Top 10 Richard (& Linda) Thompson Songs

Read it and thought just the same!

And I Still Dream!

 

There's probably at least 40 or 50 I really love, but here's ten:

A Blind Step Away
Night Comes In
Gypsy Love Songs
Mystery Wind
I Feel So Good
Missy How You Let Me Down
Sweet Surrender
Drowned Dog Black Night
How I Wanted To
Walking On A Wire (the Providence DVD version)

 

1952 Vincent Black Lightning
My MGB GT (she's a runner now)
the Fairport tune that sounds like Weather Report in the middle ages

he should've done a whole album about Brit bikes 'n cars....

 

My first RT album was Rumor & Sigh, probably still my favourite so my list is weighted they way

I Feel So Good
I Misunderstood
I Still Dream
Night Comes In
Can't Win (live with long solo)
Now That I Am Dead
Put It There Pal
A Heart Needs A Home
Calvary Cross

 

Restricting this list to duo song, in no order:

Dimming of the Day/Dargai
Shoot out the Lights
Did She Jump...
Calvary Cross
Great Valerio
Night Comes In
Died for Love
Great Valerio
End of the Rainbow
For Shame of Doing Wrong

 

Difficult to pick just 10. These are just in alphanumeric order:

1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Don’t Sit on My Jimmy Shands
Gethsemane
Hand of Kindness
I Agree With Pat Metheny
I’ll Regret it All in the Morning
Tear-Stained Letter
Valerie
When I Get to the Border
The Wrong Heartbeat

 

Beeswing
Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?
Don't Sit On My Jimmy Shands
I Still Dream
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
MGB-GT
Mr. Rebound
Persuasion
The Angels Took My Racehorse Away
When I Get To The Border


Side note...I'm not a big concert-goer, instead preferring to enjoy music in the comfort of my home at a reasonable volume, but I saw Richard perform 11 years ago, and it was the best concert I ever saw (well, at the very least, it was the equal of seeing Tony Bennett). He performed a bunch of songs from his new album (which I hadn't heard yet), and they sounded just as great as the "classics." I almost broke down when he played I Still Dream (God, I loved that song...still do, really), and the crowd went wild when he played 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (solo, of course!). 10/10 would go again.

 

Richard is my favorite and I especially love the Richard and Linda period. I'll pick my top 10 from the Linda period. Trying to pick 10 overall would be impossible. I've seen RT a few times as a solo act and am scheduled to see him next month with a band. Expecting it will be amazing.

Night Comes In
The End Of The Rainbow
The Calvary Cross
Withered And Died
A Heart Needs A Home
Streets of Paradise
Walking On A Wire
I’ll Regret It All In The Morning
Old Man Inside a Young Man
Dimming of the Day​

 

Hardest poll yet! I give up! Some great lists, you guys.

All I can add is that Hokey Pokey (title track) makes me ridiculously happy.

 

Hard on Me (live)
Mingus Eyes
Bathsheba Smiles
Keep Your Distance
One Door Opens
Gethsemane
Uninhabited Man
Shoot out the Lights
Ride in Your Slipstream
Beeswing
I Misunderstood

 

Shoot... just get as much of his stuff as you can. You won't regret it.

 

I like to root for "Nobody's Wedding", "Wheely Down" and "Twisted" from Henry if only because those are the ones Youtube cruelly omits from that classic album.
And I think Linda sings backup on it, so...

 

Interesting... this is one of my least favorite of the songs he performs semi-regularly. Too long, lyrics too obvious, one step above "Cash Down Never Never" for me but to each his own.

We might get a more lively discussion in a "Least favorite Richard Thompson songs" thread, even if the potential pool is much smaller...

 

Good list with some less-popular tunes. I love all of these too.

 

Yep, as Linda Peters.

 

Meet On The Ledge
Waltzing's For Dreamers
From Galway To Graceland
Just The Motion
Whithered and Died
Let It Blow
Walking On A Wire
For The Shame Of Doing Wrong
I Misunderstood
Hard On Me

 

Just 8, but he can do more in 8 songs than most can do in a career.
Fully Qualified not getting much love. That song takes the paint off the walls.

1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Shoot out the Lights
Fully Qualified to be Your Man
Cooksferry Queen
Bathsheba Smiles
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Uninhabited Man
Persuasion

 

Not sure I can whittle down to a 10-best list but this seemed as good a variety of favorite tunes as any (in no particular order):

The Wrong Heartbeat
Killing Jar
Persuasion (Acoustic Classics)
Just the Motion
Don't Tempt Me (More Guitar)
Jealous Words
Beeswing
Fast Food
Crash the Party
Mother Knows Best

 

I've excluded Fairport songs from my Top 10; otherwise the 10 would be dominated by them. I saw RT in concert in Liverpool last week, and, nice surprise, he did "Tale In Hard Time", a stripped down version which worked well, and showed just how good that era-Fairport were, and how young to be doing such good things.

1. The Angels Have Taken My Racehorse Away
2. Devonside
3. Hokey Pokey
4. Tear Stained Letter
5. How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
6. Roll Over Vaughan Williams
7. Nobody’s Wedding
8. When I Get To The Border
9. A Heart Needs A Home
10. Night Comes In

I'll also mention the song "Civilisation" from the Sunnyvista LP. This is a great and fun song, I wish he'd done more in that direction. Even non-Thompson fan friends of mine love it. (Rubbish LP though!)

 

Yes!

Yes!!

Oh come on.

 

Was this with the electric trio?

 

Yes, and I've got to be honest and say I was disappointed with the concert. Although RT is one of my favourites and I have followed him for years, this electric trio doesn't seem right for RT's music, and I was bored with a lot of the show. He has disappointed me before, notably in the early 1990s, but I live for the good times!

The other two trio members went off stage at times, leaving RT to play solo acoustic, He played either "Beeswing" or "Vincent Black Lightning" (those two songs are good but very similar) and these were the best moments.

The trio had a fourth member, whose name I didn't catch. Richard introduced him as a"guitar tech". He sat beside RT on a stool playing an undiscernible guitar partially through some of the songs, between dashing off and on stage and fiddling about with leads and amps. It looked like he was an intentional part of the show, but a totally unnecessary part in my opinion.

It was a far cry from the great shows I attended in the 1980s, where RT was augmented by Clive Gregson (a fine rocking guitarist) and singer Christine Collister; and the mighty John Kirkpatrick - the Keith Richards of the accordion!

 

Thanks for the review... I'll be seeing him next month so hopefully things will be a little more "together". It's always a treat to see RT play electric IMO even if the results aren't always as consistent as his solo acoustic shows. I think the last electric show I've seen might have been when he opened for Emmylou Harris about 12(?) years ago. Then, the sound wasn't great and the audience wasn't really won over, especially by the longer "eardrum bleeders".

 

Richard Thompson is as fave a songwriter & artist as I can think of & his material working as a duo with his then wife Linda marks the absolute peak of his career for me!!!

I couldn't limit it to 10 just from those half dozen duo albums with Linda, let alone his whole career!!! But it is fun reading other folks choices