Richard Thompson on Letterman 3/13/13

[Mr. White]

Richard Thompson will be on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight (3/13/13).

[headhunter]

Cool, thanks.  Loving the new album.

[MrWhippy]

It's about time we got a Thompson thread around these parts!

[BH]

I've just recently discovered his awesomeness.   I had never given him a long enough chance but now I get it.    I still don't have any of his albums.   Where to start?

[MrWhippy]

I think he new one, Electric, is a pretty good place to start.  From there if you wanted to hear other more recent records, I would go to Mock Tudor and the Old Kit Bag.  Other good recent ones are Sweet Warrior and Dream Attic.

In terms of his earlier records with Linda (his ex-wife), Shoot Out the Lights and I Want to See the Bright Lights, are absolutely essential.  Other great ones from that period are Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver.

One cool thing Thompson has done recently is released official live records from most every tour he has done.  Those are great as his guitar playing is featured much more live than on record.  My favorites of those live albums are More Guitar, Semi-Detached Mock Tudor, Two Letter Words, and The Chrono Show.

Hope that helps.   

In other news the Letterman performance last night was kind of lame.  They made him abbreviate the song he played.

[Shug]

I'm not much of a fan of RT's recent work but I'm hardcore into his earlier stuff, so my recs are different from Mr. Whippy's, but I agree with him on Shoot Out The Lights and I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, particularly Bright Lights, which makes my top 50 list of best rock albums of all time. But you have to like mopey British folk-rock and Linda Thompson's melancholy vocals.

Another way to go would be the excellent and diverse career retrospective (up to the mid 90s, when it was released) Watching The Dark.  Its three discs, has lots of live stuff, both acoustic and rip-roaring electric long solos and also goes all the way back to Fairport Convention days, which is essential, IMO.  Excellent Greil Marcus liner notes, too.  This is a superb box set, out of print, but can be bought for cheap used.  This would be my recommendation to get started and then see what era you like and go from there.  $20 for well over three hours of music is a great deal, IMO.

http://www.amazon.com/Watching-The-Dark-History-Thompson/dp/B00000064O

If you prefer to avoid compilations, I'd say:

Fairport Convention- Full House  (full on British folk-rock)
Richard and Linda Thompson -  I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights

If you want to hear lovely acoustic ballads and LONG guitar jams, then consider getting
Richard Thompson - Guitar, Vocal
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Vocal-Collection-Unreleased-1967-1976/dp/B000000640/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_10
Also out of print, but cheap used copies can be found.

[MrWhippy]

Good point, Shug, about the Watching the Dark box set being a good intro point.  That box set wasn't a great thing for hardcore fans who already would had the studio albums, given that most of the rarities on it were already available elsewhere.  I could see it being a good intro for a newbie, though.

I disagree with you on recommending "Guitar/Vocal" though.  That collection is half live stuff, which is awesome and half rarities/demos, which are very hit or miss.  The thing is that the good live stuff from that is available elsewhere now as well.

The CD reissues of I Want to See the Bright Lights, Hokey Pokey, and Pour Down Like Silver have most of the good live stuff from Guitar/Vocal tacked on as bonus tracks.

Also, in the last few years this CD was released in the UK which has some of the same live recordings that were on Guitar/Vocal, but is only a live album, so has other live cuts as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Concert-November-Richard-Linda-Thompson/dp/B000S6LT4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363291929&sr=8-1&keywords=Richard+and+Linda+Thompson+In+Concert

Here's a cool video clip.  It's of Richard Thompson covering "Woodstock" at a Joni Mitchell tribute that happened in 2000.  His version is much truer to the feel of Joni's original than the more rocking CSNY version.  Also, there are some cool shots of Joni sitting in the audience watching this, and she seems to be really digging it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h54rRq2SAv0#

[Shug]

Yeah, but, but, but....how can you live without Dark End Of The Street and Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman?!!!? 

http://youtu.be/rgYvu9QWJpY

http://youtu.be/17Q6Xdv2eN4

[MrWhippy]

I love that version of Dark End of the Street and it's the one thing that makes me me wish I had Guitar/Vocal in a format other than my old vinyl copy.  Glad to know it's on Youtube. 

I had sort of forgotten about Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman.  Not bad, but not one of my favorites.

Shug, since you're the biggest fan of Thompson's early stuff, how do you like Henry the Human Fly (his first solo album after leaving Fairport Convention?  It's a very quirky album, but I like it quite a bit, particularly this one:

Richard Thompson The old changing way

[Shug]

Poor Will not one of your favorites?!!?  Are you high?    For me its one of those outtakes that I'm dumbfounded how it possibly could've been left off the album.  It could've been Full House's centerpiece, along with Sloth. Listen to that guitar solo!

I like Henry The Human Fly except for the album title and album cover.  I hate flies.

Poor Ditching Boy and Old Changing Way are two of my all time fave RT songs.  I like that antiquated pre-Industrial Revolution British feel and those melodies are really fine.

[MrWhippy]

Getting back to the topic of the best entry point for a newbie, I think Thompson is someone you need to see live to completely get.  His guitar playing is an astounding thing to behold in person, whether solo or with a band.

In the next few weeks, I'm bring a couple MMJ forum members with me to see Thompson for the first time (Mr. and Mrs. GO4IT to a show in Bethesda, MD, and Fully to a show in Nashville), so we will see if they dig it.

He put out a live DVD a couple years ago called "Live from Celtic Connections", and a few songs from it are up on Youtube.

This is "Can't Win" from his 1988 record Amnesia.  Just listen to the guitar solo that comprises the last few minutes of this.

Richard Thompson Band - You Can't Win

This is a great murder ballad called "Sidney Wells" from his 2010 record Dream Attic.

Richard Thompson Band - Sidney Wells

This is another song from Dream Attic, "The Money Shuffle", it's one of his character sketch songs, written from the point of view of a slimy investment banker.

Richard Thompson - The Money Shuffle (from "Live At Celtic Connections" DVD & Blu-ray)

[ericm]

I got this email today from PopMaket and thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. It's a discounted 4-cd Box Set. Offer good for about another 20 hours or so.


http://www.popmarket.com/?cid=nl%3A628426996&utm_medium=email&utm_source=generator-popmarket&utm_campaign=email-generator-popmarket-20130402-nl628426996&utm_content=nllink-2692408a-PopMarket.com%20IMAGE

[MrWhippy]

I got this email today from PopMaket and thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. It's a discounted 4-cd Box Set. Offer good for about another 20 hours or so.


http://www.popmarket.com/?cid=nl%3A628426996&utm_medium=email&utm_source=generator-popmarket&utm_campaign=email-generator-popmarket-20130402-nl628426996&utm_content=nllink-2692408a-PopMarket.com%20IMAGE

Thanks Eric!  This is the "Watching the Dark" box set that Shug was suggesting earlier as a good place for newbies to start.

Thompson was great last Friday, even though his opening set for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell was only an hour.  Not sure if GO4IT will chime in here, but he and the Mrs. really enjoyed it, as did myself and the Flakester. 

Looking forward to Thompson round 2 (and a full headlining show this time) with Fully in Nashville, after seeing some hair band with a funny name in Atlanta the night before.   

[Fully]

Oh, we must be allowed to mention it now 

[GO4IT]

I got this email today from PopMaket and thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. It's a discounted 4-cd Box Set. Offer good for about another 20 hours or so.


http://www.popmarket.com/?cid=nl%3A628426996&utm_medium=email&utm_source=generator-popmarket&utm_campaign=email-generator-popmarket-20130402-nl628426996&utm_content=nllink-2692408a-PopMarket.com%20IMAGE

Thanks Eric!  This is the "Watching the Dark" box set that Shug was suggesting earlier as a good place for newbies to start.

Thompson was great last Friday, even though his opening set for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell was only an hour.  Not sure if GO4IT will chime in here, but he and the Mrs. really enjoyed it, as did myself and the Flakester. 

Looking forward to Thompson round 2 (and a full headlining show this time) with Fully in Nashville, after seeing some hair band with a funny name in Atlanta the night before.   

Oh, yeah, my first Richard Thompson show was quite special.  Really enjoyed the guitar work and song selection.  It didn't hurt that Whippy scored third row dead center tix for all of us in a large venue!  Also enjoyed Emmylou and her band - more on the electric and rock side of things than I expected.

[Shug]

I got this email today from PopMaket and thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. It's a discounted 4-cd Box Set. Offer good for about another 20 hours or so.


http://www.popmarket.com/?cid=nl%3A628426996&utm_medium=email&utm_source=generator-popmarket&utm_campaign=email-generator-popmarket-20130402-nl628426996&utm_content=nllink-2692408a-PopMarket.com%20IMAGE

Thanks Eric!  This is the "Watching the Dark" box set that Shug was suggesting earlier as a good place for newbies to start.

Thompson was great last Friday, even though his opening set for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell was only an hour.  Not sure if GO4IT will chime in here, but he and the Mrs. really enjoyed it, as did myself and the Flakester. 

Looking forward to Thompson round 2 (and a full headlining show this time) with Fully in Nashville, after seeing some hair band with a funny name in Atlanta the night before.   

Sorry to be a corrector, Mr. Whippy, but its not the Watching the Dark box set, its the 4 disc one that came out after it with less rarities and more of a greatest hits kinda package. 

[MrWhippy]

Sorry to be a corrector, Mr. Whippy, but its not the Watching the Dark box set, its the 4 disc one that came out after it with less rarities and more of a greatest hits kinda package.

No sorry about it, thanks for setting me straight. 

It's still a bit hard for me to understand how you could only be a fan of Thompson's early stuff.  I agree that the albums might be my favorites, but in other ways he just keeps growing as a songwriter, as a singer, and also continues to grow as a guitar player. 

Have you heard the last few records?

[Shug]

How can you explain artistic taste?  To me, in the late 60s and all through the Linda years (that mid 80s stuff is a bit hard to love, Clive and Christine were just awful to my ears) and a bit in the early 90s he was writing songs that sound inspired to me.  Or I guess I just like them way more than I like his stuff since about 1994.  I liked it when he had Dave Mattacks on drums and Dave Pegg or Pete Zorn or Danny Thompson on bass.  A killer rhythm section is crucial in my book and his bands have gotten, well, less good IMO since the tour for Mirror Blue (which I think was the last tour when he was jaw-droppingly brilliant).  I've seen RT play amazing live shows dozens of times and I have lots of live recordings that I've also spent many hours blown away by.  I just got to the point where I didn't like his new songs and that's all he was playing, leaving the old stuff less and less represented in his live show.  I check out his new records when they come out, but I've not been that impressed since You, Me, Us.

I mean its not really different from those who vastly prefer Miles Davis' 50s stuff to his later stuff.  For them its all about who was in the band and what songs and what styles he was into at a certain point.

Yeah, you could say RT's still growing and all that, but for me he's "growing" into something that I don't like nearly as much as what he was doing years ago.  I'm just a picky bastard, my opinion is no reflection on the quality of RTs music, its just what I like and don't like. 

[MrWhippy]

Here's a great review of the amazing Richard Thompson show that Fully and I saw in Nashville last night.

http://www.examiner.com/article/richard-thompson-goes-electric-at-nashville-s-3rd-and-lindsley

And Shug, there only one song from the 70's, but it was "For Shame of Doing Wrong," which is the #1 song I've always wanted to hear him play but never had.  Score!

[Fully]

That's a very accurate review of the show, Whippy. Jim has been talking about the show today. I think under your tutelage we might get him to more shows. ;)