Richard Thompson is easily NOT CRAP, and I finally got to see him live last Thursday in Nashville. It was just RT on acoustic guitar and Danny Thompson on upright bass.

The set was pretty good, though he played a few too many novelty songs for my taste (two new ones, one about Alexander Graham Bell was actually very good...), and nothing off Shoot Out the Lights, which was a drag (that's my favorite album of his). He did play a great version of "Withered and Died", and I realize it's really stupid of me to complain about the setlist when the man has written very few (if any) bad songs. Plus, he's one of those guitarists who could play anything, and I'd probably like it.

I'll tell you this, though: You have never loathed a concert audience until you've been in a theater full of laughable middle-aged pseudointellectuals who blather loudly over most of the show, stopping only to clap arhythmically through "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and sing along to "Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands" in an embarrassing, "Raffi-for-adults", audience call-and-response segment. Very annoying.

Still, salut Richard Thompson! The ridiculous crowd did not ruin this show for me!

i am and have been for a long time a huge fan of Peter Laughner's cover of "Calvary Cross" but was disappointed with the original when i finally heard it...

100% NOT CRAP.

One of the very few guitarists I can listen to playing guitar solos.

placeholder wrote:I'll tell you this, though: You have never loathed a concert audience until you've been in a theater full of laughable middle-aged pseudointellectuals who blather loudly over most of the show, stopping only to clap arhythmically through "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and sing along to "Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands" in an embarrassing, "Raffi-for-adults", audience call-and-response segment. Very annoying.

Si, si.

I saw RT for the first about a month ago at Poor David's Pub in Dallas, and it was this scene exactly. His greatness did manage to overcome the cheekiness, and I enjoyed the show quite a bit.

My wife saw him in Tucson (maybe is was Phoenix) around 1992, where he played the local alt-rock radio station's festival. His slot was right before the Meat Puppets, and she says he did none of the more groan-worthy stuff, and consequently blew her collegiate mind.

mb

TheMilford wrote:Wow! I just did a search for John Martyn out of curiosity, to see what he is up to these days... Besides a new BBC documentary and a new album (which is getting surprisingly good reviews), he had his lower leg amputated due to some minor injury gone septic due to his heavy drink...

Shit man! thank god it wasn't his hand!

-David

WHOA that's nuts! I was just listening to that may you never vinyl the other day too. I hadn't taken it out in a year or two... but once I did thought, holy shit, was I this into wank? Oh John Martyn. I say Richard Thompson is about 65% crap 35% not ... to be honest the only song I can think of that I like by him is A Heart Needs A Home, but prob cause I didn't give a lot of his stuff a chance.

I'm sorry. I have just now realized that this entire thread I thought you were all talking about Richard O'Brien. Ignore this post.

Loads of good Richard Thompson stuff on YouTube.

This is plenty cool.

Still NOT CRAP, nil.

not crap!

"Shoot out the lights" and "I want to see the bright lights tonight" are both awesome. I get that song "Wall of Death" stuck in my head a lot. Really good.

Haven't heard much of his stuff, but 'Dimming Of The Day' is one of my favourite songs ever,The Corrs' cover version notwithstanding.

NOT CRAP on that alone, and I will definitely check out more of his songs.