RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson

by

Richard Thompson

Edit

He's not dead yet so all the better to celebrate the music of Richard Thompson. Fan- The word derives from fanatic. It perfectly describes the Richard Thompson fan (myself included) who would purchase this sprawling look back at the man and his music to the present. First don't let some of the other reviews scare you off. Yes the sound quality varies and yes some sound as good as good MP3s while others sound exceptional. That's because a lot of the material here was pulled from Thompson's own collection of older, rare recordings. The notes in the 160 page book point out that everything was done possible to improve sound on all the tracks and nothing is less than acceptable.

Free Reed's excellent anthlogy "The Life and Music of Richard Thompson" isn't the best place to become aquainted with Thompson's vast body of work but it is essential for fans of the man. While sound quality varies (remember many of these performances were never meant to be heard by the public and it includes many demos, live tracks recorded for the artist to keep and/or fan recordings, etc.)but on the whole Free Reed has done a splendid job of assembling rarities for Thompson fans.

We have five discs here. "Muswell Hill to LA" consisting of performances from 1972 with Richard's former wife Linda to 2005 with live recordings, demos, etc. opening ironically with "Now That I Am Dead" which originally appeared on the French, Frirth, Kaiser and Thompson CD "Invisible Means" opens the set with a nice dose of dark humor. Here Richard sings it (John French sings it on the original CD release). "Killerman Gold Posse" originally recorded for the F,F,K & T CD "Live, Larf and Loaf" appears in its original demo form here. The CD closes with the marvelous "Outside of the Inside" in a studio demo recording. I love the live recording of "Madonna's Wedding" coupled with "Nobody's Wedding".

CD 2 also features a treasure trove of Thompson tracks including "I Feel So Good", "Dimming of the Day" (from 1981 live recording with Linda Thompson), ""Crazy Man Michael" (a new recording for this set) a song that had its genesis in the death of his girlfriend in 1969 in a car accident involving the members of Fairport Convention. Thompson hasn't tackled this song for ages because of the depth of anguish he felt about this over the last 35 years. Again, sound quality varies from fair to exceptionally good depending upon the source, age, etc. Some of these are pulled from cassettes as early as the 70's. I suggest keeping expectations a bit realistic when listening to material this old. Personally, I'm much more focused on the performances some of which are astonishing.

CD 3 features cover songs (some of which appeared on 1000 Years of Popular Music), live recordings and some session work. Haven't been able to dig into this completely yet. It does sound pretty good so far. Likewise CD 4 so the four stars is based more on the first two discs and the bonus 5th disc which I popped in right away. That one also has varying sound quality. This collection isn't meant to be an audiophile's dream. That said could these have been cleaned up more? Sure and you could also be paying a lot more for it as well or never heard any of it for that matter.

The book accompanying the set is over 160 pages long with rare photos providing a biography of sorts (as much musical as personal). Nice packaging is a highlight of this set. I personally like what Free Reed has done here. There's also an excellent interview with Thompson as well as bits of trivia related to Thompson's music that are sprinkled throughout the booklet. This set certainly isn't for the casual fan but definitely worthwhile for fans who want various rare performances (including some they might have attended)and interesting one-off performances. It's a fun set that captures Thompson's spirit, wit and style with a guitar and lyric. Well worth it for fans of the man.

I am a long time and devoted RT fan. It's not RT I object to about this box, it's the box itself -- selections, packaging, booklet and quantity. I can't imagine that anyone unfamiliar with RT is going to be interested in this huge collection, so this is mainly for those already convinced of RT's talents as a writer and performer, who most likely already have some or a lot of his albums. (If you're a newbie and you want a compilation ablum, get 1993's collection, "Watching The Dark: The History of Richard Thompson" -- it's much better in every way than this box -- then get some of the classics (e.g. "Bright Lights", "Pour Down Like Silver", etc, etc.) and one or two since 1993 ("Rumor & Sigh", "Mock Tudor") If you're already a fan, spend your money instead on a few of the official bootlegs on RT's official web site, "Beesweb".)

Since this box features RT, there's bound to be some great stuff in it of course. Goes without saying. But there's just too much junk to wade through to get to it. Many of the alternative or unreleased or whatever versions of familiar songs are just not as good as the ones we know and love -- no doubt that's why these other versions never saw the light of day (go figure, eh!). And most of the stuff hitherto unreleased should have remained that way.

And the booklet (or telephone book) which comes with this box is just ghastly. It certainly contains a great deal of information, but it's really too much, even for a devoted fan. And it's all over the place -- scattered, disorganized and disjointed. Some may think this cool. I found it annoying and time wasting. I'm still tring to find a simple listing in this enormous document of what's on each of the five discs, which is really a most important thing in a box this size. But you have to wade through a thousand words about each track instead. Tedious, tedious, tedious.

I feel guilty about slagging anything by RT. I've been promoting his music wherever I could for as long as I can remember. But I just can't recommend this. Newcomers and Converts alike -- go elsewhwere.