Why isn’t Richard Thompson a cultural icon?
For 25 years everyone I’ve attempted to turn on to his music has loved his music, his voice, and his lyrics. Why his music for 40 years - from Fairport Convention through Linda through solo - has not made him an popularly acclaimed and revered musician is beyond me.
What has kept Thompson from gaining mass popularity? Too thoughtful a lyricist? Too intricate a guitar player? Too ugly? Too Muslim? Too what?
I like Richard Thompson, but he’s really a “musician’s musician.” It’s like asking why Fred Exley isn’t more popular that Dan Brown.
I have to say I prefer his acoustic stuff. The electric guitar seems to dilute his talents. Live solo acoustic his music manages to be both technically jaw-dropping and heartbeakingly beautiful.
Hey, even RT uploads videos to YouTube playing guitar while sitting on his bed!
Not much hugely popular music has such a dark sense of humor. There are plenty of great songwriters and guitarists who are loads more obscure than Thompson, he’s not doing so bad.
Heard an interview in which he claimed to, every morning, go to a rented office to write because it was his job and he wanted to treat it like such.
Anybody that can redeem a song like this deserves more respect than he’s ever gonna get.
Too be a big star, you have to get to the top when you’re young, and you have to be playing the right kind of stuff. “Roll Over Vaughn Williams” and “The End of the Rainbow” aren’t the kind of stuff that gets you to the top of the pops. Now that RT is an old fart (a year older than I am), forget it, even though there ain’t nothin’ on the radio to compare with “Sibella” or “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.”
I don’t understand the musician’s musician thing; I may pound on the piano some, but I’m scarcely a musician, nor are any of the other RT fans I know. I know that a lot of musicians appreciate him, but they also appreciate Jimmy Page.
Frankly, it doesn’t bother me much that RT isn’t huge. The shelf life of people who reach a high peak can be quite short. Moreover, they tend to get hemmed in by what’s expected of them. My guess is that his music would neither be as fresh nor as interesting if he’d really made it big.
Very good point.
“Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” is not even the best song on the album. IMHO. If there was going to be a single off it, I’d vote for “Johnny’s Far Away”.
Same here, Larry. I can’t play anything, and I can’t sing either, nor can I work with words as well as Thompson. I still can recognize that he’s something special. (I do agree that his playing comes across much stronger in acoustic.)
dropzone1000 years of popular music was what worked for my coworker this week. I try to fit the album to the person. They mostly wind up liking all his stuff.
“Musician’s musician” may have been inartful, though that’s how I’ve heard him described numerous times. It’s merely saying that he’s not going to be appreciated by people who don’t have a deep interest in music to begin with, even if they’re not musicians themselves. The RT fans I’ve known who weren’t musicians were at least people with a deep love of music. He’s not going to appeal to great numbers of people the way Celine Dion or Michael Bolton do.
That’s just awesome.
And that is how RT would’ve achieved Godhood, hadn’t he done it decades before.
I used to work at a hotel desk many years ago. Richard Thompson, in town for a performance, came in with his guitar case in one arm and his girlfriend on the other. As I checked him into his room, I asked him if he would like me to screen all calls before sending them up to his room, so he wouldn’t be bothered by fans. He humbly said that he really didn’t get calls like that.
I really need to see him perform live, and I don’t think that about all musicians I like. Hell, not even about many of them. But him? Yeah. Definitely.
Think we could get him and Tom Waits together for an evening?
I would sell my house to see that. If I owned a house.
Just invites to the pubs, I suppose.
He visited my humble junior college a couple years ago. I learned about it too late.
Well I have to admit I understand the OP’s point. I am a huge music fan, in fact a friend who is a musician insists that I have “the best taste in music of any man alive” because I keep finding things that he likes that he has never heard of.
Well, having looked at a bit of Richard Thompson, he is someone who would appeal to me but I have never heard of him until now. However I recall years ago talking to an Aussie musician who has been making a living for many years without ever being a “star”. He reckons that you only need 2% of the population to like your stuff and that will enable you to work forever.
And how cool is RT’s combination flat picking/finger picking playing style.
I think he’s living the kind of life he feels comfortable with. He’s happy gigging at the kids school sometimes, maybe at a party or pub once in a while, and then touring occasionally. Proper north London sensibility.
Lot of people like that. Just don’t need the intensity of stardom.
Agreed. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard music that sounded that good.
How many popular balladeers with quirky senses of humor who sing in unapologetically British accents can you name? I mean, seriously. He’s brilliant, but it’s not so popular a genre.
Walloon’s story reminds me of a time about 20 years ago when we saw a poorly-attended RT concert at a small club. We were eating dinner at a nearby cafe beforehand and RT wandered by and went into a bookstore. A little while later he came out with a bag of books tucked under his arm. For some reason I found that charming…maybe because it didn’t seem much like the life of a rock star on the road.
He absolutely deserves more recognition than he gets. But I guess he’s too pigeonholed into “folk”. He does have a big cult folk following over here in the UK, but the majority of people have never even heard of him.
I want to take the opportunity of this thread to publicise one of my favourite songs ever: 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. This particular performance has an virtuoso improv picking section around 2:20. Brilliant performer.
That’s on the playlist over here. I’ve heard it in a number of places. While a good song, it’s not my favorite.
The radio in Boulder was playing “Valerie”, which is a wonderful song, and got me to buy the album (Daring Advertures), but the one-two punch at the end of that album of “How Will I Ever be Simple Again” and “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven” is the reason I began a two+ decade habit of spending money on his music.
“Wall of Death” is still my favorite. I’ve been a fan since his days with Fairport Convention.
Miss Patsy
Old Thames Side
Guns are the Tongues
These are some of my favorite songs of all time, yet I don’t care for much of the rest of his stuff I’ve heard - about 8 albums worth. I’ll have to give the rest of these recommendations a listen.