Billster Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 This is a nice mainstream interview on CNN As are all Richard Thompson interviews. Very nice sense of perspective. Buy my CD on CD Baby! Bill Hartzell - the website MySpace?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Great interview, thanks, Bill! CNN: "(Richard Thompson's) highest-charting U.S. album (1996's "You? Me? Us?") peaked at No. 97 on Billboard's Top 200 chart, and the number of Top 40 singles he's had stands at exactly zero." I'd be thrilled to have had only one album at all, and have had it peak at No. 97 on Billboard's Top 200! Some cool points: Thompson: "And I listened to other instruments, to do things that people like piano players could do very easily that are quite hard to do on the guitar. So I've always tried to do some of those syncopated things that pianists do on the guitar. Sometimes you need to take things outside of your field, to push the vocabulary of your instrument. ... The more you know about musical history, the richer your possibilities are. And I think the more you look outside your own field of music, the more you're going to discover." CNN: A few years ago, Playboy asked a number of people to put together a list of the "best songs of the past 1,000 years," and you took them seriously, going back to the 11th century. Were you surprised when they rejected the list? Thompson: "I think they thought I was taking the piss, as we say in England. That I was irreverent. And perhaps I was." CNN: When anthologies of your work are put together, do you listen and say, "That's pretty good" or "I'd like to do that again"? Thompson: "Usually the latter. I don't really like listening to my own recordings that much. One of the reasons is, I perform the songs live, and every night things get slightly differently interpreted. And the version you perform tends to grow away form the recorded version with the passage of time ... in your desire to keep your music fresh. So it's sometimes horrifying [to listen] -- 'why did I do it so slowly?' Or, 'that's a really lame version'." How 'bout some RT vids? [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CICnO5ompZw [video:youtube] [video:youtube] Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWelcome Home Studios Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I appreciate RT, but I am not a fanatic. Still, I do not understand quite why he has been so widely ignored. Great talent, great writer, and very articulate. "I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot." Steve Martin Show business: we're all here because we're not all there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billster Posted September 8, 2009 Author Share Posted September 8, 2009 He's not interested in being a "Star" Buy my CD on CD Baby! Bill Hartzell - the website MySpace?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 No fanatic, myself, but I can definitely dig him. I like his playing, a lot of personal qualities in it, sometimes a bit quirky in a very good way. He gets a lot of miles out of hybrid-picking (pick & fingers), and an occasional thumb-pick. And I also think it's a strange fluke and/or injustice that he- and many other talented people- have missed the kind of success and wide-spread recognition that many "artists" that are painfully obviously less talented have netted. Again, though, I could be plenty happy with what success and recognition he has achieved, and I think that he himself seems to be, as well. Here are a couple more YouTube finds, both live, both of the same song, "Tear Stained Letter- the first, a live/TV-studio/sound-stage performance, the second, a concert performance. Note that in the first, the phrasing of the thematic refrain played in the horn-section and accordion parts has just a smidgen of a reeling, traditional Scottish flair to it (correct me if I'm wrong; whaddya think, Geoff?), while those parts in the second one have just a little more of a traditional rootsy, greasy Americana/Louisiana/Zydeco sort of feel (which in itself has European roots). Both reflect Thompson's musical roots. He also gave a great performance of "Tear Stained Letter" when he appeared on the Night Music television program- the same episode where he played "Jerusalem On The Jukebox", posted above- but I can't seem to find a vid-clip of it... Dig the little amp back-line! And the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box guitar... ! Great, rockin' solo on a Strat by RT. Now, what did most other people playing on TV sound like back in 1984? [video:youtube] Note Shawn Colvin on guitar and vocals... [video:youtube] Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Aahh- found it! And another- an incredibly cool slowed-down, genuinely haunting version of "Heartbreak Hotel", both from the Night Music TV series... Note Shawn Colvin again, among many, many other stellar players... "Heartbreak Hotel" [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDe-HcHJsX0 "Tear Stained Letter" [video:youtube] Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrollstar Posted September 10, 2009 Share Posted September 10, 2009 I am a huge fan of Richard Thompson. I love his collaboration with Henry kaiser on the Grizzly Man movie. The soundtrack is one of my fav's when I sit on the back porch at night in the deep South... Don't ask me why - but it works pretty well. There is no cure for GAS! www.customguitarvideo.com | The finest Custom Electric, Acoustic and Archtop Guitar related video entertainment on the web. And it's FREE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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