― stew, Wednesday, 22 December 2004 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― (Jon L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 22:25 (nineteen years ago) link
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).
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Thursday, 23 December 2004 02:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 23 December 2004 02:49 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=90
― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 23 December 2004 03:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Sean; his 'Kiss', by Prince is incredible. find it.
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 23 December 2004 18:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Sunday, 22 January 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
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!!
― anna graham, Monday, 23 January 2006 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link
UnhalbrickingI Want to See the Bright Lights TonightPour Down Like SilverShoot Out the LightsHenry the Human Fly"Calvery Cross" (live)"Sloth"
All Good
Fairport Convention (aka What We Did on our Holidays)Hand of KindnessAmnesiaIndustryThe French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson Albums
Half Good
Liege and LiefRumour and Sigh1000 Years of Popular Music
No Good
First LightSunnyvista
For Fans
Pretty much everything else
― Chuck B, Monday, 23 January 2006 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link
Waltzing's for DreamersHappy Days and Auld Lang Syne Turning of the TideTempted cover
RT songs that are pretty well regarded but that I still think are good:
GethsemaneI Want to See the Bright Lights TonightKiss 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 LightningBeeswing
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 01:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 01:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 01:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 01:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― anna graham, Tuesday, 24 January 2006 07:38 (eighteen years ago) link
WTF???!!! It's only the pinnacle of English folk rock (Along with No Roses natch)
― stew!, Tuesday, 24 January 2006 09:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Well, that's what they all tell us
― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 10:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Masked Gazza, Tuesday, 24 January 2006 10:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― clotpoll, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― clotpoll, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 01:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Vornado, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jazzbo, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
Anyone have anything to say about the new album Sweet Warrior yet?
― Jon Lewis, Thursday, 31 May 2007 15:09 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 31 May 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― JoshLove, Thursday, 31 May 2007 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
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 :(
― Jon Lewis, Thursday, 31 May 2007 16:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Don't think anyone's mentioned 'How Will I ever be Simple Again?' - nearly up there with Beeswing as a late gem
― sonofstan, Thursday, 12 July 2007 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i can't get enuf of this man's voice
― Surmounter, Monday, 30 July 2007 20:22 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 July 2007 22:01 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Monday, 30 July 2007 23:18 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― Surmounter, Thursday, 20 December 2007 15:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― G00blar, Monday, 28 April 2008 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link
When I Get to the Border, Calvary Cross, Withered and Died, and title track, btw.
― G00blar, Monday, 28 April 2008 15:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ian, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Awesome, thanks. That would have been my natural thought, save for all the Shoot Out the Lights love above.
― G00blar, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― The guy who just votes in polls, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ian, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link
The arrangement+production of Calvary Cross is just killing me right now.
― G00blar, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link
(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.
― ian, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Search: see him in concert.
― Rock Hardy, Monday, 28 April 2008 17:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes. He's so much better live than on record.
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 28 April 2008 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Milton Parker, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ian, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:22 (sixteen years ago) link
xxxp
Um, I am not certain that's a fair reading of "Beeswing," either the song or the book.Every bit of criticism in the song is self-criticism. ("You foolish man"/ "Like a fool I let her run" / "and I miss her more than ever words can say.")The book is almost as wistful, and I would not classify it as self-exculpatory. He seems at least as critical of himself as most of us would be in his shoes.
Every bit of criticism in the song is self-criticism. ("You foolish man"/ "Like a fool I let her run" / "and I miss her more than ever words can say.")
The book is almost as wistful, and I would not classify it as self-exculpatory. He seems at least as critical of himself as most of us would be in his shoes.
― dow, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:26 (eleven months ago) link
Is being a cop's son a privileged position in terms of class for the boomer generation? Didn't Pasolini get angry at the student protests because he felt they were middle class kids opposing working class cops?
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 22 May 2023 09:30 (eleven months ago) link
Thompson's dad was no ordinary PC Plod.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Monday, 22 May 2023 09:42 (eleven months ago) link
I dunno, I'm speculating about why he chooses "Geordie" as the ultimate punchline put-down playground taunt of this smirky song, rather than "tree-hugging pop star" etc.---seems to be some social discrimination, with regional chauvinism, jobism (cops smarter cooler than milkmen, unto the sons 'tis given?) easily figured in.
― dow, Monday, 22 May 2023 16:07 (eleven months ago) link
I mean, since he wants to take it in that direction, I'll take it a little further.
― dow, Monday, 22 May 2023 16:08 (eleven months ago) link
(ED NOTE: The Guardian claims that Sting is the subject of that song)
LOL "claimed", it could hardly be more obvious who it's about!
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Monday, 22 May 2023 16:57 (eleven months ago) link
My ex-brother-in-law, my sister's ex-husband, had this thing where he would shout out for "Louie Louie" at every gig he went to - I used to go to lots of gigs with him. Then they got divorced and he became persona non grata and I haven't seen him in years. However he still knows people I know and, at the weekend, I was told a story by someone who'd met him at a Richard Thompson gig. As usual, he had shouted out for "Louie Louie" but then, because of his notoriously weak bladder, he'd had to go to the bathroom - and while he was in the bathroom Richard Thompson played "Louie Louie", the first time anyone had ever played "Louie Louie" at a gig he was at and he missed it. Thank you, Richard.
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Saturday, 30 March 2024 01:02 (one month ago) link
Amazing.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 30 March 2024 01:24 (one month ago) link
lol, I’d love to hear what RT could do with ‘Louie Louie’.
― Dan Worsley, Saturday, 30 March 2024 09:10 (one month ago) link
It looks like Thompson has played it at least one other time way back on Nov. 29, 2006 in Saratoga, CA, around the time the DVD version of 1000 Years of Popular Music was released. (The CD for it has already been out for several years.)
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/richard-thompson/2006/carriage-house-theatre-saratoga-ca-23f6b82b.html
Amazing selection of covers, it may have been one of his all-request shows where you write a selection on a piece of paper.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 30 March 2024 14:55 (one month ago) link