S/D: Richard Thompson

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.