TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

15 great songs. this may beg another list:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9842162/Richard-Thompson-15-great-songs.html?frame=2468406

Neil

A pity they gave up on contemporaneous pictures.

Quite a decent list, pretty similar to what mine would be though I'd probably have more from earlier years.

This is an old article, surely?
Does Richard know he's still filed under Fairport on here?  ;)

Some of the comments on the songs are a bit iffy. I always thought Dimming of the Day was a devotional song. Plus, as we all know, Swarb wrote the melody for Crazy Man Michael. Good list, though. I'd probably replace a couple with King of Bohemia and The Great Valerio, but that's just me.

I suspect we all have an RT list.

Never could get into that song.  For me, it just hangs there in a torpid stupor.  Not nearly enough in the way of dynamics for me to get my teeth into.

Jules

I love it. Probably in my top 20. What a melody line. Then again, torpid stupor is my natural state so perhaps it just resonates with me.

Weren't Torpid Stupor one of the great lost slacker bands of the late 80s/early 90s?

Ah, Talkawhilers disagree about favourite songs shock.................................................................. again. :o ;D

It's interesting the way you say it 'hangs there' because I've always felt the arrangement of the song - Linda's vocal, the melody and the guitar part (particularly the tense then abrupt ending) - was very evocative of suspension, in the literal sense of the high-wire walker and in the sense of all those upturned faces, holding their breath, waiting for the fall.

I know Hendo's only teasing, but we all like what we like and of course there are no rights and wrongs when it comes to personal taste. Thus I feel free to say that whilst I love, say, Vincent Black Lightning, I wouldn't put it in my list because - while it certainly has great dynamics - I don't think it has a strong enough melody to count as one of RT's great songs.

Dave, you have just described the function of a discussion forum.

If you think it is bad here, you should head over to the Steve Hoffman forum. I participate there too. Threads continue for weeks and months over tens or hundreds of pages. It is an entertaining diversion but I have ultimately come to realise that the endless sharing of entrenched opinions is the very definition of pointlessness. Fun though.  ;)

The other function of a forum is to veer wildly off topic at the first opportunity  ::)  ;D

Anyway, back to the article. I like the way the Telegraph have managed to number the songs from 1 up to 15 and from 15 down to 1 at the same time. That's clever page design that is.

Cheers

Nick

..............again.  ;)



I'm not a participant at the SH forums, but I do read some of the threads avidly.  Yes, it's full of entrenched opinions, but, oh, the depth of knowledge.  I've learned much from reading it.

Jules

I do like Valerio, but I actually prefer June Tabor's version of it.

In a stupid torpor....

Off the top of my head:
Little Beggar Girl
Poor Ditching Boy
For Shame of Doing Wrong
VBL 1952
Beeswing
MOTL
Persuasion
Dimming of the Day
Waltzings for Dreamers
Genesis Hall
Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands
Pharaoh
Withered and Died

Ok, so it isn't 15, but so what?

In the long run, do you think Richard will be remembered more as a song-smith or a guitarist?

His talents as a musician are irrefutable, so my guess is the latter. He has written some truly great melodies and lyrics but a lot of his songs are built upon - undeniably fantastic - riffs and playing. Do they pass the old grey whistle test?

Only asking. I am a huge fan  :)

I think his songwriting talent will just edge it....though people will always add "plus he was a fantastic guitar player!".

Jules

I'd probably go for guitarist - he undeniably has written some great songs, but I can think of many others who also do that. I can't think of many (any?) people who play guitar like him.

Likewise, guitarist - one of the best.

Great songwriter too, but where he'd probably be in mosts top 20 guitarists, fewer would probably have him in their top 20 songwriters overall.

I don't dispute that he's one of the best guitar players, but you could just as easily argue that nobody writes songs like Richard does either.  I'd have thought anyone who knew their stuff would have him in a top 20 songwriters list.  I'd argue that very good guitar players are much more of a common occurrence than truly gifted writers.

Jules

He's a unique guitarist (as unique sounding on electric as he is on acoustic - 15 seconds of either and you know categorically who you're listening to) and a unique songwriter.

To me, he's in a club of two in that regard...him from this side of the pond, and Neil from t'other.

Agreed.  And of the two, Richard is doing better at maintaining his songwriting standards in the 21st Century.

Jules

Personally I think they've both slipped at a similar (and unsurprisingly so) rate, but I guess the evidence probably just about supports your point...  

I probably won't make myself very popular by saying this, but at times in the last half a dozen albums or so, it's sounded like 'RT by numbers'.  Neil tends to try and go all experimental and ends up being rubbish.  Personally I'm more in favour of 'having a go and failing' than of doing the same thing again and again...  :-\

Agree with this to some extent - for instance, I think overall the songs are better on Dream Attic than Electric, but then Sweet Warrior contains the stunningly good Guns Are The Tongues.
However, he's certainly had a go at doing things differently in his own way : for Dream Attic presenting demos to the band, rehearsing the songs, recording them live, choosing the best takes for the album, following this by recording Electric in the producer's home studio...

I would agree with all of that. He does get away with stuff sometimes. RTs qualities as a player and band leader occasionally obscure the fact that the material is not up to his usual high standards. Electric and Front Parlour Ballads have been examples of that. Electric in particular was over praised imho. It sounds like a fantastic album but it doesn't actually stay with you so there is some sleight of hand at play. I have never really managed to warm to it.

It is holding RT to an impossibly high standard of his own making but in songwriting terms, although there have been many gems along the way in the interim, his last completely consistent album (once again imho) was The Old Kit Bag or perhaps even Mock Tudor

I sense a whole other thread or two on the horizon...  :)

I would agree with you up to a point but there is the fact that some albums grow on you over time. FPB is a case in point. Songs like Let It Blow, Miss Patsy and A Solitary Life grabbed my attention from the first listen but it has only been after a number of listens that I've come to appreciate the album as a whole.

As far as Sweet Warrior and Dream Attic go I agree with Dan that SW has some of his best songs including Guns..., Dad's Gonna Kill Me and Johnny's Far Away whereas for me DA doesn't really have any stand-out tracks though Here Comes Geordie always makes me smile. I don't care what RT says - it must be about Sting.  ;D

As for a top 15, here's one for today starting with Electric and working backwards -

Saving The Good Stuff For You
Here Comes Geordie
Guns Are The Tongues
A Solitary Life
Happy Days and Old Lang Syne
Walking The Long Miles Home
Train Don't Leave
Easy There Steady Now
God Loves a Drunk
Can't Win
How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
When The Spell Is Broken
Beat The Retreat
A Heart Needs A Home
The End of the Rainbow