-out Fairport tracks, in fact.

and yeah, those are the Island reissues I have, not Ryko.

His live version of "Can't Win" off Watching the Dark includes some of the most incredible guitar playing I have ever heard.

There's a new RT career-spanning box set out. I already have "Watching The Dark" but it looks like a good set if you don't have much already.

Search out his tour cd Semi-Detachable Mock Tudor Live. You can purchase it at his website, it is without a doubt one of the best live performances caught on tape by anyone.

I also vouch for Rumour and Sigh. The first two tracks are awesome, as is "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and "Grey Walls"; "Psycho Street" is Hilarious!
Yeah, Imagine if Tom Waits had a decent voice or if Eric Clapton had something even remotely like a sense of humour...Thats Richard Thompson in a nutsack.

― Lord Custos, Sunday, March 3, 2002 7:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was just listening to Small Town Romance in the car today ... nice, low-key solo record. A little bit raw compared to his slicker solo sets these days.

I know almost nothing about him - I think my mom had Rumor & Sigh when I was a kid - but I've been listening to a lot of stuff on YouTube and loving most of it. His guitar playing is pretty amazing.

yeah, it bears repeating, he is consistently phenomenal on guitar -- seek out live versions of "Calvary Cross" ... mindsplitting.

Richard Thompson's entire catalog has been so generally on point he's destined to be taken for granted til death. Missteps, sure, but not many outright clunkers over the course of his career, and even most of those clunkers only seem like clunkers compared to his countless highs. I mean, even the guy's most mediocre material is usually pretty strong. I wonder if folks would take him more seriously if he didn't balance the heavy stuff with awkward attempts at levity?

so are there any good-sounding boots with "Tam Lin" with Thompson on guitar? That's such a heavy song and it bet it ripped live but I've not heard it.

There's a nice version of it on the Fairport Convention BBC set called "Heyday." Well worth checking out. They do a couple of great covers on it (Everly Brothers, Gene Clark).

yeah, that BBC version kills, though it is a bummer that it fades! it sounds like Thompson is about to take it to the next level, guitar-wise!

Finding a used copy of Amnesia a few months ago was one of my best purchases of the year.

Huh, never noticed that it fades. That does suck.

it is too bad that there aren't any good live recordings of the Sandy Denny/Liege&Lief Fairport era band. I imagine they were something else ...

i think his stuff from the last 10 years or so is very dreary. i mostly listen to the records with linda these days. hand of kindness was good, then you have hit or miss albums from there until rumor & sigh, then i just kinda lose interests. the worst one was mock tudor imo.

yeah i haven't really like anything too much since Mock Tudor ... oh and the Grizzly Man soundtrack is pretty great too, but not quite a proper "album".

I have an the original Ryko cd of Heyday without the bonus tracks so I've never heard the "Tam Lin" there. But it's a song built for an epic jam and I figure Thompson must have taken flight on it a few times at least.

Yeah, but are those new albums bad, or just not nearly as good? I really like "Old kit Bag."

oh they aren't bad by any means, there are some really good songs on his recent records ... but there's nothing that i've really *loved*

and it might have something to do with missing him on his last few tours -- the live show usually gets me more enthused about his new songs.

finally getting around to the Rafferty-produced version of Shoot Out The Lights. "Modern Woman" is pretty interesting for being a prototype of the "uptempo" songs on his post-Linda albums; it would fit in naturally on Rumor and Sigh, for instance. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, though. I could do without the accordion on it.

yeah, that's a funny one. I like it, but it's definitely out of place amidst those other SOTL songs. i too could do without the accordion -- but it is catchy, isn't it?

You? Me? Us? is one of his finest later albums IMO.

yeah! i've always liked that one, despite some of the Froomier production choices ... "The Ghost of You Walks" is one of my favorite RT songs.

the version of the Rafferty tapes I listened to had TWO "Modern Woman"s on it...it was the catchiest of the non-SOTL songs, and even though it wouldn't fit on SOTL I'd take it over "Man In Need". Linda's singing on it is weird, though: halfhearted, and who can blame her, given the lyric?

was just looking at the lineup for Richard's Meltdown Fest -- maybe not the most adventurous stuff in the world, but it does not look like a bad way to spend a couple days. Also laughed at the duo show with him and Loudon Wainwright called "LOUD & RICH" ...

there's a thread on that here:

Richard Thompson announced as curator of Meltdown 2010

har, i guess people were disappointed over there ...

On the other hand Mirror Blue goes on way too fucking long.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%. The last one that excited me was Front Parlour Ballads, just cause I loved the soundworld of it.

Sweet Warrior has some cracking tunes on it, e.g. Dad's Gonna Kill Me, Take Care the Road You Choose &c.

the solo records that bracket the linda years are the only ones i really care about now, mirror blue and mock tudor really turned me off

Mock Tudor stuff was better on live releases. When I saw him in (i think) '07 he did an endless solo on 'Hard On Me' that kicked my ass.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%.

This is OTM. Sprawled over 2 discs, I quickly lost interest.

"Amnesia" is the last one that gets regular play though there's great stuff on everything since, more or less. I should review the picks they made for the recent RT career-spanning box.

Anyone else like the French Frith Kaiser Thompson records? Wonderful, weird and fun.

my theory is that moving to america was probably great for his personal life but terrible for his music

xpost the first ffkt record is very good, second one is dull

ergh, i can hardly listen to anything he did after the mid-1980s. he just seems so oddly, extremely eager to please -- so insistent. there's no questioning his talent, but he just seems like he's competing for some trophy or something. i actually get this a little in the linda period (especially shoot out the lights), but it's somehow manageable. henry the human fly and i want to see the bright lights are his finest moments IMO. and maybe 2/3 of pour down like silver i suppose.

i find that elvis costello has a similar problem. i can listen to both, but i have to kind of prep myself, and then it takes a while for me to get interested again.

'Blind Step Away' off the first FFKT album is one of my favorite RT performances.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%.

This is OTM. Sprawled over 2 discs, I quickly lost interest.

I never wish it to be shorter. Everything on it is pretty much essential IMO.

ergh, i can hardly listen to anything he did after the mid-1980s. he just seems so oddly, extremely eager to please

Interesting. I interpret "eager to please," in my experience with listening to him, is how he too readily sinks into back-off-bitch mode, aided and abetted by a stentorian voice I've never quite gotten used to. "Don't Tempt Me," "Yankee Go Home," and "Feels So Good" are pretty great, and so are "Mingus Eyes" and a few of the more delicate ballads (which I still wish Linda could sing), but all the gnarled distorto-guitar and Froomertronic production can't hide how rote much of his post-Linda catalogue sounds. His considerable talents don't mitigate his persona: the beret-wearing grouch.

haven't heard all of them, but some of the live stuff he sells via his site is excellent -- in partic. Celtschmertz and More Guitar (which is the 80s disc I listen to most these days) http://www.theconnextion.com/richardthompson/richardthompson_cat.cfm?CatID=178
Looks like he's got much cheaper digital downloads now too ...

And i dunno, he might sound grouchy on record, but he's a totally fun presence onstage. He and Danny Thompson were hilarious when I saw them.

yeah, i dunno if it's grouchy so much as the particularly enthused character of his vocal delivery (and often guitar). sometimes his songs feel sort of overwritten too (there's your elvis costello connection), and he insists too hard on the choruses. i mean, he's great and all, there's just something about his sensibility as a solo artist that turns me away. this only happened in the last decade or so, before that i was a huge fan.

hmm. news item from the man's website: # Richard played on one track for the upcoming Don Henley CD ...

though now that I think about it, isn't there some story about the Eagles asking Richard to join the band sometime in the early 70s?

I agree with some comments upthread: Mirror Blue is really quite dull. It might not even have a good EP in there.

I also like Rumor & Sigh. The high points buoy the whole thing up to a respectable listen throughout.

Rumor & Sigh and Mock Tudor have something in common-- both packed with good songs but let down by the production. Dunno if there is a live equivalent to R&S like 'Semi-Detached Mock Tudor' is to 'Mock Tudor'...

There's something about the idea of Richard in the Eagles that sorta makes me shiver. I suspect he's a bit too quintessentially British for one thing.

Would pay $5 to hear him take a couple of cracks at the "Hotel California" lead though.

"First Light" is the closest he came to a 70's El Lay sound

i saw him play a snippet of "freebird" once.

I love pretty much everything I've heard by him. What I admire is the self-confidence and reach of the man. His voice, the lyrics, the guitar, all bespeak someone who knows he has something to impart and does so with certainty.

The live version of "Calvary Cross" is just overwhelmingly powerful.

yeah there is stuff on the live "calvary cross" on Watching the Dark that is mindsplitting every time I hear it.

'Calvary Cross' in general is pretty devastating.

The one on Watching The Dark is the best I have heard but there are some other pretty sweet ones out there too, e.g. the one which is a bonus on most recent Bright Lights remaster.

so which one is on the "Live More Or Less" double LP? should I be seeking out this WITD version?

Watching the Dark version is early 80s? Post-Linda, anyway. The one Jon mentioned from the Bright Lights remaster is (i think!) the same version that's on Guitar, Vocal (mid 70s). Is that the same thing as Live More Or less?

The only live version of CC I know is the one on The Best of Richard & Linda Thompson: The Island Years. This is apparently the same version as on Guitar, Vocal. The guitar solo at the end of that is what made me a fan. I never knew the guitar could sing so beautifully until I heard that.

The only one I'm intimate with is the one on 'I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight.' How that figures into these anthologies I'm not sure. The guitar solo at the beginning of the song is a righteous mindscrew on that one.

ok, i'm gonna put together a comp of the live calvary crosses. stay tuned!

If there is one on the RT: Life and Music Of Richard Thompson box set, I can supply you with that (I can't remember if there's one on there).

yeah, there is! don't know when it's from though ...
how come he doesn't play this song live more often? kind of seems like it would be his "marquee moon" or something ... but I've never seen him do it.

When I saw him last, 'Hard On Me' was his solo-for-10-minutes song.

yeah, that was the same for me as well.

OK the version I have from Live! (more or less) is from Oct 27 1975, Oxford Polytechnic, 13:24 in length.

pretty sure that's the same one from guitar, vocal and live 1975

So... Guitar, Vocal one = the bonus one on Bright Lights remaster = the one on Best Of Richard And Linda?

Check each album listed here for details, I think it should help:
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/song_o_matic.asp?id=45

Bright Lights Bonus Track: live at The Roundhouse, London, September 7, 1975
guitar, vocal/live more or less/best of/in concert 1975: Recorded live at Oxford Polytechnic on November 27, 1975
Doom & Gloom/Watching the Dark: 1983 live recording in New York City
Life & Music: Live 1986

i don't think i have the roundhouse version ...

excellent work there, tylerw

So do you need the Life And Music one from me?

thread plz note that tyler also corrected my typo of October with the proper month

ha, i just got it from the song-o-matic thing gerald posted ... a hnday resource.
nope, i've got the life and music box set, I just never bought the most recent Bright Lights reissue with the Roundhouse Calvary Cross.

*handy* resource

hmm, just heard about this, looks like it could be good.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E64qCmnOL._SS500_.jpg
UK four disc (three CDs + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) collection containing the very best radio and TV performances by Richard and Linda Thompson and Richard Thompson solo recorded for the BBC between January 1974 and 2009. These are the first ever collection of BBC recordings sanctioned by Richard Thompson. Over 80 previously unreleased recordings; 18 songs never before on CD, four brand new songs and three unreleased traditional songs. Features acoustic sessions and completely different arrangements of some of his best known recordings including the rarely performed Fairport favorite 'Meet On The Ledge'. The 36-page booklet contains sleeve notes by Uncut's Mick Houghton, author of the acclaimed book, Becoming Elektra.

Tyler, did you pick that up? I finally heard it and there's some STUNNING voice-and-guitar performances (disc 3) on it as well as some blistering band renditions (disc 2). I must admit the Linda tracks on disc 1 sort of paled in comparison - RT's ability to convey so much emotion with his vocals has always been the hook for me.

I need to hear this.

Did pick up the Rhino Handmade 2-disc Shoot Out The Lights when they had it on sale for a day. Amazing stuff.

been trying to catch up on post 70s thompson stuff on spotify

started with Rumor and Sigh, which i remember hearing was a high point

there are some good and great songs on this. but goddamn, mitchell froom's bloodless fussy late 80s modern rock production style is probably one of my least favorite aesthetics in the history of recorded music. wish this had been recorded 15 years earlier or 15 years later

otm, although i do think there was a falloff in the songwriting too

yeah i mean it's not fucking with bright lights or shoot out (or even hand of kindness)...but goddamn i hate that 88/89/90/91 era sounds SOOO much...at least the "80s" production ppl claim is tacky or dated is a real definable style and was sort of an audacious way to do things, like big phil collins drums and don henley sequencers and shit, by 88ish it got so fucking "tasteful" but not actually good tasteful like vintage 60s/70s recordings

goddamn

http://youtu.be/vA5Q-IUK1p0

bah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA5Q-IUK1p0

Search cold kisses. Also, can anyone explain what he means by a "a bit of a wet?" (this one's a poet/a bit of a wet/a bit of a gypsy/a bit of a threat)

believe it means 'bit of a drunk'

could mean that but I think it's more likely to mean that the guy is wet i.e. a wimp, not a strongman type.

British informal showing a lack of forcefulness or strength of character; feeble:

whenever i've heard him play stuff from you me us live, i think it's great, but i never want to listen to that album. production is too froomy (and i'm not even a total froom hater). "the ghost of you walks" is awesome too.

I'm with you, that was when I jumped the RT ship. At this point I love almost everything through the "Watching The Dark" box, though I picked up the BBC box and it's revelatory for his recent stuff.

You know, it's weird - I generally like Froom and love Thompson but that is where I hopped off both trains, too. Yet it's really not that eccentric a Froom production, or that mediocre a Thompson record. Maybe it was just too much of that at once? The irony is that "Mock Tudor" and especially "The Old Kit Bag" are great, and "Industry" with Danny Thompson was pretty strong, too. I think the peace I found was just recognizing Richard Thompson as a genius and leaving it at that.

I mean, gosh, this song is so incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxy0HJFZHE

been trying to catch up on post 70s thompson stuff on spotify

started with Rumor and Sigh, which i remember hearing was a high point

there are some good and great songs on this. but goddamn, mitchell froom's bloodless fussy late 80s modern rock production style is probably one of my least favorite aesthetics in the history of recorded music. wish this had been recorded 15 years earlier or 15 years later

yeah, i thought mirror blue & mock tudor were horrible
*jumped off the bus*

tbh the whole post-linda period isn't especially strong but there were moments that cut through the dogy production of froom and others, but after rumor and sigh it isn't really worth the slog imo

His singing got worse, post-Linda, I thought.

& I don't generally appreciate his later taste for jokey tunes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYAshqJlvsI

Man, if you want to dive into that weirdness...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkSF3wAdts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA_91AeL-Ms

but after rumor and sigh it isn't really worth the slog imo
i dunno, i think there's solid stuff on every album i've heard -- maybe he hasn't made a super classic record in a while, but he's always worth checking out. also worht checking out -- the website-only live albums he's been putting out over the years. http://www.theconnextion.com/richardthompson/richardthompson_cat.cfm?CatID=178 haven't head all of em, but the ones I have heard are great.

Those self-released live discs are totally essential for appreciation of the Froom-era songs if (like a lot of ppl on this thread!) you just hate the production on those records.

yeah exactly -- they are basically live companions to the various albums and they often surpass the studio versions.
on you me us, there's just something so wrong about the mix of the electric tracks, like you can hear that the performance itself sounded GREAT when the musicians were playing, but it comes across all boxy and muted on CD. weird approach, wonder what thompson thinks about those records now.

I bet he thinks, hmm, those Froom-produced CDs probably sold more than the rest of my catalog combined.

This slays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW-w0KgE-8s

That's great, though it's not as impressive as RT slaying om his own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o

This song is a great example of how he was writing some of his best material late in his career.

This is a wonderful late-period RT song as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1OILRjZSvQ

am i the only one who isn't nuts about "vincent black lightning"? sort of surprises me that it's become known as a classic thompson song. it's nice enough but i always think the lyrics are corny as hell.

It's top five RT for me certainly. I don't find the lyrics corny, just very moving. The guitar playing is phenomenal and the way he lifts the song with "...carry me home" towards the end just kills me.

I'm not nuts about it, but I feel like my opinion is tarnished by the fact that that song was used as an example in a "Music Appreciation" (or something similar) class I had to take in college; we listened to that and Lauro Nyro's "Eli's Coming" over and over again for several weeks. But aside from that, it's OK but really not one of my favorites.

am i the only one who isn't nuts about "vincent black lightning"?

i was just thinking this, and i didn't see the youtube links above until now
yeah, it's ok but corny and nowhere near as good as some of the early stuff
it is easy to see how it became such a 'crowd-pleaser"

yeah, i guess maybe i'm just not crazy about motorcycles? i guess it's just as corny as singing about knights and fairy queens.

the lyric seems pretty one-off and cliché-free to me, how many other songs are there that reference the names of old British motorcycle marques

i think the one that makes me cringe is "Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme"
listening to it, i think the idea is clever -- updating a classic folk ballad to a more modern day (seems like there are elements of barbara allen in there), but it's never quite grabbed me the way some of his other songs do.

I like the song a lot, it's just ppl's fixation with it that puts me off. Definitely prefer it solo acoustic (same for Beeswing).

Isn't it basically a different take on "Long Black Veil?"

is it? i don't hear that. melodically? lyrically?

Kind of? It's obviously faster, but they're close cousins.

I think "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" is regarded as it is because it's one of the few songs late in his career that was firmly in the folk tradition. The lyrics, story, melody, and accompaniment are are very simple and direct. But I'm with other folks -- I prefer a lot of other things on R&S to this.

Yeah, I prefer "Beeswing" for later RT folk greatness.

my fave of the 90s ballads is "king of bohemia"

This just in: Hokey Pokey is basically just as good as bright lights and shoot out the lights

i actually think pour down like silver is the best R&L LP, but they're all pretty great tbh. weird that first light is kind of hard to come by, it is fantastic too. sunnyvista is the weakest, though "lonely hearts" is one of richard's best straight pop songs.

^OTM. I wonder if it's lesser reputation is mainly because Bright Lights came out first.

"A Heart Needs a Home" would make my Top 10 Most Beautiful Songs list.

Sunnyvista Side 1 is 5 great songs in a row, Side 2 not so much.

^OTM x-post

pour down like silver i think has the best sustained mood, while bright lights and hokey pokey are all over the map comparatively. still need to listen to sunnyvista, bought a copy a couple months ago. great cover.

i've been trying to track down every 9+minute live version of calvary cross and night comes in i can find, i like how they're kind of mirror images of each other, absolute spiritual despair vs transcendent joy.

Hokey pokey sounds way more like the not quite mature debut than bright lights which is near perfect imo
First light a real interesting record I think it is a bit underrated much less half assed than sunny vista

been listenign to Mirror Blue for a couple days. At least four keepers.

New album out in February, "Electric." Produced by Buddy Miller, who is one of the biggest Richard Thompson fans I know.

oh cool that'll be a good pairing. that robert plant band of joy thing w/ miller had some fairport-y tunes...though i still haven't gotten around to the last RT solo rec! sorry, richard.

"A Heart Needs a Home" is so touching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqViJyweNV0

yeah that song is so intense, linda is such a great vocalist. the (somewhat slicker) version on guitar/vocal is worth seeking out too.

after decades of listening to these guys, just finally got first light last week. why did I even wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnYg0ty-Q4

bunch of songs from that germany 1980 show are on youtube, I watched them all

new song: http://soundcloud.com/proper-music-distribution/richard-thompson-good-things

Spotted copies of Sunnyvista and First Light while in Memphis over the holiday last week. Picked up FL, haven't listened yet.

this demo version of first light is so great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyYrEMBWWlM
even though richard is writing about allah probably, they make it sound totally sexy. i guess that is a thing in sufi poetry.

yeah that is a v cool thing about sufi poetry, and actually one of the best things ever said to me was when my friend pointed out that ANY love song can be interestingly rethought with the beloved = god/allah/the tao/whatever

yeah! it is cool, i have been reading up a bit on that kind of thing. i do always wonder what Linda thought of those songs though. "Here, darling, I've written this magnificent love song. About God."

Prince's 'Let's Pretend We're Married' = actually addressed to God.

'I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth. Can you relate?'

OK, it doesn't take much for this guy to release a record, but just digging into an advance of the new one I can tell that Buddy Miller was an inspired choice of producer. Sounds great. And I know in advance, having heard it in concert, that "The Snow Goose" is a stunning song.

Cool, excited!

Release a great record, I meant to say.

I love it that he used to be in a band with Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers) back in the early '60s. They were called Emil and The Detectives...

http://1.2.3.9/bmi/static.dangerousminds.net/uploads/images/Hugh_Cornwell_1964_Thompson.jpg

That's Hugh Cornwell holding the bass. Mr. Thompson, I do believe, is on the far right.

OK, so this album is pretty much divided into rockers, a few pop songs and some folk stuff/ballads. Per the usual, maybe, but his playing on the rockers is some of his most unhinged ever, and the ballads are good. "Saving the Good Stuff for You" is one of his best winking sex ballads yet.

BTW, our man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ivSvqwobAFM

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/photos/hurdygurdyrt.jpg
Richard Thompson, with Hurdy Gurdy

Ha, just digging into the excellent Q&As on his website:

Greetings from Chicago. Your September 19 show here at the City Winery was excellent. I treated my girlfriend to her first RT show that night so she could hear what all my fuss was about. She really enjoyed it and afterward said: "I feel like I saw a rare treat, something special that one should see at least once in their life."

A few years ago at the Park West, in between songs, you told a really funny joke about a meeting in heaven between a bunch of musicians, among them Howling Wolf, Screaming Jaw Hawkins, Prince (I think), etc. All of them had nicknames like that and someone in the story is introducing them all to each other, like: "Screaming, meet Howling. Howling, Screaming." It went something like that, but there were other musicians. I can't recall it, could you retell it?

This joke originated, I believe, with guitarist Billy Bremner (not the Leeds and Scotland midfielder). The basic idea is that you have to do the introductions at the Blues-singers' party, hence "Howling, meet Screaming, Screaming, this is Howling, Blind, this is Crippled¦" etc. No real script to it, you just grab the names as they occur.

There is also the intros at the music 'royalty' party - "Duke, meet Prince, Prince, this is Earl, Earl, meet King" etc. etc.

dunno if the songs themselves are classics, but goddamn, the guitar playing on the new one ... ridiculously amazing. miller's production is solid too, good sound overall.

yep, not any classic songs, but a lot of really good ones and boy every single song gets to the solo and you just want to stand up and cheer. really like the band he's playing with too. good performances.

Some of my favorite solos by Richard Thompson are on the Golden Palominos album Drunk With Passion.

I discovered RT through the Palominos! His guitar just jumped out of the speakers at me.

Had stopped following them by that point. Will have to check that one out.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/ca552a371a4a47b37b5cc1745f461cb3/tumblr_mkjuhqXw7v1ro1gy0o1_500.jpg
richard's teenage band with hugh cornwall of the stranglers - emil and the detectives

From a couple of weeks ago, speaks for itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzs97W-FKc

The other guitarist was awesome, too.

touring this summer with an "electric trio"! - i looked it up & it's just richard, drums, and bass....bassist was with dwight yoakam for 14 yrs...drummer is from the toadies! and recently with john cale (last 4 albums)

yeahhhh, i think i'm gonna go see him. last time i saw him he had another dude doing extra guitar and a few other instruments, but he was superfluous.

I'm bummed I'll be out of town when they come through.

First time I saw the drummer was in The The, and he killed. This bassist is awesome, too. Trio format makes sense, since Thompson is so often playing rhythm and lead simultaneously.

man this band seems like it's pretty great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShIKWJTfFos

also found this from a joni mitchell tribute show, damn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKmsdP7cGoM

I saw that ooncert, a live tribute offered up to Queen Joni by so many of her star and superstar subjects, when it was originally broadcast---on TNT, Ah swear. RT and band zipped through "Raised On Robbery", way too slick, though no more so than the original. Still, Her Highness looked askance. But later, he came out an did a solo acoustic "Woodstock", and she was like "d-a-a-mn", though not in so many words, of course. Whole experience was, as she said at the end, "surreal."

hee hee that screengrab of joni's face is pretty much how i imagine she would look if i tried to play one of her songs in front of her. richard kills on woodstock, though...he's been doing some new 60s covers recently -- "hey joe," "white room," maybe some others?

In 2011, I got hooked on following his solo tour around the world: opera houses, picnic tables, whatever-- even on YouTube phoneshots, it was all good. I've almost come to prefer him solo, though all the trio tracks I've heard are so tight; gotta get Electric. (Also cool that he's got Nashville cats guesting here and there.)

Has he announced the dates for the trio tour yet? I'ma see that.

over yonder : http://richardthompson-music.com/

No NYC for Jon :(

oh he'll probably play that backwater sometime soon.

dammit!

Yeah. I usually crosscheck Pollstar and whichever artist's site http://www.pollstar.com/resultsArtist.aspx?ID=20282.

No idea which thread this should go on, but here's a terrific new article about the Thompson family, as they make their, er, reunion album, negotiated and navigated by Teddy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/teddy-thompsons-folk-rock-family-reunion.html?_r=1
Also digging RT's 2014Acoustic Classicsvery much.

hm, will be interesting to check out the thompson family thing. i've never really listened to teddy, is he good?

That article is really interesting, not to mention the way each of them are so competitive and manage to get in weird digs at each other.

The key take away for me was Teddy (Whose music I don't know at all)'s only substantive communication with his father about his feelings about being abandoned as a child was asking his dad to play guitar on a song about how much he felt abandoned by his father as child.

haha, i know! how awkward!
it is funny, i have a pretty well-adjusted family, I think, and I can only imagine how weird things would get if we were all trying to work together on something like this.

Teddy is more NPR MOR, but he's actually a pretty good song writer

haha, i know! how awkward!
it is funny, i have a pretty well-adjusted family, I think, and I can only imagine how weird things would get if we were all trying to work together on something like this.

― tylerw, Monday, November 10, 2014 2:58 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dude, I went on a road trip with my wife and my parent's to a wedding a few yrs back and yeah, I totally get along with my folks, but if I had to make a record with my parents...

"Goddammit Dad we are not doing another fucking John Prine cover"

"Are you sure you don't want to do another vocal take? Your voice sounds so nice when you double-track it."

"Shut up Mom"

my older brother would just drink pacificos and mutter about how "we've lost the spirit"

that article was great. Has there been a full length bio of RT or RT+Linda?

there was one in the mid to late 90s, which had RT's (grudging) participation -- it's ok, maybe a little bit boring in parts.

I like Teddy's more recent albums alright, but always did seems that he might be better off in a band, or at least an occasion to rise to (Nora Guthrie to thread). And maybe he agrees (actual quotes like "He owes me" aside). Results now streaming here! http://www.npr.org/2014/11/09/361384683/first-listen-thompson-family
(Oh yeah, the article mentioned The McGarrigle Hour, which really is a good, unlikely family album; Martha's teen bust of D.A.D. is the only dinner table upsetter [it's enough].)

haha, the mcgarrigle/wainwrights seem like the kind of family that enjoys needling one another through song

As far as Teddy goes, his debut and Rufus Wainwright's debut came out right around the same time, and for all their similarity, I thought Teddy's was much better.

Haven't really listened to Teddy enough to say much, though obviously he doesn't sound too much like either of his parents (been compared to Roy Orbison, and while that's pushing it, not totally inappropriate---more like a not-necessarily-retro descendant of Del Shannon or the Everlys). Rufus is literally long-winded: can hold notes a really long time, and so he does, very often. Think he and Loudon and RT all tend to distance, more than balance, emotional turmoil, in a highly stylized way--which can be thrilling, cathartic in its own right (somewhere, something is exploding, lights are flashing, perfectly timed) but like, on RT's Electric, even when I'm getting goose bumps, I might (or might) not be thinking, "This is just Thompson-y as Hell," even more than, "Well played, sir." Like I don't doubt he really does or did have weird takes on experiences with women, but he's drawn on them so much, for really high-class pulp fiction (hey, that's in a lot of folk music, music of the people yall)
But cut to the chase, also think Martha's the one who is more up front about being in the midst of struggle, like if she suspects her marriage is failing, she'll just say it like that, and her stylized qualities are about emotional churn and daring to find/test balancing act, rather than anguished held-note bravura or four-chord vignettes. Not to take away from the best work of these older guys, but also glad that Kari (and Teddy and Linda and others) get their own shots at Thompsoness, next door to Dad, for the moment (their own albums have more breathing room of course, but let's see what they all do under pressure). Although at the moment I'm still working my way through another npr stream, the amazing two-disc Richard Wyatt anth.

Feel kinda guilty re comments on Rufus, Loudon, RT--they can all be great, esp. the geezers, but tney're so prolific, can't help noticing the patterns and tropes and other tech elements per se, like w yr fave director, Big Hollywood or indie.

meant to say, "I might (or might not) be thinking"

RT can be relentlessly bleak when it comes to the human condition (guess that's to be expected form the dude whose first song has the lines "let me learn to despise"). all well and good, but it can be kind of exhausting -- might be why the grizzly man sdtk is probably the solo record i've listened to the most in the past decade or so.

A lot of beautiful, wintery musical sound effects though, incl on Electric, esp. but not only the Deluxe Edition, and dig the snowplowed highways of Acoustic Classics.

But yeah, it can be strenuous.

Feel kinda guilty re comments on Rufus, Loudon, RT--they can all be great, esp. the geezers, but tney're so prolific, can't help noticing the patterns and tropes and other tech elements per se, like w yr fave director, Big Hollywood or indie.

― dow, Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:31 PM (18 minutes ago)

Think it's the fatalistic element in old-school Romanticism tho': he's still after that dream, at least musically. Also into the lower-case, "lower-class" kind, at least as a turn-on, but it's the "Beeswing" girl who is sleeping rough, not him, while he still loves her wild child spirit (out there somewhere, not in his face all the time).

RT from basically the split with Linda onward is a distanced storyteller for me, like you said dow, a crafter of tales. I can't deny this has been somewhat a detriment for me.

RT from basically the split with Linda onward is a distanced storyteller for me

He's not the most confessional or poetic sort. He's pretty firmly in the mode of, say, '50s rock and roll, if not the mold. Really the sum of his parts, I think. Pop, rock, folk, but little of the mystery of Dylan, for one. It can definitely be read as a distancing effect, but I listen to RT as I would , yeah, a short story writer, albeit one who recognizes his short story is 4 minutes long, and can sometimes be told with guitar. We're definitely spoiled. Not a lot of duff in his catalog, so consistency seems like a detriment. At least all the rest of the clan have youth on their side, or in the case of Linda, a few decades off, but RT has pretty much been killing it since he was barely out of his teens.

for all his 80s, 90s and 00s stuff I find myself relishing his live releases much more than the studio albums. Semi-detached Mock Tudor, for ex., knocks Mock Tudor into the fucking ditch. All that Froominess was just not really right for him. I did really like the way Old Kit Bag sounded, though.

I think I'm at least two albums behind by now, though. Maybe three.

(I realize only some of those records were produced by Froom, but you get the idea)

richard thompson is a god-tier (ugh, hate that phrase, but it came to mind) songwriter and guitarist but i feel like his "bleak" outlook as expressed in his songs has always seemed a little wilfull, and with each passing album it seems cornier and cornier.

btw if you ever have a chance to see him live, with or without a band, DO IT.

and i hate the way froom likes really busy drum patterns and mixes them really high. it almost seems like he tried to apply some ideas from hip-hop in a "roots music" context but did so in a ham-handed way. all very 1990s.

Yeah, but "Rumour and Sigh" is great, and totally Froomy. The mix might be Tchad Blake at work, he is more percussive.

even rumor and sigh is kind of marred by some questionable mixing choices IMO.

Those Froom albums are also fucking LONG. CD bloat + From clinkclank = welcome to the '90s.

For all that though I have affection for "Feel So Good" (for once he's playing malice instead of letting his guitar do it for him), "Beeswing," "Shane and Dixie," (he should write about fame and love more often) and most of Amnesia, the best of the Froom albums.

Still, "Rumour & Sigh" is the last RT album to have a handful of songs he absolutely must play live. It's hard to believe "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" hails from the '90s, and wasn't in his quiver for the preceding 25 years of his career.

Lol at your prior post, and the typo is the icing on the cake
(Xp to Alfred)

BTW, is there anyone else like Thompson, who is not only a virtuoso on both electric and acoustic guitars, but is also a good singer and, most importantly, a great songwriter? It's a surprisingly rare combo.

Prince
David Byrne
Brad Paisley
Caetano Veloso
Neil Finn

I might put Springsteen on that list. Roger McGuinn too. Probably tons of guys not coming to mind right now. Also depends on how you define 'virtuoso.'

DB is no guitar virtuoso, much as I love him. Prince isn't much of an acoustic guitar guy. Caetano Maybe ... Neil Finn is awesome, but sort of modest in his genius so it's hard to tell how good he is at guitar. The Boss is a great guitar player, but pretty meat and potatoes. Great list, though! Paisley might come closest, as a total guitar guy, electric and acoustic, and a singer-songwriter who is good at both (when he is good).

Johnny Marr is an acoustic and electric virtuoso, and a good songwriter, but not much of a singer, and even on the songwriting front works best as a collaborator.

I've seen enough clips of acoustic Prince before the zealotry of his legal team pulled'em from YouTube to know he's excellent at pickin'.

Many people will lose on the acoustic virtuosity. Like, does Marshall Crenshaw play acoustic?

and if so, is he a virtuoso?

The acoustic is the catch. Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page ... those are a couple aces on both.

Speaking of Neil Finn, one of my fave Richard Thompson solos is his in-and-out appearance on "Sister Madly" from "Temple of Low Men."

Huh, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJgkGYHomc

and of course Tim Finn's RT cowrite "Persuasion."

marshall C is a bad mufuggah re: guitar…but indeed RT is a complete musician in ways few can compare…in 25 years of a being a big fan, I gotta say I'm not into "1952 Black Lightning," in that that was the song annoying vin scelsa listeners/ people who love the bottom line repped for…in the past ten years, I really dig this tune "One Door Opens" from the Old Kit Bag…

Neil Young is the standard, I would think. Of course this depends on what you mean by virtuoso.

Also, Lindsey Buckingham. No quarrel with the singer/songwriter part, but can't think of a single thing Bruce Springsteen has done on guitar that I would describe as virtuostic. Most of the time he's is mixed so low I can't tell what he is doing at all on guitar.

thompson is for sure my favorite musician who makes terrible records, my lord can that guy play

Townshend's fearsome acoustic fingerpicking has informed his electric approach in such a way in the last 15 years or so as to vault his playing far beyond anything his contemporaries are doing.

(also, wrote a few good songs)

Townshend not a bad suggestion.

Now feel like maybe the concept Josh was trying to get out was someone who was originally known as a guitarist then branched out as singer/songwriter and kept up his guitar chops without growing bland and boring but I dunno.

Hey it's Marshall Crenshaw's birthday today. HB, MC! on the RT thread.

MC sings RT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxirrFKl3YQ

And the man himself burning it up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGhHbJo7PCE

i was gonna say, roy harper is a pretty great acoustic and electric player and no slouch as a songwriter (obviously a horrible human being, though)

it's prob worth noting that thompson really solos like a songwriter -- hi solos tend to be really well thought-out, structurally.

also, maybe michael chapman? though frankly he's nowhere near RT's level as a songwriter.

i've seen him live... four times i think, and this song never fails to raise the hairs on my neck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yw2yKNLEPc

btw RT is one of those artists that my mom and i love in equal measure, so we've gone to several of his shows together :)

I always think of Robyn Hitchcock and rt and Tom Verlaine together. Robyn and Tom v are not virtuosos exactly but they are great guitarists who developed extremely idiosyncratic styles which inform the grammar of their songwriting, and both followed lightning-in-bottle band situations with long taken-for-granted solo careers. (If only tom v was as prolific as RH and RT in that regard).

You? Me? Us? was the first RT album I ever heard and I love it to bits even though it's very Froomy in parts. I wouldn't place bloody Robyn Hitchcock anywhere near Thompson as a songwriter, he's just not in the same league.

Neil Young is definitely a distinctive acoustic and electric player, so while he's really not a virtuoso (Stephen Stills is), he probably counts. I'd say someone like Townshend (a RT fave) but really he hasn't written a significant song in decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0u5EqSM6_4

His regular website Q&As are illuminating:

http://archive.richardthompson-music.com/questionsandanswers.asp

yeah, neil young as a guy who keeps trying to create as best he can but is a guy who self-identified guitarists may love but do not consider a virtuoso, vs Townshend as a guy universally regarded as a virtuoso, if an idiosyncratic one, but who does not seem to have any interest in making new music (the couple of songs I heard from Endless wire were pitiful, as if he had to write songs for a flagging Daltrey; it's long been strange to me that he can't just make a Pete Townshend album, with no unwieldy concept burdening the who thang, certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it, instead going on one lame Who tour after another).

guy who keeps trying to do his best, songwriting-wise + guy who other guitar players, even if they're dumb tone attorneys who only understand eric johnson/Stevie ray vaughn/ metal/whatever, when they see him are blown the fuck away = RT.

"the whole thang"

oh man i love the tone attorneys, great band

Strangest thing on RT's CV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkSF3wAdts

certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it

See also: Page, Jimmy.

but really he hasn't written a significant song in decades.

I dunno, Endless Wire had some of his/their best stuff since By Numbers.

certainly he must have something on his mind and the ability to record music, but maybe he does and doesn't release it,

He's got a pretty massive stockpile of recently-written unreleased things.

Speaking of Kaiser, this is neat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7JlxB4KQnU

"Bird in God's Garden" and "Blind Step Away" are both abso top tier RT (re those frith etc records)

Many people will lose on the acoustic virtuosity. Like, does Marshall Crenshaw play acoustic?
Seen him several times solo, on acoustic guitar. He's pretty damn good, but of course no RT.

Vince Gill. Great singer, great guitar player (A&E), great songwriter?

And John Martyn ....(or are we confining this to the living?)

Vince Gill is a great call!

RT live >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RT in studio

.. playing AND singing

like a ringing a bell

re "somebody originally known as a guitarist, but branched out...": leave us not forget Hendrix! And Clapton really tried, sometimess succeeded,though "the doctors tell me I was born with a small diaphragm"(no shit).

Dylan's had his moments or phases, esp. when I saw him live in the 90s, his electric and acoustic work could be pretty great, and in fact much more up front than the vocals, which seemed deliberately (and very effectively) parenthetical. Think he mostly plays keys now, right? Before that, some things like his slide on the Hard Rain performance of "Shelter From The Storm" (I saw him playing it on the TV concert broadcast, though I've read that some of the LP tracks aren't the same, despite the album's tie-in with the TV special). Also picks and strums a rollicking acoustic shuffle while snuggling up to wifey at the bar in Renaldo and Clara.

Link Wray's still mostly known for guitar, it seems, but was a soulful singer, writer and coverer---my fave is still The Link Wray Shuffle, never on legit CD, though some of it's on YouTube, etc.
http://www.discogs.com/Link-Wray-The-Link-Wray-Rumble/release/1390307 Fave is "Goodtime Joe," with a hook maybe saluting Townsend (who wrote liner notes), and synth pioneer Bernie Krause shadowing the ill-wind guitar surges. Another is homage to Van Morrison *and* Duane Allman---still unmistakably LW.

And over on the Joni Mitchell thread, we-uns stood amazed by her guitar (guy recently told me his guitar teacher made him learn her first four albums).

Martyn's a good choice too (wish I could find covers/tribute albums that dealt with his guitar as much as his singing-songwriting)

And---before I forget again---Garcia is a distinctive guitarist whose jams can upstage his singing and writing----but the jams seem to benefit from the structure of songs, originals and covers, also from his vocals, I'd say (minority report)

The voice can sell me on songs I maybe shouldn't buy, and the words (good and bad) suit him so well, hard to believe he didn't at least discuss some original premises etc w Hunter, even if he didn't contribute any lines (but so articulate, even glib, an interviewee, why would he resist turning at least a few more phrases into lyrics----never can get too logical with musos, tho)

Bob Mould? Maybe not so much now though.

Mould no virtuoso, love him though I do. I think McCartney counts as a total-package virtuoso who can also sing and write songs.

The voice can sell me on songs I maybe shouldn't bu

jerry garcia had a voice? news to me.

I could never figure out how the Dead, for all their skill and stuff, only managed a couple of essential studio albums over three decades.

Problem I have with RT live these days is that while he can clearly play his ass off and does do some finely thought out solos, there's a lack of proper interplay between him and his band. Although those guys are all clearly crack musos, there's the sense that they're backing him up rather than really pushing him. It's very different to the ecstatic interplay Neil gets with Crazy Horse say, or Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd achieved in Television.

Well, he is clearly the leader, but the current bassist and drummer are pretty awesome, with plenty of room to show off, too. But the boss is the boss.

Finally got to the Thompson Family Album. Re the article posted upthread, does indeed sound like it was recorded in RT's spare room/ dubbed and pasted onto Teddy's laptop, and not in any groovy folktronica way either. Might be the stream, but be prepared to turn it way up, even on headphones.
So Teddy speaks up for himself on the first track, "Family," in a nice, sweet way (though the most he can say about his older sister here is how pretty she is, and his little sister is "prettier still, and she sings," he's the middle child, etc.
Kinda ready for Dad's back hand, but it's more of a duck,"We're all supposed, to help one another...I'm afraid, you are my brother," but okay he said later it was political, right? The personal is political, and though some other bits are more like OMG, RT (songs by this Dad should all be labeled "don't ask, don't tell"), all of "That's Enough" surely seems political (whatever else it might be), as he leads the only family sing-along, "They're still throwin' fairy dust into our eyes (repeat twice)....screwed again, screwed again, screwed again," But the dismissive chorus, "Times are tough, that's enough" seems to imply that kind of response isn't enough, which is more of an implication than I expected from him. Aptly followed by the fr "I Long For Lonely," a good homage to 70s Linda, though Teddy doesn't make much of a Richard, of course.
Also a sly, spooky instrumental, "At The Feet of the Emperor," but the big news for me is that Linda, despite her long-time probs, and a bit of a crease in her voice here (though it usually blends with a becoming touch of vibrato, unusually in this family) projects most of the vocal charisma on this joint! Just a couple of tracks, I think (no credits), but a whiff of that old tyme magic perked me right up.
No masterpieces, several keepers, seems like a sleeper (though right now I wish it was all R&L, sorry T)(also thanks!)
that link again, 'til the 18th: http://www.npr.org/2014/11/09/361384683/first-listen-thompson-family

Think "I Long For Lonely" is Kari. "Root So Bitter," sung by a male who sounds tougher than Teddy, alternates taut picking on brittle verses with more flexible B sections, good student of Dad or Grandad (there's a grandson in there somewhere). Teddy does this break-up rockabilly, "Right," which is just straight imitation of RT, and falls flat (although RT may be playing on it a little, heh-heh). Somebody does one kinda like Christine McVie.

The NYT article upthread has sent me off listening to a ton of RT this week. I've had Rumor and Sigh and Shoot Out the Lights for ages, and adore his guest work on a bunch of other albums but have never really gone deep into his catalogue. And unfortunately the Chrysalis stuff is all missing from Spotify as are a bunch of others (mid-80s work, you? me? us?).

A few things:

IWTSTBLT is great. "When I Get to the Border" is awesome as is the title track. Hokey Pokey title track is great too – like some great lost Fleetwood Mac/Rumours outtake.

"Beeswing." I've had Mirror Blue forever and somehow completely missed it. Wow. Just shows how unbelievably deep his catalogue is.

Kaiser open tuning video Josh posted is outstanding – that's "Cortez the Killer" in the open, right? Since its not on Spotify, I tried to rip my copy of Live, Love, Larf & Loaf this am but ran into technical problems. Will report back but I always liked the RT stuff on there.

"Turning of the Tide" on Amnesia is a killer opener. The guitar refrain is amazing and reminds me that some of his most amazing solos are buried on the somewhat faceless Drunk With Passion album by Golden Palominos.

Agree that the guy has a super dour feel to his vocals ... Linda sweetens him somewhat which is one reason why that Island comp is so good (also, the material is uniformly strong).

fave from Mirror Blue has always been "King of Bohemia" -- what a beautiful bummer of a song...

You know, I wonder how much of that comes from his stutter/stammer? A lot of people who stutter find a way around it when singing, so I wonder if that directs him to a certain style of singing?

Hey, look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCxdEc3gVwE

Oh, to add the the Whole Package: he's hilarious live, too. So he's an amazing songwriter, a good singer, an incredible electric guitarist, an incredible acoustic guitarist, and he's funny, too.

He was born to sing "Oops I Did It Again" and "Genie In A Bottle," and he knows it. Fairport Convention AKA WHat We Did On Our Holidays turned my world around; much later, Pour Down Like Silver did it again.

lousy dad though

xpost

... and he's a Muslim, which is fairly rare in the rock business... I think?

He's Sufi, yeah.

Was he a bad dad? I don't know anything about that, honestly. He seemed to be a bad husband, or at least so into his religion he ignored her. Summed up somewhere as "Richard's devotion to the anti-materialist way of life was all-consuming and Linda went along for the slow ride."

BTW, I interviewed her once, and she said her kids call her Shozzy because she looks like Sharon Osbourne but acts like Ozzy.

Good piece:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/11/richard-thompson-faith-feature

In what might look a little like poetic justice, Thompson has recently been the subject of some of the songs of his musician children, Teddy and Kamila. He is not always shown in a favourable light...

"There is a song of Teddy's about me being a rotten father, just like there are songs by Martha and Rufus Wainwright about Loudon Wainwright being a horrible dad. And the question you have to ask is: Is it a good, honest song? If it is, then fine. I've talked to Linda about this. At some point, the specific circumstances of its writing become diffuse and it stands on its own. That is what songs are – little capsules of emotion. Divorce was hard and horrible and gruesome on the kids."

Since its not on Spotify, I tried to rip my copy of Live, Love, Larf & Loaf this am but ran into technical problems. Will report back but I always liked the RT stuff on there.

It's there, Spotify just eefed up the artist name:
http://open.spotify.com/album/1HSH6ewB5U5sSwqyMphGZS

Oh nice! Looks as though Invisible Means is not, however. Have my heard that one.

One other thing I forgot to mention:

I've actually always been a bit underwhelmed by "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." Perhaps it's because before I even heard it it was being touted as "the best thing he'd ever written"/a classic/etc. When I did eventually hear it (when I bought Rumor & Sigh in 1991) it seemed ... like a folk song. A good one for sure, but nothing that left me floored or changed how I viewed the guy. By comparison, "Beeswing" seems so much better – equally timeless, but less trope-y and more vivid.

When I heard the recorded version I was a bit disappointed in it, but I first heard it live and I think I was in tears by the end of it.

it's a great little cinematic narrative

and yeah it works better live. i hate when people say things like that, but it's true.

although sometimes if his voice goes to low on "riiiiiiide" it can sound a little corny

Have to say, Hokey Pokey is a helluva record. Feel like it gets lost next to IWTSTBLT, but the tunes are very solid, the arrangements are great (awesome accordion on things like "The Egypt Room"), and RT's vocals are a little less boomy than they become on later records. And "A Heart Needs a Home" is one of the best things the man ever did.

Acoustic Classics has a solo live-in-the-studio impact; for me, the strongest album versions of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and "Valerie," especially. On headphones, seems like might possibly be a few dubs, but he's often gotten much the same sound while sitting on a YouTube picnic table.

there are a few tracks on hokey pokey that are a little too twee for my tastes (speaking as a guy who likes the field mice!). but yeah on the whole it's a great one. i somehow managed to snag that on vinyl way back in the 1990s for a few bucks, and i've held onto it since.

this version of A Heart Needs a Home from BBC absolutely destroys me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqViJyweNV0

this is so dope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7JlxB4KQnU

prob Pour Down Like Silver is my fav these days? a devotional album where "no graven images" is taken very seriously, so these are abstract love songs. his vocals with Linda coil together on "For Shame of Doing Wrong" like a geometric design. the lyric of "Beat the Retreat" is almost a chant, like a blues but with some kind of flute snaking throughout. "Night Comes In": obv a guitar showcase but the lyric is something else too, redemption at hand by means of another, a real companion (what did Linda think her role was in this? not the beloved it seems!). & of course "Dimming of the Day".

this version of A Heart Needs a Home from BBC absolutely destroys me



Re. "A Heart Needs a Home," the studio version has an incredible arrangement with the piano and harp blending so effortlessly. But this is amazing.

i need to listen to pour down like silver again

but yeah agreed on hokey pokey and p much any version of heart needs a home

http://eil.com/images/main/Richard-Thompson-Richard-Thompson-261078.jpg
this is such a good comp, just such a wide range of stuff, all of it amazing. kind of interesting, too -- is it the first "rarities" compilation?

growing a beard was def a good move on his part

XP Great Lost Kinks Album and/or Kink Chronicles.

I have this weird 2-record set that has IWTSTBLT and most of Guitar, Vocal (maybe missing the Fairport tracks). Anyway there's one side that's just the extended live versions of "Calvary Cross" and "Night Comes In" and that's where I want to live.

ah yeah, i think my college radio station had that double LP.
good call on the kinks -- forgot about those.

odds n sods?

There's also that Stones Metamorphosis record, but the Kinks one was probably the first.

Is the live Calvary on guitar, vocal the same one that's on the Best Of The Island Years cd?

I think so, there's a different version on the Bright Lights reissue.

Also I cosign "One Door Opens" as a great song, The Old Kit Bag was the last album that I really wanted to return to on the regular, honestly I'm a bit burnt out on his storytelling style.

Big fan of More Guitar for live RT flash.

One of the last times I saw him even the ushers at the venue were slack-jawed during his solo in Can't Win.

Old Kit Bag has Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen, utterly gorgeous.

Ooh I've been missing out on this thread. I love Richard Thompson. Very few people can match him as a live performer.

My favorite song of his that is not The Calvary Cross is Time To Ring Some Changes. I just found a killer version on youtube, starts around :52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXDdpduNJU8

Went to the record store today and up on the rack was a super clean original UK press of Vocals, Guitar! $25, couldn't resist

Er Guitar, Vocal

odds n sods?

― i did it all for the 'nuki (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, November 14, 2014 4:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope, that was 1974.

guy i have a great idea - neil young and richard thompson trading solos over "calvary cross" chord change for 12 hours

apparently, chris forsyth/solar motel band played calvary cross over the weekend in chicago -- that is probably as close as we'll get!

The "Sloth" on the Fairport Troubadour album is Crazy Horse @ The Fillmore-esque to my ears.

I'd love to hear a 20 min Neil style jam of "Tam Lin"

I could see this working as a Grayfolded sort of collage.

Forsyth doesn't play Chicago until tomorrow, but if they play calvary cross I might just freak out.

wait they are already in chicago?! i thought they were playing tomorrow?

and i will be there to get water for you if you freak out aj!

oops sorry, that was in indiana, i was confused. yeah you guys should yell for it!

Has its own site: reviews, interviews etc.
http://www.thompsonfamilyalbum.com/

stumbled into 'A Heart Needs a Home' in a mix today and it floored me

Thompson family live at City Winery NYC: http://nodepression.com/live-review/we-are-family-thompsons-live

RT answers your questions, spring session pt. 1:

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/news/2015/3/30/rts-spring-q-a-part-1?utm_source=FAN+MAILING+LIST&utm_campaign=48b5eeae84-RT_Newsletter_March_VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0938a8e7d7-48b5eeae84-163448545

Renowned guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson is set to release Still, an album of new music, produced by Jeff Tweedy on June 23 via Concord Records in the US and June 29 via Proper Records internationally. Still will be available in several configurations including a twelve-track CD, a twelve-track double 180-gram vinyl album and a deluxe CD package that includes the five song Variations EP, from a previously unreleased session

TRACK LISTING
1. She Never Could Resist A Winding Road
2. Beatnik Walking
3. Patty Don’t You Put Me Down
4. Broken Doll
5. All Buttoned Up
6. Josephine
7. Long John Silver
8. Pony In The Stable
9. Where’s Your Heart
10. No Peace No End
11. Dungeons For Eyes
12. Guitar Heroes
Still was recorded in a two-story rehearsal loft in Chicago over the course of just nine days with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy at the helm, backed by several longtime players from both Thompson’s and Tweedy’s bands. Insert Jeff Tweedy quote. Thompson enlisted Tweedy’s production skills in an effort to shake up his own creative approach to making records. “It turned out be really good idea,” says Thompson. “Jeff is musically very sympathetic. Although some of his contributions are probably rather subtle to the listener’s ear, they were really interesting and his suggestions were always very pertinent.”

Taken as a whole, Still is a powerful dispatch from an acknowledged master who remains unafraid to put himself into demanding new environments – its title reflecting that resilience and seemingly endless resourcefulness. “Or,” Thompson adds slyly, “it could be read as ‘Is he still performing? I thought he died years ago.”

Insert Jeff Tweedy quote

i prefer his older press releases to these new, poorly proofread ones

Every press release I write from now on is going to have the sentence "Insert Jeff Tweedy quote." IMO there's almost nothing that wouldn't be improved by "Insert Jeff Tweedy quote," including actual Jeff Tweedy quotes. Jeff Tweedy could give press conferences where he just leaned toward the mic and said, "Insert Jeff Tweedy quote here." It'd be like the scene in Being John Malkovich where everything comes out "Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich."

But as for Mr. Thompson. Many years ago I heard an exceptionally pure and simple live version of "Happy Days and Old Lang Syne" on Prairie Home Companion (of all places), probably 2001 or 2002. It was perfect. The album version (which I think is on Old Kit Bag) is over-embellished and syncopated awkwardly. I really wish I could find an early live version.

Other S&D:

"Turning of the Tide" kicks major arse - both solos are tasty but I think the second one is a little better. Now I have to go listen to it.

I like "When I get to the Border" a lot but the coda is needless TradWank.

Currently I feel that I've heard "52 Vincent..." and "Beeswing" as much I need to for now. Still top-notch songs, but they've been a little overplayed in my household. Right now I'm preferring Mary Lou Lord's versions, which may be heresy but so be it.

Oh and "Wall of Death" and "I want to see..." are grebt; I can personally do without another hearing of "Feel So Good" or "Crawl Back" but I understand their appeal.

Tangentially Teddy's version of "Tonight Will Be Fine" from that Cohen tribute is also gorgeous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W89j6GjPDI

"Insert Jeff Tweedy quote."
hahah ouch.
i have heard Still and it is great! Might not like it quite as much as Electric, but hey give it a go.
also:
I like "When I get to the Border" a lot but the coda is needless TradWank.
get outta here. TradWank is the BEST. What the world needs now is more TradWank!

i think that when i get to the border was the 1st Thompson song I ever heard and I can still remember when it got to that coda, thinking: "yes I want to hear more of this"

Thou art too modest, t: get yall to tyler's blog, http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ for a live RT/Nels C. rave-up on "Sloth," also you'll find a link to Tyler's intro to and post of track from Still, on the Aquarium Drunkard site

Also a missing internal quotation mark in that last sentence...

Interesting to see that and it is a shame that there are no guitar duels with Cline if that's true. He's been very interesting in a number of places.
May just have to go and grab a copy of this set when it appears.

If you scroll further down that page you get a photo which is an outtake from the photo session for Veedon Fleece attached to a live set by van from '75. There have been 2 sets I've come across recently on torrent sites from this largely undocumented year. that's this one and one from a few months later. Sorry, typing this and just realising that I noticed that that was one of the 2 but I don't remember which. There's a Davis University from April '75 and a Irvine from that June. They're bot petty gritty heavy r'n'b ish
I can't remember if when the Caledonia Soul Orchestra split but I think this is a while after that anyway. I'm not sure who is on it but both of those sets are worth hearing. So if you get the chance to check that out I'd do so.

haha i was gonna defend TradWank but tyler beat me to it!

Although some of his contributions are probably rather subtle to the listener’s ear,

this seems like press-release-speak for "he didn't really do anything"

yeah certainly not some kind of radical departure from 21st century Thompson, don't think Tweedy imposed anything on this. But it is good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxhac0bWENY

New one features this song, which may be the best bit of guitar acting since Blue Oyster Cult's "The Marshall Plan."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54x3JaXD2xg

Album version of that isn't as good, but it incl. a good twinkly, trippy homage to Les Paul's own studio sound. Also like his take on Hank Marvin (an sudible influence on his own sound, or just slightly subsumed by it? Both?) Too many fingers for Django. Funny verses along the lines of, "My parents are gonna kill me, my life is a mess, got no where to go, better hurry up and sound like [insert guitar hero quote here]."
Initially,several tracks seem mostly notable as guitar vehicles, and, while the guitar-playing isn't big slick rough fun on an Electric scale, it's pretty good! And I do like the writing (and playing) of "She Never Could Resist A Winding Road," "Josephine," "Pony In The Stable," for instance. So far, seems like the best overall tracks---playing, singing, vibrant atmospheres---are "Broken Doll" and "Where's Your Heart." Best RT illin': "No Peace, No End."
What the heck, the whole thing may yet have me going omg. Judge for yourselves: here's links to whole-album streams on NPR, CDC, and The Guardian.
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=fa0ee5df9dfda6e3115ac406f&id=526e0f4452&e=3412af6338

So, new album is out and seems lovely so far.

ILX hate Wilco/Tweedy obviously but I had the sense he would do a good job on this and he has, by basically setting up some nice microphones and letting the players play, production is very unfussy, clear without being too slick, pretty much ideal....god just imagine if we could go back in time and re-record some of that 80s and 90s stuff like this?

The Pitchfork review knocked it a bit for a couple sillier jaunty numbers like "Long John Silver" and "Beatnik Walk" but I don't mind that side of him, balances things out and those are generally his catchier tunes

Electric trio plays tmrw night in nyc, anyone going?

his band is so good, wish he was playing electric around here, but i think he's doing a solo show.
yeah! i like the new one -- don't think it'll convert anyone, but i think it is very solid.
don't tell ILX but i'm going to see wilco next month!

it's not necessarily all classic new tunes or anything but i find his basic thing very enjoyable

"gutiar heroes" is kinda corny but i dig the gimmick in the hands of a guy as good as him

what's the epic barn burner these days? Still "Hard On Me"?

last time i saw him it was "can't win"

btw the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition are pretty great and might have been preferable to some of the proper tracks IMO

Can't Win has been a killer for decades. The last time I saw him with a band there were awed theatre ushers stopped in their tracks by his solo on that one.

yeah total tour de force.
good to know about those bonus tracks, haven't heard them yet.

RT dropped by the station, played some new tunes:
(audio, video)
http://www.wfuv.org/content/richard-thompson-2015

New wtf podcast w RT & Lemmy The K: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_634_-_richard_thompson_lemmy_kilmister Haven't listened yet, just now downloaded.

RT is playing a sold out festival near me soon-ish. If I pull the right strings, I can get in and see him. But I'd be using up those strings for a while, owing a favor, etc.

Worth the effort?

yes definitely

yeah, i've seen him 5-6 times and he's never been anything less than great.

Solo or electric? He's great either way.

I'm assuming solo, but am not positive.

Thanks, y'all. Will see what I can do.

He's the rare quadruple threat. Peerless acoustic player, peerless electric player, peerless songwriter, and hilarious banterer.

lol check this pic -- 67 years old!
https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14233129_10154566205657287_1939982753133593210_n.jpg?oh=e1e50febadb96f246f248c6ce6aa1f4a&oe=5884DE13

Can anyone rank the officially released live albums, or how about top 3?

I only have the November 1975 one with Linda, which is a beaut.

I only have the November 1975 one with Linda, which is a beaut.

Oops sorry for double posting, don't know how that happened.

Well, there are lots of weird RT fan club etc. live albums or collections. I'm a big fan of "More Guitar." There's good stuff on "Two Letter Words." But given he's really never bad, I guess it depends what kind of RT you're in the mood for: acoustic, electric, stand up comedy, duo, solo, band, touring behind which album, and so on. The "RT- The Life and Music of Richard Thompson" box is mostly live but is a bit overwhelming. "1000 Years of Pop Music" is super high concept.

bonus live disc that came out w/ a deluxe reissue of Shoot Out The Lights is highly recommended.

and yeah "More Guitar" has (as the title suggests) some of Thompson's wildest electric guitar playing. I like Celtschmertz too, which is mostly solo acoustic, late 90s.

Semi-Detached Mock Tudor is preferable to Mock Tudor IMO
I also like the live versions on the terribly titled Ducknapped over the studio versions of its era.
Can't remember if I've heard More Guitar or not

iirc the insane "can't win" from "more guitar" is the same one as is found on the watching the dark comp ...

Seeing him in a few months, I think solo. Totally looking forward to it. I saw him do a brief set at Bonnaroo about 10 years ago, he was great. Setlists from recent shows are v promising.

yeah don't think his powers have dimmed at all as a live performer.

I usually catch him live once or so a year. When I saw him open for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell a couple of years back, he played an absolutely blistering "Can't Win" that was so nuts I even saw the ushers (it was at Orchestra Hall) straining their necks to see. I mean, come on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLypHd3hJdU

the nerve of some ppl

Good video for trying to work out wtf he's doing on those solos. Sad that Pete Zorn died last year.

I love how RT briefly used a tremolo, then after a bit of that was probably all, eh, who needs that?

Read some interview where he revealed he still practices several hours a day!

I was wondering why I wasn't as good as him, my several hours a decade can't compete.

Lol

You can tell, from around 7:00 to 7:20, the violinist is thinking, "Holy shit, that is fkn awesome".

holy shit that solo!

most impressive piece of shredding I've seen in a long time

from new newsletter:

Richard has been busy in his Trellises Studio recording two new CDs.

ACOUSTIC CLASSICS 2: Following on from the UK Top Ten album, Acoustic Classics 1, this new CD will include more favorites from the Thompson repertoire rendered in an all-acoustic setting.

ACOUSTIC RARITIES: Will feature unreleased songs and demos, plus RT recordings of songs previously covered by other artists. In addition, there will be new settings of some older classics from the '60s and '70s.

Lots more going on: shows, the RT Guitar Camp just outside Woodstock in July, etc., etc.
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=fa0ee5df9dfda6e3115ac406f&id=a8dcf7b64d&e=3412af6338

Doing a quick Discogs review. It doesn't look like RT believed in b-sides. Is there much non-lp material out there?

Answered my own question - found a 6 CD bootleg set on slsk called "Gathered Tracks", will report back after reviewing.

He's definitely had lots of tracks on random compilations. Seek out his cover of Donovan Season of the Witch.

More about AC 2
Richard Thompson Presents:
Acoustic Classics II

Richard Thompson's Acoustic Classics II is now available worldwide on his own Beeswing record label.

On the heels of the success of Acoustic Classics in 2014, Acoustic Classics II features acoustic renderings of classic songs from the Richard Thompson catalog, some previously recorded by other singers, some previously available only in a band format. A second album, Acoustic Rarities, will be released worldwide on October 6, 2017 and features new recordings of some of the more obscure songs in the Thompson catalog, some previously existing only as cover versions.
Listen to "Gethsemane" here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQQFGwi9lzY

TRACK LISTING
1. She Twists The Knife Again
2. The Ghost Of You Walks
3. Genesis Hall
4. Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair
5. A Heart Needs A Home
6. Pharaoh
7. Gethsemane
8. Devonside
9. Meet On The Ledge
10. Keep Your Distance
11. Bathsheba Smiles
12. Crazy Man Michael
13. Guns Are The Tongues
14. Why Must I Plead?

October solo tour dates with Josienne Clark and Ben Walker:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/fa0ee5df9dfda6e3115ac406f/images/c8d68a66-3dca-4679-a855-7c4695a7e579.jpeg
or if that isn't visible, check this:
http://mailchi.mp/richardthompson-music/richard-thompson-acoustic-classics-2-pre-order-604029?e=3412af6338

Richard Thompson’s Frets and Refrains Guitar & Songwriting Camp goes on sale TODAY, Tuesday, 12/12!

Come join us JULY 9 - 13th for an inspiring week of music in the Catskill Mountains!

Learn guitar skills from RICHARD THOMPSON and Celtic fingerstyle master TONY McMANUS, as well as CINDY CASHDOLLAR, HAPPY TRAUM, Bobby Eichorn, and Zak Hobbs
Explore songwriting with TEDDY THOMPSON and special guest Songwriting teacher to be announced!
Hone your performance and singing style with SLOAN WAINWRIGHT
Pick up audio techniques from Richard’s personal sound engineer, Simon Tassano, who will mix your own sound at the nightly Open Mic, hosted by Jack Thompson!

Enjoy campfires, hiking, swimming, yoga, stargazing, RT curated music films, Open Mic nights...and gourmet food all week long!

Once again, it is my pleasure to invite you all to Frets & Refrains, our guitar and songwriting camp. This will be our 7th year, and we hope it will be the best yet! We still have a teacher (or two) to announce, but already confirmed on the staff are Celtic guitar whizz Tony McManus, songwriter Teddy Thompson, steel guitar ace Cindy Cashdollar, and regulars Happy Traum, Sloan Wainwright, Zak Hobbs, Jack Thompson, Simon Tassano, Bobby Eichorn, Annaliese Tassano, and Camp Mom Nancy Covey.

There are a few elements that make our camp special; the climate is perfect, warm but not too warm, being up the mountain a couple of thousand feet; the location is perfectly suited to our needs, with lots of teaching space and rehearsal space and jamming space; our staff are just the finest you could ask for; the food is fabulous; and the attendees learn so much from each other - those who come year after year have formed extraordinary ties with the camp and with each other. It is true to say that there is a Frets & Refrains community that intercommunicates year-round and makes every camp so uplifting. We also have a strong presence from our scholarship programme for under-25s - their energy gives a great demographic balance to the whole camp.

I really hope you can join us for what I believe will be a musical experience without parallel!

Sincerely,
Richard Thompson

FRETS & REFRAINS SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!

I'm sold

Lucked into a used CD copy of Sunnyvista for about $6 last night. Enjoying how "70s" it sounds--"Civilisation" is their punk/new wave song, "Justice In The Streets" sounds like Little Feat, and "Lonely Hearts" comes off a bit like early Eagles with an accordion.

RT is still blocking it and First Light from reissue, eh?

From New West:

Richard Thompson is set to return with 13 Rivers on September 14th, 2018. A return to New West Records, the 13-song set is the Grammy nominated artist’s first self-produced album in over a decade and was recorded 100% analog in just ten days. It was engineered by Clay Blair (The War On Drugs) and features Thompson’s regular accompanists Michael Jerome (drums, percussion), Taras Prodaniuk (bass), and Bobby Eichorn (guitar). 13 Rivers is a bare-bones, emotionally direct album that speaks from the heart with no filters. “There are 13 songs on the record, and each one is like a river,” Thompson explains. “Some flow faster than others. Some follow a slow and winding current. They all culminate on this one body of work.” A high water mark in an overwhelmingly impressive career, 13 Rivers was recorded at the famed Boulevard Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Previously known as The Production Workshop, which was owned by Liberace and his manager, the locale served as the site for seminal classics by Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Ringo Starr, and hosted the mixing sessions for Pink Floyd’s legendary The Wall. Of the album, Thompson says, “The songs are a surprise in a good way. They came to me as a surprise in a dark time. They reflected my emotions in an oblique manner that I’ll never truly understand. It’s as if they’d been channelled from somewhere else. You find deeper meaning in the best records as time goes on. The reward comes later.” He continues, “I don’t know how the creative process works. I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me. We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission at the back.” 13 Rivers commences on the tribal percussion and guitar rustle of “The Storm Won’t Come” as the artist bellows, “I’m looking for a storm to blow through town.” The energy mounts before climaxing on a lyrical electric lead rife with airy bends and succinct shredding from the guitar virtuoso. Today, NPR Music has premiered “The Storm Won’t Come,” alongside an additional new album track, “Bones of Gilead.”Both: https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/07/17/628781573/richard-thompson-tears-it-up-on-two-new-songs 13 Rivers will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, vinyl, as well as limited edition split cream & black colored vinyl available at Independent Retailers.

...A wide range of musicians have recorded Thompson’s songs including Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, Del McCoury, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Jones, David Byrne, Don Henley, Los Lobos, and many more. His massive body of work includes many Grammy nominated albums as well as numerous soundtracks, including Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man. Thompson’s genre defying mastery of both acoustic and electric guitar along with his engaging energy and onstage wit continue to earn him new fans and a place as one of the most distinctive virtuosos and writers in Folk Rock history.


Richard Thompson 13 Rivers Track List:

1. The Storm Won’t Come
2. The Rattle Within
3. Her Love Was Meant For Me
4. Bones Of Gilead
5. The Dog In You
6. Trying
7. Do All These Tears Belong To You?
8. My Rock, My Rope
9. You Can’t Reach Me
10. O Cinderella
11. No Matter
12. Pride
13. Shaking The Gates

Kinda wish it were the trio, but should be good at least.

Hmm, dark time? Is he still married? Just bummed with current events?

i am intrigued about the new album, the first two songs are pretty good, i haven't listened to more yet. somehow i like it when he sounds fierce and ferocious.

He doesn't put out bad albums, just better albums.

This is a better album

yeah — i think i like this one more than the last few? will have to spend some more time with it, of course.

sounds good to me! kind of a Nick Cave vibe?

man, dude shreds so hard! can someone post more live solo vids?

knopfler has zero on this guy

If by "live solo vids" you mean vids of him doing guitar solos, this is pretty much the definitive one (from about 5'00" onwards). Think it's been posted upthread already. Man, this solo gives me the goosebumps every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLypHd3hJdU

such a wild ride, did a pale blue strat ever fly so free?

that's indeed the video that opened my eyes wrt Thompson, was wondering if there's more

Wow, file this new one under the same category as the new Low: great albums from acts that are always good.

Niels: o hell yes there is more

At any given time it seems like he has one song that serves as his big blowin’ vehicle live. Last time I saw him electric w band it was “Hard on Me”

cool!

I'll def go see him when I get the chance

This is fantastic!

xpost Always worth pointing out that Richard Thompson is the rare total artist. He is an electric guitar virtuoso, but he is also an acoustic guitar virtuoso, and he is also a good singer and songwriter, and he is also a really fun performer. Pretty rare to find somebody that flies high in all of those categories, super easy to take him for granted.

Otm

(I was talking about the new album, btw, not the video, which I haven't watched yet.)

Thanks for clarifying, was wondering.

xpost Always worth pointing out that Richard Thompson is the rare total artist. He is an electric guitar virtuoso, but he is also an acoustic guitar virtuoso, and he is also a good singer and songwriter, and he is also a really fun performer. Pretty rare to find somebody that flies high in all of those categories, super easy to take him for granted.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 24, 2018 7:50 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

v true

Yes, he's very entertaining and funny live.

Has he written anything.
JUst wondering if a memoir by him would be good . & not sure if there's any prose stuff of any note to look at.

Personal beliefs of his wouldn't go against him writing a thing like that would they? Not sure what sufism thinks of such things.
I know that there is a problem with depiction of the human form in Islamic religious art.

he's writing a memoir now — out next fall.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/faber-signs-60s-legend-richard-thompson-735351

Should be good, he's a smart guy.

Does anyone have any live recordings where RT performs "A Blind Step Away"? It's probably in my top 5 songs of his and it seems like he almost never played it?

i don't think i've heard a live version ... have you heard the june tabor cover? pretty nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-6DxQZxNI

I downloaded the french frith kaiser thompson live boot which seems to be the only time he’s performed it other than a 2007 all-request show which I couldn’t find. Wow what a ridiculous show the ffkt one is! Completely awesome.

Lurve those French Frith Kaiser Thompson albums, tongue-in-cheek shtick and all.

http://thequietus.com/articles/25409-richard-thompson-interview-favourite-albums

never knew his first band was with Hugh Cornwell

Emil & the Detectives innit?
THink that's a bit of trivia that turns up every so often.
Shows how old the pair were, I think Thompson was very young in the early days of the band and Cornwell quite old for punk.

http://test-nodep.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/main_image/photo/richardthompsonyoung.jpg

I want a Thompson/Cornwell collaboration NOW!

Yeah, haven't heard about them having worked together since then but it would probably be somewhat interesting.

Cornwell reminisces about that photo, quoted on the Hoffman boards:

I remember getting the violin bass guitar I’m holding here, I was about 15 and had saved up £50 for it. Before then I’d been playing a homemade version with a neck the thickness of a plank of wood. Richard Thompson suggested I learn to play bass because he was forming Emil and the Detectives (the band in the picture) and he needed a bass player, so he taught me. We were good friends from school and we played each other music that we had discovered, like the Rolling Stones and the Who. Richard’s older sister, Perri, who was the social secretary at the Hornsey College of Art in north London, would book us to play parties and pay us £30 per gig. Our biggest claim to fame was supporting Helen Shapiro at the Ionic cinema in Golders Green. But after we took our O-levels we lost touch. The next I heard he was the lead guitarist in Fairport Convention…

...In August 2008 I was doing a festival outside Madrid and the promoter said, ‘If we hurry we can catch the end of Richard Thompson’s set.’ I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen Richard in 30 years. We had a big huggy reunion and now we’re back in touch it’s really lovely. When I played in LA last year he came to watch and I suggested that we play a song together. I chose “Tobacco Road” by the Nashville Teens, which was a number one hit in the 1960s and was one of the first songs we learnt together.

Aw.

Meanwhile I am seeking a version of "Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne" that I think was done on Prairie Home Companion in 2001 or 2002. Or any live version from about that time.

The recorded version on Old Kit Bag does not work for me. Early and live was simpler and better.

Most of his stuff is better live, always seems too polite in the studio.

ok so i read the thompson baker's dozen and I really really need to hear the waterson's Frost and Fire now

just heard an interview with richard thompson on my way home from a show and the interviewer asked him if/how much/how he practices (if he does) and he said that he likes to noodle while he's watching tv. the interviewer asked what kind of tv is good for practicing to and richard thompson said "the big bang theory"

just a little something to store away in the brain and never think about again. the performances were good, here is the link https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2018/10/22/658169717/richard-thompson-on-world-cafe

Curt Kirkwood (meat puppets) said that’s how he practices in an old interview I remember
I’ve done a lot of that too. It’s really fun.

read recently that he lives in NJ now after the breakup of his marriage (the women for whom he left Linda). Weird turn of events, sort of always thought that maybe I'd randomly run into him out here but since he is a teetotaler and was a Westsider, that was pretty unlikely ; )

i've got no issue with watching tv while practicing -- i watched six seasons of dawnson's creek while practicing! -- it was his choice of programming that made me lol
it would be so cool to run into richard thompson in the wild. he sounded pretty affable in the interview.

There was a 60 Minutes profile of Yo-Yo Ma years ago and I remember him saying he liked to practice w/tv on -- specifically cricket whenever he was in a cricket playing country.

oops dawson's creek
watching something light while practicing really does allow the automaticity of playing to take over imo, esp if you're practicing something very repetitive (rather than playing in a more creative way)

just a little something to store away in the brain and never think about again.

haha ugh. Gonna see him in a couple of weeks, will try to forget this.

This whole practising while watching TV business sounds totally crazy to me but maybe I'd practise more if I did that idk.

Mindful practice is generally my goal so dividing attention with TV sounds wrong but I wonder if it could work in a counterintuitive way.

it is kind of like knitting, i would imagine? it also requires counting and precise hand movements but can be done (well!) with automaticity while mentally engaged in something else.

Hm, well, mm-kay, I might try it.

I always watch tv shows or movies while practicing. It actually helps me focus more (on my practicing, not on the movie/show) (but sometimes that too, and simultaneously).

That's what RT said he's been doing all along, practicing in front of the TV. I've read interviews saying that was his thing even c. (or before?) Fairport, just sitting in front of the TV and playing guitar.

OK, well, clearly I've been doing it wrong. I'll try this at least once.

Fripp has said that he does this as well… it seems to me that practicing this way keeps your hands and fingers limber, doing scales and otherwise fucking around …doing exercise as such absent-mindedly can produce excellent results, hidden intention in that your fingers and lizard brain can turn up unconscious shit that mindful practice won't…

Makes sense. Also reminds me of the section in a popular book about jazz guitar in which the author mentions another musician who would watch TV- Bowling For Dollars, I think, with the sound off and the metronome on, although this off course has a different purpose.

Everyone I knew growing up who played guitar noodled while watching TV. It's not great practice if you're trying to improve technique or learn new things or whatever imo,but just good for keeping your hand in

It may not be the best thing if you only ever practice that way, but if you already practice a few hours a day the hard way or else are already pretty proficient, perhaps gigging frequently, and then add a few hours of tv practice on top of that well then that might be just the thing

I practised Bach while watching Patriot Act tonight. Still not 100% sold on this but I could see it working in the way that James Redd describes.

I will noodle about sometimes while doing something else. It's less about practicing specific scales or modes or pieces or whatever, just about keeping my fingers engaged with the instrument and making sure they're familiar with what I am going to ask them to do when I'm playing more intentionally.

This is particularly helpful when I am switching between instruments with different scale lengths, number of strings, and intervals between strings. The last couple years I have been focused on bass, and then mandolin. They are completely different physical interfaces, and my fingers took time to get used to them. As a result, I barely picked up a guitar - and it showed, once I tried to play guitar. My fingers had forgotten all the distances.

TV noodling cured that.

I can't stand his voice! I've tried many times over the years. I still enjoy Linda's solo record, Versatile Heart. It's a very "Starbucks in the 2000s" sound, but the songs are excellent.

The main reason I keep trying is "A Heart Needs A Home," specifically the outtake version on "The End of the Rainbow" best of, which is incredible. It's not on YouTube, but it's on Spotify.

I practised Bach while watching Patriot Act tonight. Still not 100% sold on this

So. Guys. I've been working at this piece forever but usually still need to refer to the music at least partway through and/or stumble somewhere. Today, I came back to it tonight after trying the Netflix experiment yesterday. My fingers had memorized the whole thing. I could rip through it from start to finish at tempo without needing to pause once. I could just identify a couple of spots to work on but that's all I would need to focus on in mindful practice.

Ha!

Yet another variant of the practice technique road tested by Sund4r and YMR:
https://www.facebook.com/ricardo.lew.9/videos/10216953507405306/UzpfSTEwMDAwMjc0Njk3Njg3ODoxNjQ1Mzk5MjA4ODk0OTYy/

Aargh, YMP.

Ted liked to practice while watching football on his big screen tv

My seven favorites.

Idk man across a crowded room? I agree with you about the post amnesia rt vending machine but at least every one of those record has a handful of gold.

Mine, unranked, and including cohesive live albums and comps:

I want to see the bright lights
Pour down like silver
Semi detached mock tudor standing in for mock tudor
Rumor and sigh
Watching the dark
French Frith Kaiser and Thompson
Ducknapped standing in for the old kit bag

13 rivers is really promising so far but I need more listens

You me us could’ve been on there if it were one album

wow, what different lists!

Solid choices,both of you.

Pour down like silver is miles beyond any post Linda album but you also skipped hand of kindness which only has Henry and rumor & Sigh for competition for true solo album consideration
First Light is slept on and will grow in stature as an interesting mersh attempt with strong songs if not alwaysthe best arrangements

Hand of kindness is awesome

He's an ever-riveting, never-showboating featured team player ("Sloth"gets really strange) on Fairport Convention'sWhat We Did On Our Saturday, documenting a sometimes alarmingly energetic hive of all surviving Conventioneers who came to play--- which is most, incl. the founding line-up entire, I think--in their 50th Anniversary Concert (taking things a little easier on Disc 2, but understandably so, given the earlier waves).
Which reminds me---this just in (the email):

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/fa0ee5df9dfda6e3115ac406f/images/239ba18b-152a-4ba4-85de-05eb2ed6627b.jpg

My acoustic 80s cover band does "Keep Your Distance" with harmonies stolen from Buddy and Julie Miller's version. Solo I tend to do "Withered and Died" and/or "When I Get to the Border."

When and where?

Legendary guitarist Richard Thompson has composed a stunning score for a film honoring World War II fighter pilots and, to my surprise, there's not a lot of guitar playing on it. Today we're premiering that entire score. The film by Erik Nelson is called The Cold Blue and will be released Thursday, May 23, along with Thompson's score, in time for the Memorial Day weekend.
In 1943 William Wyler filmed the original fighter footage used in The Cold Blue...
https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/05/22/725502494/hear-richard-thompsons-stunning-score-for-a-new-wwii-documentary

For years now Richard Thompson has said that his home listening is a lot of classical composers, so no surprise that he might be wanting to stretch his wings further than the singer/songwriter guitarist format might allow.

Reissued by Real Gone, Aug. 2. Don't think I've ever heard it---good?

Across a Crowded Room--Live at Barrymore's 1985

As one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, Richard Thompson has played with some of the worlds most accomplished rock and folk musicians, starting, of course, with his first band, Fairport Convention. But of all the outfits Thompson has led during his sterling, post-Fairport, solo career, perhaps the finest was the unit he took out on the road with him for his 1985 tour supporting his then-current studio release (and first for the Polydor label), Across A Crowded Room. While the albums recording sessions had featured Fairport Convention stalwarts Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks on rhythm guitar and drums, respectively, for the tour Thompson enlisted the considerable talents of Any Trouble leader Clive Gregson and his creative partner Christine Collister, whose haunting harmonies (and occasional songwriting contributions) beautifully fleshed out the bands live sound. And the rhythm section boasted a member of British folk-rock royalty in the person of former Fotheringay/Pentangle/Cat Stevens drummer Gerry Conway, along with a long-time Thompson collaborator, bassist Rory McFarlane. Fortunately, the tours live shows lived up to the promise of its potent line-up; even more fortunately, one of the shows (at Barrymores, Ottawa, Canada, April 10, 1985) was captured for posterity in studio-quality sound originally for an 18-song laserdisc release.

Now, for its premiere on compact disc, weve included all 20 songs from the evenings set, which included such fiery numbers and fan favorites as Wall Of Death, Fire In The Engine Room, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, and Withered and Died, the latter a particularly heartbreaking rendition. And, of course, Thompsons guitar work is nothing short of breathtaking, particularly on Shoot Out The Lights and Tear-Stained Letter.

Mastered by Tom Lewis at Studio 1093 in Athens, GA, and produced by Bill Levenson, with liner notes by Scott Schinder and period photos, Across a Crowded RoomLive at Barrymores 1985 is an essential addition to the Richard Thompson discography and offers enduring testimony as to the kind of magic the man can conjure on stage.

It's good. He doesn't really do bad!

I don’t like that album much but this will probably be amazing.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/30/richard-thompson-at-70-on-love-loss-and-being-a-muslim-in-trump-us

Good morning! https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/gonna-break-somebodys-heart-tonight-the-best-of-richard-thompson/

A fine list except that it omits "Turning of the Tide" and "When I Get to the Border"

as a singer, he’s a sardonic bore, a feast of dust and ashes on a plate

still trying to work out what the second part of this means but the first part is just laughable

He could and can absolutely be a sardonic bore, on a pretty regular basis, but not exclusively, since he is just as adept at so many beautiful heartbreakers. Also, as I have noted before, the rare multi-threat virtuoso. He's a masterful electric *and* acoustic guitarist, he's an excellent songwriter, and he's also a top-tier performer. If his clunkier-than-Costello cynicism mars a bit of his writing, it's pretty easy to handle, since so very few check all those boxes.

Richard Thompson’s output is so vast that you would think that people exploring it would be drawn to different songs, everyone would have a different favourite. Definitely when I read interviews with other singer-songwriters who revere Thompson, they tend to name different tunes from one another. But it baffles me that "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", a tune that I find alright but which has never particularly stood out, is so widely acclaimed among ordinary listeners. What am I missing here? Or is this song’s popularity due to extra-musical factors like radio promotion at a particular time?

Same here. Idgi.

Anyway that was a good post, as was the prior one by JiC, which I neglected to comment on at the time, sorry.

Thanks! Re: "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," my only theories are that it mines (mimics) the same tried and true formula as "Long Black Veil," which of course has never fallen out of favor as a folk song. "Beeswing" from the next album is a better song, but it's more in the tradition of British folk music, so perhaps doesn't connect with Americans as much? ("Rumour and Sigh" being, I assume, his most popular album in America by far).

The other is that "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" is a pretty easy to grasp display of virtuosity that people may be responding to.

A good comparison might be Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love." It's a good song, and it was a hit, but when Buckingham started performing it as a solo showcase it sort of transformed into an unlikely barnstormer.

Scored Carthage vinyl pressings of Pour Down..., First Light, and Sunnyvista this weekend.

yeah Vincent is definitely a live set piece

so perhaps doesn't connect with Americans as much?

Only Americans listen to Richard Thompson or only American opinions count? Help me out here.

(xp) Yes, great live song, it's where I first heard it.

Wasn't '52 Vincent like the most requested song in NPR history?

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that Thompson was more popular here than at home. Relatively speaking, of course.

“Beeswing” I do get, so thanks.

Those Poppy Bush Interzone albums sure are overstuffed.

"most requested song in NPR history" is oft-repeated but I'm like: my NPR station doesn't play songs, let alone folk-rock songs by request. Some shows broadcast on NPR play music, but are there NPR-affiliated stations out there that have long segments of folk-rock songs that people have requested? IDGI.

I mean, who is out there calling up "Morning Edition" or "All Things Considered" and saying "Hey, maaan, me and the boiz are gettin' wicked high and we need to hear some Zeppelin, like now! Hook a brutha up!"?

That said, I do regularly call up the BBC World News and say, "Listen, my bae and I just had a big fight, but I love her and I want to send out a special dedication to her: please play 'Girl You Know It's True' by Milli Vanilli. Please say that this goes out from Tony in Poughkeepsie, for his darling Charlene."

Some NPR stations have homegrown musical programming alongside the syndicated radio shows (in Houston it's Classical). They also have an automated online station called Mixtape that's rooted in Adult Alternative (a typical block there goes a little like this: Richard Thompson->Vampire Weekend->Muddy Waters->Los Lobos->Janelle Monae->Neko Case etc.)

ok thanks, I did not know that

1952 Vincent Black Lightning is by some distance the best song Thompson has ever written, so there's that.

also npr programming has def. changed in 25 years.

"1952 Vincent Black Lightning is by some distance the best song Thompson has ever written"

But how? Can this song’s adherents not quantify their appreciation somehow? Is it the storytelling? (In which case one wonders why the lyrically similar "Shane and Dixie" gets little love.) Is it the guitar part? The production? Thompson's vocals? It just doesn't stand out to me from Thompson's body of work.

a moment of silence for "Waltzing's for Dreamers."

He has written rather a lot of good songs.

my faves are like

Waltzing's for Dreamers
Withered and Died
When I Get to the Border
Turning of the Tide
Wall of Death
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Beeswing
Happy Days and Old Lang Syne

And a few other things I can't think of right now. 52 Vincent is really good; my fondness for it comes and goes. Probably in my top 10 but not top 5?

But how? Can this song’s adherents not quantify their appreciation somehow? Is it the storytelling? (In which case one wonders why the lyrically similar "Shane and Dixie" gets little love.) Is it the guitar part? The production? Thompson's vocals? It just doesn't stand out to me from Thompson's body of work

It's impossible to quantify, but I guess it's the combination of all those things.

"1952 Vincent Black Lightning is by some distance the best song Thompson has ever written"

crazy talk. to me it's always been kind of a joke song — thompson trying to do rebel without a cause as an english folk ballad. ok maybe not a joke, but a novelty.
anyway, didn't it get covered a few times in the 00s and that was why it suddenly became a favorite? I don't even think he played it the first few times I saw him in the 90s.

Those mid '80s albums have plenty of good tunes and performances:

Al Bowlly's in Heaven
Don't Tempt Me
Walking Through a Wasted Land
How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
Love in a Faithless Country

His catalogue is far too vast for me to have a proper handle on it, and those 90s (and beyond) albums do indeed get bloated, but some of his 2010's work is been solid. I recommend searching "Here Comes Geordie" (from Dream Attic), and "She Never Could Resist a Winding Road" and "Beatnik Walking" (from Still).

his recent stuff has been very good

His catalogue is far too vast for me to have a proper handle on it, and those 90s (and beyond) albums do indeed get bloated, but some of his 2010's work is been solid. I recommend searching "Here Comes Geordie" (from /Dream Attic/), and "She Never Could Resist a Winding Road" and "Beatnik Walking" (from /Still/).

I was just thinking this is a ballot-poll oversight.

"Fairport Convention et al (R Thompson, S Denny)" is in the poll queue, but Thompson's catalogue could easily be its own poll, I'm sure.

I was just thinking this is a ballot-poll oversight.

― Miami weisse (WmC), Sunday, 15 March 2020 18:15 (twenty-four minutes ago)

didn't it get covered a few times in the 00s

Mary Lou Lord covered it

i think it's the del mccoury cover i'm thinking of — was kind of a crossover bluegrass hit. seems as though a lot of future covers are based on that as much as they are on thompson's rendition.

I saw him last month solo acoustic (mostly) at a very small venue on Long Island and he was great. Beeswing was the song I didn't know that blew me away, but Vincent Black Lightning definitely got the biggest reaction of anything be played.

I wonder whether he cocks an eyebrow remembering that "I Feel So Good" was the lead single from Rumour and Sigh.

Scored Carthage vinyl pressings of Pour Down..., First Light, and Sunnyvista this weekend.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain)

Would vote in a ballot poll.

Ooof it would be tough. Some 17 or so solo albums ...

Maybe instead of “vote for your favourites”, it should be “rank all the albums you’ve heard”.

I’d be more stoked about the campaigning than the countdown tbh. I need a guide to the last 20 years.

Kind of lost track after You, Me, Us?

The Old Kit Bag has some excellent stuff on it though a bit front-loaded - I still come back to "One Door Opens." A lot of people love Mock Tudor but I remember it being spotty, it may just have been the switch back to more stripped-down production.

I prefer Semi-Detached Mock Tudor for those songs

Old Kit Bag has this one, which I think is one of the prettiest songs he's ever written:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxy0HJFZHE

Youtube threw this at me yesterday, a Richard & Linda TV concert from '81

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Kdf17Btrs

I've been listening to Daring Adventures a lot. I stan for "Nearly in Love," written seemingly to get a hit.