S/D: Richard Thompson

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.

lol, I’d love to hear what RT could do with ‘Louie Louie’.

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.