Cock in a bantam egg; or, Who wrote the songs of Richard Thompson?

[ron_drummond]

I had the wonderful honor of seeing and hearing Richard Thompson perform at the smaller of the two theaters in The Egg in Albany NY tonight, from the fifth row. It was the first time I've seen him live and I dearly hope it won't be the last. I've been hearing his tunes off and on for over thirty years, usually when friends played me his music. I

Comments

[nineweaving]

Dear gods. I never thought Thompson was a fool.

How inutterably depressing.

Nine

[nineweaving]

And good for you, speaking truth to power.

Nine

[nineweaving]

Well, I hope it was genuine curiosity. Otherwise, I'd be appalled.

It's damned hard to speak up in such an intense crowd of admirers. I'll bet no one wanted to contradict the Master, so neither side spoke up for fear he was on the other one.

You did well to speak at all.

Nine

[kalimac]

A fortunate occurrence for you. I heard RT live a couple of times in the 90s on trips to Britain, but not since. And though I don't have a lot of his albums, at least half a dozen of his songs are on my list of essentials. More on this if/when you have a set list.

I doubt I would be likely to be too quick to loudly proclaim my belief in Shakespeare if suddenly asked the question out of the blue and out of context, by the performer at a pop concert, though that belief is strong and undimmed and I even have a few quips on the subject.

[randy_byers]

Great review of the show! As for the Shakespearean question, I'm guessing 95% or more of even English-speaking humanity has no idea there's any controversy about it at all. Most people in the crowd were probably simply confused by the questions.

And I'm still looking forward to Emmerich's nutty movie!

[nineweaving]

...no idea there's any controversy about it at all...

That's what I was just about to post, having gotten over my initial Et tu, Brute? response. It was the silence of bewilderment.

It could be that Thompson had just been bearded by a fanatic, or one of his band keeps going on and on about it (the roadtrip from hell). Maybe he's curious: are these just whackjobs, or is there a following?

Oh, and by the way, great review of the show!

Nine

[joculum]

Goodness, I was thinking last night that I really needed to hunt for my Richard Thompson compilation CD as I was unlikely to get set up to transfer my ancient vinyl disks to CD and have chosen not to join the mp3 world, being rather enamored of the visuals on physical media. What a brilliant review. Do post the set list; I've really not followed his work since he played here several years ago (I missed his concert in 2010, I think it was).

[negothick]

I think one of the songs you're looking for is "Beeswing" (which has a repeated line "wouldn't have it any other way"). It's one of my all-time favorites as well--makes me cry, even after all these years. First recorded 1994, but may have been written earlier.

[desultorie]

There are probably many more Richard Thompsons than William Shakespeares. How funny would it be if everything they did was attributed to one man? I wonder how they will reconstruct our civilisation in the absence of digital documentation. We just assume these electrical traces are permanent, when really we live in an etch-a-sketch.