As far as singer/ songwriters go, this guy is, in my opinion, the best that England has ever had to offer. I'm not as keen on the early material, but the bulk of Thompson's solo stuff has a nasty, dark content that can only be rivaled by the songwriting of Randy Newman- the pair of 'em are a bunch of sick, twisted bastards really. Waffle waffle... NOT CRAP.
( shit kicking live performer aswell)

NOT CRAP!! The guitar, he tears into that. Fairport Convention, spooky, yes. He's English? I always thought he was Scotch or Irish or something. Something tells me I'm twisted...

N/C

I've always heard good things about him - anybody have a great first record to start with?

You can't go wrong with any of his albums really. My introduction was through "You? Me? Us?" (1996). It's a great record, what more can I say? "Mock Tudor" (1999) is a stunning album- I recommend this to everyone I know.

He was on NPR a couple wks ago doing a solo acoustic version of "Whoops, I Did It Again." He not only managed to make that song compelling, but he later told the interviewer that to him, it had a medieval-sounding melody/chord structure, which he then illustrated by playing the chorus again in a sort of Renaissance Faire jig-tempo. It was very NOT CRAP of him.

The live lp, what's it called? I don't wanna go downstairs to look, but it has a stellar rendition of "Calvary Cross" on it. Kick ass...
Some of that stuff get's too "King Richards Fair" for me, though. Huzzah!. Still not crap.


Jay

Hello all.

New to this forum, so don't spank too hard.

Richard Thompson is my idol as a songwriter. When he last played here, I did a one-girl tribute the night before at the Red Room. Am tracking in July and will be doing an RT song--am narrowing choices.

As for records, well, hmmmm. Her eis the tricky part. Much of this stuff was recorded in ways worth being debated here. M Froom did the "hit record' in the 90s, but much of the earlier work(including--dare I say it?-- the genius "Shoot Out the Lights") suffered from some less than stellar recording. (Feel free to argue.) I collect live RT for this and other reasons (Danny Thompson's bass work among them). A,nyway. Arrangements get weird and cheesy, mixes are a mess... But that perhaps begs tyhe question--how can these songs still get through as the wee duende-laden masterpieces they are?

As for albums, i would just bite the bullet and get the set-- 3 discs of bliss...Maggie

If you like Richard Thompson you should check out Davy Graham. He's the guy who invented the Folk-Baroque style of guitar playing that Thompson, Renbourn, Drake and others popularised. Kind of the British John Fahey.

And he was born and raised in Leicester

I recently saw some b/w TV footage of Davey Graham performing a traditional song called "She Moves Through The Fair." A couple minutes in, he played the unmistakeable little riff that Jimmy Page blatantly stole for Zep's "Over The Hills And Far Away."

All the stuff Zep copied from other artists doesn't bother me that much, but they should have done a better job of acknowledging it. I read that Davey Graham ended up dying really bitter, broke, alone, drunk, etc.