Re: (TV) Richard Thompson

[Jeffrey Germaine <jpg55@attbi.com>]

Right on!
Very well said.

> From: Jesse Hochstadt <Jesse_Hochstadt@brown.edu>
> Reply-To: tv@obbard.com
> Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 21:53:40 -0500
> To: tv@obbard.com
> Subject: Re: (TV) Richard Thompson
> 
> 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
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