Across a Crowded Room
Last night on a whim, decided to check out Richard Thompson at the Showbox. I’ve seen Thompson many times over the years, but not with a full band since the late 80s. It’s also been a while since I listened to any new recordings from him. Still, there are few more reliable showmen in the business for turning a good set.
Richard Thompson is one of the few of the mid-1960s generation of rock musicians who has managed to continually produce high quality work down to the present day. Neil Young and Iggy Pop (and maybe Van Morrison) are about the only of his contemporaries I can think of with comparable bodies of achievement, both in terms of career peeks and longevity. Thompson’s genius is more understated than theirs, but he is also much more gifted musically than they are. He is, among other things, one of the world’s greatest guitarists, and sings in a rich smoky baritone slightly reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot, but with a much meaner edge.
Because he brings a little bit more to the table in terms of raw musicianship, he is far more consistent than those others both as a recording artist and a performer. At his best, Thompson is nearly as great as Neil Young, but at his worst, he’s not nearly as bad as some of Young’s more appalling failed experiments. Like Young, Thompson began in a late 60s folk rock group – Fairport Convention in his case – where he penned several of their finest songs including the glittering pop gem “Time Will Show the Wiser,” and, at age 18, proved himself one of the elite guitarists in England.
In the 1970s, Thompson made a series of uniformly excellent, though poor selling, albums with his then-wife Linda. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (containing his only hit, the title track) and Pour Down Like Silver are especially worth seeking out. At the time, he was a musician’s musician – admired by his peers for his incredible playing and songwriting talent, while never quite breaking through to a larger audience. Perhaps the darkness of his vision was too daunting for the mainstream, although this didn’t seem to hinder some of his contemporaries.
The Thompsons’ marriage fell apart in the early 80s, producing their scathing classic final album, Shoot Out the Lights, and a series of bitter solo records by Richard. During this time, Thompson penned a bunch of breakup anthems that frequently turned up on mix-tapes of people in complicated relationships, including “Man in Need,” “I Misunderstood,” “When the Spell is Broken” and the ever-popular “She Twists the Knife Again.” These alternated with wry uptempo rockers, jazzy period pieces, quiet acoustic folk, Cajun-style rave-ups and other short stylistic sojourns from his core mid-tempo rock sound. Almost any album from this period is worth a look.
At the heart of Thompson’s sound is his incredible guitar playing. Early on, he developed a modified finger picking style that allows him to play clean, fluid lead runs in the midst of extremely complicated chord changes. Although he occasionally plays blues, he does not have a blues-oriented style and rarely bends notes. His best solos are like a cool rain – sparkling and unexpected, always refreshing. On albums, he is tastefully restrained, using his skills to ornament his songs rather than taking center stage. But in performance, he cuts loose two or three times in the set with breathtaking, architecturally-constructed breaks that run to 20 or 30 choruses, with varying styles building in intensity to staggering musical effect. If you can’t see him play live, check out the 10-minute version of “Cavalry Cross” on Guitar, Vocal from 1972 for a good sample.
Unlike most 60s-era musicians who coasted on their early achievements through the long codas of their careers, Thompson has continued to release recordings of consistent quality right up to the present day. Perhaps his finest moment came 25 years into his career, on 1991’s Rumor and Sigh, where he unveiled the gorgeous folky ballad “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” The song is simple as can be, but guitar, voice and lyrics combine in perfect measure to produce a timeless classic. The song remains a staple of his live set, and holds its own against fan favorites from 15 or 20 years before. In last night’s set, he played a fair amount of new material (e.g., released since I stopped paying attention, around the mid-90s), which was all, at the very least, extremely well-crafted and occasionally brilliant.
As a vocalist, guitarist and performer, Richard Thompson remains at the top of his game. But perhaps his most notable achievement is that he is still the world’s finest producer of Richard Thompson-style songs. That’s worth the price of admission, even for a late show on a midweek night.
10:35:06 AM 
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