However small his role on the new Vega album may be, you hardly can't miss his remarkable, striking guitar solo in As Girls Go. In my opinion, this contribution certainly makes the song one of the album's best. The person who is responsible for this "catchy tune" is the British singer/songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson (1949). The following article reviews the impressive career of a man who has been active in music business for a quarter of a century now.
He grew up as a son of a policeman in the suburbs of London and learnt guitar from friends of his eldest sister. When he was seventeen years old, he was one of the founding members of Fairport Convention, a band which would turn out to be one of the most important folk-rock bands in the history of popmusic. The girl singer of the convention, Sandy Denny, was with no doubt one of the best female singer/songwriters ever until her unfortunate premature death of a brain hemorrhage in 1978. One other early-time member, the singer Ian Matthews, formed his own band Matthews Southern Comfort and hit the charts in 1970 with his song Woodstock ("We are stardust we are golden...").
Thompson and Denny were the main songwriters of the band. Their compositions on the albums are being interchanged with traditional folk songs like Tam Lin as well as covers from colleagues like Bob Dylan. The best-known hitsingle of the Convention is Si Tu Dois Partir, Va-t-en ('68), a cover from Dylan's If You Gotta Go, Go Now. With Thompson, Fairport Convention released five albums, including the ultimate folk-rock album Liege and Lief (1969).
Thompson left the band in 1971 to begin a solo career. He took his decision because he felt that the F.C. approach towards folk-music was still too restricted. He thought it could be integrated more with the English rock and roll(2). From '74 till '82 he recorded 6 albums with his wife Linda. Two of these albums (I Want To See Bright Lights Tonight and Shoot Out The Lights) are in the Rolling Stone album top 100 of all times.
After he continued making solo records. Occasionally he appears on reunions of the Fairport Convention. He also evolved to an appreciated session- guitarist, who cooperated with people like J.J. Cale, Crowded House, Bonnie Raitt, Mitchell Froom and Shawn Colvin (You should recognize that name). Colvin also played with the Richard Thompson band during his U.K. tour last summer.
His latest release is the 1991 album Rumor And Sigh. It is his ninth solo album, and has just as the two before been produced by Mitchell Froom (who also produced 99.9 F°). The songs are an excellent mixture of modern rock and traditional folk music. A look at the cd-inlay shows that the used instruments are not the ones of an average rock album: chamberlin, celeste, shawm, hurdy-gurdy, accordion... A very diverse set of instruments with very unusual names. Nevertheless it's his greatest commercial success until now, selling twice the quantity of his previous albums. The humourful and ironical lyrics are sometimes alternated with serious sad songs like Grey Walls which seems to relate to a former lover who is being treated in a mental hospital. One other striking song called Psycho Street is a very strange song about crazy people: lyrics which could easily be taken out of a Stephen King novel, and music that one moment sounds like Talking Heads' Psycho Killer, and next moment like What A Day For A Daydream. In sharp contrast are more animated songs like Read About Love and I Misunderstood, which in an ironical way tell the story of a man or a boy with just too much bad luck: "...She said (...) We'll always be such good friends, you and I / But I misunderstood (..) / I thought she was saying good luck / She was saying goodbye..." You'd almost feel sorry for him, won't you?
This autumn, Thompson was in Holland to do some solo performances. On stage he turned out to be not only a great performer but also a great entertainer. It's not just his lyrics which are very funny, he is also able to transmit his humour to the audience and is a good improviser. With his ironical remarks and little stories he strings his repertory which includes songs from his latest album but also some very, very old songs. Fragile folk of She Moves Through The Fair meets the polka in Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands and the old fashioned rock 'n roll of Shake, Rattle & Roll in a fine concert. Suzanne certainly knows how to choose her people to work with!
Huub Ritzema
[photo]
List of sources:
solo albums: with the Fairport Convention:
Henry the human fly ('72) Fairport Convention ('68)
Guitar, vocal ('75) What we did on our holidays ('68)
Strict tempo ('81) Unhalfbricking ('69)
Hand of kindness ('81) Liege and Lief ('69)
Small town romance ('84) Full house ('70)
Across a crowded room ('85)
Daring adventures ('86) with Linda Thompson (selection):
Amnesia ('88)
Rumor and sigh ('91) I want to see bright lights tonight ('74)
Pour down like silver ('75)
Shoot out the lights ('82)
A B X 1 (4) 1 Peter Gabriel: US (Virgin) 2 (2) 2 Extreme: III Sides To Every Story (A & M) 3 (1) 3 Kolmas Nainen: Tihean Sisaan (Sonet) 4 (3) 4 Mikko Kuustonen: Abrakadabra (Epic) 5 (5) 3 Suzanne Vega: 99,9 F (A & M) 6 (12) 1 Brian May: Back To The Light (Parlophone) 7 (6) 3 Ugly Kid Joe: America's Least Wanted (Mercury) 8 (8) 5 Roxette: Tourism (EMI) 9 (10) 4 Eric Clapton: Unplugged (Reprise) 10 (9) 4 Ramones: Mondo Bizarre (Chrysalis) 11(23) 1 Red Hot Chili Peppers: What Hits? (EMI) 12 (7) 4 Toto: Kingdom Of Desire (Columbia) 13(13) 2 Tom Waits: Bone Machine (Island) 14(16) 1 Vaya Con Dios: Time Flies (Ariola) 15 (-) - R.E.M.: Automatic For The People (Warner Bross) 16 (-) - Shamen: Boss Drum (Coma) A = sijoitus talla viikolla B = sijoitus viikolla 39 X = listaviikojen maaraFinnish Top 16, Week 40 1992
ANTIFOLK: Basically, folk singers who whine "I am not a folkie," even if the Birkenstock fits. Check out Suzanne Vega, Michelle Shocked, Billy Bragg and 10,000 Maniacs in the folk section of Tower Records (but don't tell them we sent you).
(US, USA Sept. 1991)