S/D: Richard Thompson

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.