Leo wrote:
I have never seen/read an interview in which Verlaine specifically mentions Richard Thompson's playing but his reference to Fairport Convention in 1977-78 more than likely was primarialy his respect for Thompson's playing. (I must say I don't find their guitar playing styles or sound at all similar.)
As a big fan of both, I do see some similarities. Both have a great concern with tone and attack - the specifics of the articulation of individual notes - in their playing. Moreover, I think both of them try to address this concern with a maximum of physicality and a minimum of technology (no fuzzboxes for RT!). Admittedly, (a) that may be more true of RT than TV, and (b) I may be ignorant of what it takes technologically to achieve those seemingly natural sounds; I'm sure the gearheads will correct me if I'm wrong. However, I'd note that neither of them travels with an arsenal of guitars, instead milking the few they've got for all they're worth. In general, they avoid a lot of the cliches of the merely technically apt: no lightning speed scales, solos that don't inevitably "climax" at the bottom of the neck (if that's the right description; I mean the high notes nearer to the body than the headstock). And both avoid blues scales in favor of other modes.
On a less technical note, both have, at least in some of my favorite work by each, a questing, exploratory, even spiritual approach to soloing. Both are capable of _slow_ expressive playing as well as more showboaty stuff. In fact, RT's "Night Comes In" - one of my favorites - often seems to me like the acoustic counterpart of "Marquee Moon," each song having a slow buildup to a rather ecstatic climax, though I'd have a hard time articulating other aspects of the resemblance. (Anyone else share this sense?)
Their lyrics, on the other hand, are quite different, with Tom's surrealisms being almost entirely absent from the Thompson oeuvre.
And there's no doubt in my mind that RT's the more technically accomplished player, but it's not a terribly fruitful comparison. All I know is that both spin steel-string straw into gold, and my world is better for it.
- Jesse -------------- To post: Mail tv@obbard.com To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"