S/D: Richard Thompson

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".