Richard Thompson, OBE

[Simon Nicol]

Bloody Fantastic

Now which song should he sing to celebrate this...?

Simple. We Sing Halleluja.

Congratulations dear Henry, and HNY a tout ensemble.

Can we all calm down a bit now please?

[Pat Helms]

Outta Body Experience?  Yeah, he's been responsible for a few of them.....for me at least!

[Philip W]

...the blanket case also threw up a few other examples - one of which was the blatant cut & pasting of certain RT lyrics into The Battle of Evermore. At the time there was an attempted defence that Sandy Denny had simply unconciously repeated a few phrases from unfinished Fairport demos, but the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. This is also the reason they never used another outside singer again, for fear they would be landed in the same position vis a vis legal fees.

Several bizarre claims here. Can you produce any sources?

[Shane (Skirky)]

Several bizarre claims here. Can you produce any sources?

Of course. The notorious Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel vs. Goatboy case of 1974. There was some unpleasantry involving the provenance of a theramin riff, as I recall. Very unsavoury. It was referred to in Hansard at the time and there's a mention at pp. 274 of The Electric Muse by Rob Young.

[StephenGiles]

I shall talk on this very subject to my nephew who has list for a barrister (??) - might prove interesting.  

[Goaty]

The notorious Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel vs. Goatboy case of 1974.

Ah yes, terrible business that was, still, all water under the bridge now.

[PLW (Peter)]

I see The Guardian refers to "guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson, once of Fairport Convention but also a writer of lyrics for Robert Plant and Elvis Costello".
Did I miss something?!!

Maybe. Are you aware that Percy covered RT's House of Cards on his latest release, Band of Joy? And that Elvis has covered a few of his songs ... 'course RT wrote more than the lyrics, so the article is inaccurate in that respect,

Indeed. I would, perhaps pedantically, point out that 'being covered by' is different from 'writing lyrics [and/or music] for'. It just annoys me when journalists don't do their research - it wouldn't have taken too much digging to get it right.

Although technically correct, I think this probably refers to a couple of under-publicised court cases from the mid-eighties. Around the time that Led Zep were being pulled up for 'borrowing' certain lyrics (the most famous being either the lemon-squeezing reference or Howlin' Wolf's You need love refrain) the blanket case also threw up a few other examples - one of which was the blatant cut & pasting of certain RT lyrics into The Battle of Evermore. At the time there was an attempted defence that Sandy Denny had simply unconciously repeated a few phrases from unfinished Fairport demos, but the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. This is also the reason they never used another outside singer again, for fear they would be landed in the same position vis a vis legal fees.
Similarly, passages from Henry The Human Fly's The Angels Took My Racehorse Away turned up in Elvis Costello's The Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes and the case was quietly settled without recourse to m'learned friends, one of the conditions being that Costello record a number of RT songs in order to provide a secondary stream of income from the subsequent publishing rights.
 It is no coincidence that shortly after these two settlements were reached Thompson was able to afford to move to California. In a similar vein, should Simon Nicol ever become enobled, there will probably be some reference to him writing songs for Tom Robinson, after segments of M1 Breakdown (from the eponymous first album) were used in 2-4-6-8 Motorway.
 It's all there on Wikipedia, so lazy, but not necessarily innaccurate reporting! I blame the sub-editor.

You been overdoing the New Year vino, mate?

[gower flower (Shirl)]

Well done RT! Great to see recognition for folk music (which someone has already said elsewhere). If gongs are good enough for the likes of Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi, then by heck it's time Richard got one.  

[Jules Gray]

RT gets a gong, eh?  I didn't see that one coming!  

Jules

[ColinB]

Can't say I'm all that bothered about the Honours List but if it brings his music to a wider audience then that can only be a good thing.

But it's nice to see him get some recognition and I've found a web site that doesn't just mention Fairport...  

http://timberandsteel.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/richard-thompson-awarded-obe/

More importantly it's not long now til his gigs at The Lowry. I'll be there on the Saturday.

[Jamie]

This is fun - and quite illuminating, in its way:

http://wrongagain2.blogspot.com/

[Chris]

Hmmm - Indeed, the blogger is 'wrong again' to omit to note that members of the public can *also* nominate worthy individuals, along with the committee he does mention.

I think it is highly likely that someone from amongst hias fanbase (which includes his fellow musicians, of course) nominated him via the forms on the DirectGov website.

[Dan O.]

The blog does make a reasonable point that the only reference the average person has to RT is Fairport Convention, and, of course that The Guardian should've known better. For instance, whenever I'm explaining to someone who RT is, I've always found it mildly frustrating to refer to him in terms of a band he left nearly 40 years ago. So I describe him as "an amazing English singer/songwriter/guitarist who started his career with Fairport Convention."

Cue next line : "Fairport Convention ? Oh yeah, I remember them, are they still going ? " !!!!  

[John From Austin]

whenever I'm explaining to someone who RT is, I've always found it mildly frustrating to refer to him in terms of a band he left nearly 40 years ago. So I describe him as "an amazing English singer/songwriter/guitarist who started his career with Fairport Convention.

That doesn't work in Merka, where precious few of my peers have heard of either RT or FC.

I describe him as the English Bob Dylan, after which I say it's more appropriate to describe Bob Dylan as the Merkin Richard Thompson.

[Jules Gray]

I describe him as the English Bob Dylan

That doesn't cover his guitar playing though, for which you have to add that he's the English Neil Young as well.

Jules

[Henry Tompkins (Pete)]

I describe him as the English Bob Dylan,

Much as I love RT, if we are talking lyrics -especially in recent years - that's a bit over the top IMHO.  

[Nick the Stick]

I always like Nick Hornby's description from High Fidelity: 'He's a singer-songwriter and Britain's finest electric guitarist' or words to that effect.

[Shane (Skirky)]

The OBE will further restore Richard Thompson’s status at the top table of British musical heroes as a folk revolutionary, one of the world’s greatest guitarists, a must-see performer and one of the finest songwriters this country has ever produced.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/touching-from-a-distance/6586998/music-richard-thompson-obe.thtml

[Neil]

I describe him as the English Bob Dylan,

Much as I love RT, if we are talking lyrics -especially in recent years - that's a bit over the top IMHO.  

If we are comparing Dylan's most recent output to RT's lyrical inventiveness then to promote Dylan as a superior to Thompson lyrically is a fallacy.

Anyway congratulations on the OBE are in order, recognition even in a flawed system is often hard to come by for artists on the fringe and should be celebrated and in this age of political stance for the sake of headlines than acceptance may very well be the most subversive thing to do.

[RobertD]

I say congratulations. When Martin Carthy got his MBE (I think...American speaking here, I may have gotten that wrong, but thought it was MBE) a few years ago, I believe he really had a crisis of conscience about it. I could have imagined Martin especially saying stuff it, and storming off. I seem to remember reading at the time that he decided to accept it in the name of all the unsung folk singers like Walter Pardon, Copper Family, Sam Larner, etc, who inspired and influenced him. Maybe thats the spirit Richard views it in...maybe he views it the same as being elected to the Nebraska Folk Music Hall Of Fame...a somewhat hollow honor, but an honor nonetheless. Congratulations Richard.