S/D: Richard Thompson

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".

I have an the original Ryko cd of Heyday without the bonus tracks so I've never heard the "Tam Lin" there. But it's a song built for an epic jam and I figure Thompson must have taken flight on it a few times at least.

Yeah, but are those new albums bad, or just not nearly as good? I really like "Old kit Bag."

oh they aren't bad by any means, there are some really good songs on his recent records ... but there's nothing that i've really *loved*

and it might have something to do with missing him on his last few tours -- the live show usually gets me more enthused about his new songs.

finally getting around to the Rafferty-produced version of Shoot Out The Lights. "Modern Woman" is pretty interesting for being a prototype of the "uptempo" songs on his post-Linda albums; it would fit in naturally on Rumor and Sigh, for instance. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, though. I could do without the accordion on it.

yeah, that's a funny one. I like it, but it's definitely out of place amidst those other SOTL songs. i too could do without the accordion -- but it is catchy, isn't it?

You? Me? Us? is one of his finest later albums IMO.

yeah! i've always liked that one, despite some of the Froomier production choices ... "The Ghost of You Walks" is one of my favorite RT songs.

the version of the Rafferty tapes I listened to had TWO "Modern Woman"s on it...it was the catchiest of the non-SOTL songs, and even though it wouldn't fit on SOTL I'd take it over "Man In Need". Linda's singing on it is weird, though: halfhearted, and who can blame her, given the lyric?

was just looking at the lineup for Richard's Meltdown Fest -- maybe not the most adventurous stuff in the world, but it does not look like a bad way to spend a couple days. Also laughed at the duo show with him and Loudon Wainwright called "LOUD & RICH" ...

there's a thread on that here:

Richard Thompson announced as curator of Meltdown 2010

har, i guess people were disappointed over there ...

On the other hand Mirror Blue goes on way too fucking long.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%. The last one that excited me was Front Parlour Ballads, just cause I loved the soundworld of it.

Sweet Warrior has some cracking tunes on it, e.g. Dad's Gonna Kill Me, Take Care the Road You Choose &c.

the solo records that bracket the linda years are the only ones i really care about now, mirror blue and mock tudor really turned me off

Mock Tudor stuff was better on live releases. When I saw him in (i think) '07 he did an endless solo on 'Hard On Me' that kicked my ass.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%.

This is OTM. Sprawled over 2 discs, I quickly lost interest.

"Amnesia" is the last one that gets regular play though there's great stuff on everything since, more or less. I should review the picks they made for the recent RT career-spanning box.

Anyone else like the French Frith Kaiser Thompson records? Wonderful, weird and fun.

my theory is that moving to america was probably great for his personal life but terrible for his music

xpost the first ffkt record is very good, second one is dull

ergh, i can hardly listen to anything he did after the mid-1980s. he just seems so oddly, extremely eager to please -- so insistent. there's no questioning his talent, but he just seems like he's competing for some trophy or something. i actually get this a little in the linda period (especially shoot out the lights), but it's somehow manageable. henry the human fly and i want to see the bright lights are his finest moments IMO. and maybe 2/3 of pour down like silver i suppose.

i find that elvis costello has a similar problem. i can listen to both, but i have to kind of prep myself, and then it takes a while for me to get interested again.

'Blind Step Away' off the first FFKT album is one of my favorite RT performances.

You? Me? Us? is really good once you boil it down by about 50%.

This is OTM. Sprawled over 2 discs, I quickly lost interest.

I never wish it to be shorter. Everything on it is pretty much essential IMO.

ergh, i can hardly listen to anything he did after the mid-1980s. he just seems so oddly, extremely eager to please

Interesting. I interpret "eager to please," in my experience with listening to him, is how he too readily sinks into back-off-bitch mode, aided and abetted by a stentorian voice I've never quite gotten used to. "Don't Tempt Me," "Yankee Go Home," and "Feels So Good" are pretty great, and so are "Mingus Eyes" and a few of the more delicate ballads (which I still wish Linda could sing), but all the gnarled distorto-guitar and Froomertronic production can't hide how rote much of his post-Linda catalogue sounds. His considerable talents don't mitigate his persona: the beret-wearing grouch.

haven't heard all of them, but some of the live stuff he sells via his site is excellent -- in partic. Celtschmertz and More Guitar (which is the 80s disc I listen to most these days) http://www.theconnextion.com/richardthompson/richardthompson_cat.cfm?CatID=178
Looks like he's got much cheaper digital downloads now too ...

And i dunno, he might sound grouchy on record, but he's a totally fun presence onstage. He and Danny Thompson were hilarious when I saw them.

yeah, i dunno if it's grouchy so much as the particularly enthused character of his vocal delivery (and often guitar). sometimes his songs feel sort of overwritten too (there's your elvis costello connection), and he insists too hard on the choruses. i mean, he's great and all, there's just something about his sensibility as a solo artist that turns me away. this only happened in the last decade or so, before that i was a huge fan.

hmm. news item from the man's website: # Richard played on one track for the upcoming Don Henley CD ...

though now that I think about it, isn't there some story about the Eagles asking Richard to join the band sometime in the early 70s?

I agree with some comments upthread: Mirror Blue is really quite dull. It might not even have a good EP in there.

I also like Rumor & Sigh. The high points buoy the whole thing up to a respectable listen throughout.

Rumor & Sigh and Mock Tudor have something in common-- both packed with good songs but let down by the production. Dunno if there is a live equivalent to R&S like 'Semi-Detached Mock Tudor' is to 'Mock Tudor'...

There's something about the idea of Richard in the Eagles that sorta makes me shiver. I suspect he's a bit too quintessentially British for one thing.

Would pay $5 to hear him take a couple of cracks at the "Hotel California" lead though.

"First Light" is the closest he came to a 70's El Lay sound

i saw him play a snippet of "freebird" once.

I love pretty much everything I've heard by him. What I admire is the self-confidence and reach of the man. His voice, the lyrics, the guitar, all bespeak someone who knows he has something to impart and does so with certainty.

The live version of "Calvary Cross" is just overwhelmingly powerful.