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photo: John Hames - Richard Thompson at the Newport Folk Festival, 2005
Shaking the Muse with Richard Thompson
Of course we consider ourselves fortunate to have caught up with British singer/songwriter Richard Thompson for this issue. In a career that has spanned forty plus years, Richard Thompson had been lauded again and again-for his guitar-playing. In 2003, Rollingstone magazine placed him 19th on a list the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. For his songwriting-in recent years he has won both the prestigious British music industry Ivor Novello Award and for a body of work that includes dozens of recordings dating back to 1967, when he helped form Britain’s seminal folk/rock band, Fairport Convention, BBC Radio gave him a lifetime achievement award in 2006. Thompson’s music combines musical virtuosity and lyrical smarts that refuse to be pigeon-holed. Whether he’s playing acoustic or electric guitar, singing songs that draw on Celtic tradition, Cajun rhythms, big band jazz, or straight out rock n’ roll, Thompson’s vocal phrasing and way with a line, invariably put his stamp on a tune.
Finally, we’re leafing through a recent issue of MOJO and see an ad for the Green Man Festival, August 15-17th (Brecon Beacons, Wales), where Thompson joins a lineup that includes Iron and Wine, Spiritualized, Pentangle, and Drive-by Truckers and wouldn’t you want to be there? Message-catch Richard Thompson live, wherever you are, whenever you can.
Same issue, we’re reading a review of Marc Almond (Soft Cell) and his recent seven-night residency at Wilton’s Music Hall London, and come across this: “Hearing Almond sing of Wilde and depravity in 2008 hardly breaks new ground. However, his choice of covers indicates one of British pop’s original thinkers. Jacques Brel’s “The Desperate Ones” and “The Devil OK,” are par for the course. But Richard Thompson’s “The Great Valerio,” is less expected.”
That about sums it up, except for the really important stuff, what RT himself has to say about songwriting, which was the subject of our recent chat with him.
SLAM: In 1999, you were famously snubbed by Playboy Magazine when after being asked to identify the ten greatest songs of the millennium, you actually put their challenge to the test by submitting a list that spanned 1000 years. Out of it came one of your most unique shows, albums and dvds: 1000 Years of Popular Music. But shaking is wondering what you were trying to say about songwriting, the interplay of lyrics and melody, with that list.
RT: I was probably just trying to be a smartass…but the 1000 Years show probably points to the consistencies and variations in the songwriting form over the millennium. Lyrically, you have love songs, political songs, songs of social unrest and comment, and a few other themes scattered around. Musically, things vary from simple drone and melody (bagpipe music to Motown) and three chord songs (troubador to Buddy Holly), up to the sophistication of madrigals and Duke Ellington.
SLAM: We have a version of the show where you sing "Old Rocking Chair's Got Me." Couldn't we make that argument that Hoagy Charmichael was at least one of the very good songwriters, maybe even poets of the 20th century? And if so, how might the phrasing, idea and thematic interests of other writers (not just songwriters) sneak into what you write?
RT: It's important to consider songwriters as songwriters and poets as poets – the intentions are different. Hoagy didn't write the lyrics either…(thanks, RT; Mitchell Parrish wrote the lyrics---edt.) but he was one of the first great singer/songwriter/instrumentalists, and should be lauded as such. Other artists influence me all the time, and I grew up listening to my Dad's records of Hoagy, Fats and Duke.
SLAM: Here's a verse of yours with one of our favorite couplets in all of popular music (in bolded text) from a song in the tradition of the outlaw ballad: "1952 Vincent Black Lightening:"
Oh says Red Molly to James "That's a fine motorbike.
A girl could feel special on any such like"
Says James to Red Molly "My hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952.
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme"
Would you describe how those lines and that song came about?
RT: The lines, I have no idea. The song started from the idea that British objects in British songs rarely sound romantic, and one has to cast around to find something with mythological impact and relevance. In America, mythology has resided in song since Stephen Foster, and you only have to mention a place or a brand of automobile, and your song is half-written.
SLAM: Recently, you did the music for a documentary about Harlan Ellison, Dreams with Sharp Teeth. What drew you to the project? For instance, did you know that Ellison wrote a script for the original Star Trek series called The City on the Edge of Forever, in which the lyrics to a song by Al Bowlly, someone you have immortalized in song, were used?
RT: The director, Erik Nelson, had used some of my music as temporary track, and thought I would be a good fit for the project. I'd read some of Harlan's work, and knew about the Star Trek stuff. I'd forgotten the Al Bowlly connection.
SLAM: We read on your web site (www.richardthompson-music.com) that you may in an upcoming show play songs "themed towards social unrest/inequality/disenfranchisement." Have such songs always been of interest to you? We're thinking of "Pharaoh," for instance. Or has your motivation to perform such songs increased because of the positive response to "Dad's Gonna Kill Me," the anti-Iraq War song from your most recent record, Sweet Warrior?
Selected Discography: Start with Henry the Human Fly, his critically missed debut LP (1972), travel through his collaborations with former partner Linda Thompson, the richest possibly being Pour Down Like Silver (1975) and Shoot Out the Lights (1982) , and then explore the solo work: Hand of Kindness (1983), the trenchant Small Town Romance (1984), Rumor and Sigh (1991), you? me? us? (1996), the homey Front Parlour Ballads (2005), the soundtrack for Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005), the encyclopedic 1000 Years of Popular Music (DVD and CD, 2006) and his most recent, Sweet Warrior (2007). While you’re at it, check out the wonderfully weird, Live, Love, Larf and Loaf, a 1987 collaboration with John French, Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith. Guitars anyone?