LET US NOW PRAISE

See? This is why I try not to listen to music too much. I have been sitting here for two hours obsessing over Richard Thompson versions. And crying. Just some little twang or touch here or there in an unexpected place, a fresh bass line from Danny Thompson, an unusually soft and tender syllable of a word in a song I know well, just stops me. Goosebumps. Tears. Awe...

And here's where I really miss my younger brother, Carl. He was always available and enthusiastic about deconstructing songs and music. If I didn't know or understand how or why something sounded some way, or what the difference was that someone was playing a '55 Les Paul on one song and then changed to a Strat or a custom guitar on another song, he could explain, in plain English, what were the nuances and my (quite burning) curiosity would be soothed.

Not sure who took this, so no permission.

Now, my friend Kim will sit for hours and deconstruct and compare arrangements, nuances of tempo, distances from mics on vocals, recording technology, and all that stuff, although she is not as much of a guitarhead as Carl was. I visited one afternoon with a pile of cds and we spent four or five hours listening to things repeatedly, in utter communion, and that was lovely. I think we got the most hung up on RT's Guns are Tongues. Now, I suggest you really stop and check out that link. Turn up the speakers and listen at least three times. Plus, the comments on this are good and true, my favorite being "This song shows how overrated Dylan is..." I mean, I don't actually think of the mandolin as a rhythm instrument but somehow it is both lead and rhythm in certain passages of this song. (This should come as no surprise as it is RT himself playing mandolin and he plays a bass line and lead utterly uniquely.) Yeah, passages, phrases, phases. 

Here's a bit about it from RT's blog:

Hi,
I have been very moved by ‘Guns are the Tongue’s on the new album. It seems that Carrie is using her charms to recruit new members into the IRA. Is / was Carrie a real person, or based on several females that actually worked this way? I downloaded the album from ‘iTunes’ so I have no liner notes. Brilliant Album. Thanks, Richard Sanders

"Guns Are the Tongues" is as fine a song as any you've written (no mean feat, as you know much better than I). I've yet to encounter a less dogmatic, less simplistic portrait of the tragic seductiveness of terrorism. Though I'm normally loath to ask an artist to explain his work, I was curious whether the song is based on an IRA incident or whether the Carrie and Little Joe characters are entirely your own creation. Either way, thanks for opening a door that we normally don't get to see past. Jim Scheiner

This song is fiction, and not based on any real characters. Put it in Ireland if you like, but I left the setting a little vague. The politics is supposed to be more of a backdrop to the human drama.

Actually, I have to include two more little Q&A's from that installment:

Dear Richard: Have you always had the guitar-playing abilities you have now? In other words, if You in your ‘Human Fly’ days had met the You of today, in Borges-like fashion, would the younger You have been able to play songs like "Beeswing" and "1952" or would you think "How the heck did he (me) do that?" Just wondering, because your playing sounds brilliant from all eras. Thank you for the great show in Cleveland last week! Seeing a song like "One Door Opens" performed live is a real treat. Very best wishes, David Fedan.

I think I play better now – better technique, better harmonic ideas, better feel. On acoustic, I really developed some new techniques in the 80s, that my younger self could definitely not play. He can back me on rhythm, though…and I’d like to have a word with that young chap, talk some sense into him.

Richard, is it possible that, in this life, we can expect to see you and Neil Young together on stage? If not, why? hopefully, Peter Dees

Well, one of us is an unrepentant old hippie with a slightly crippled guitar style – and the other one is Neil Young! We don’t seem to move in the same circles. 


I swear RT's playing shoots sparks and lights. At least they go off in my head.

Okay, now we are at 2.5 hours but at least I digressed into writing. Now on listening to an RT/David Byrne version of Psycho Killer ... yeah, read that and weep. Killer indeed. If any of you are burning to hear my RT Faves mixes, let me know. It will be a couple of weeks before they are anywhere near finished. I just uploaded another 2 hours of RT material this morning.

Now we're on to an updated version of Phil Ochs' I Ain't Marching Anymore which RT updated after speaking to Phil's sister. Damn him. Crying again.

I've gotta gotta get busy to get ready to get down to Queens and that means laundry. Our dryer is out, so I'll have to trek out to dry it. 

Don't miss this either: Tam Lin.

Don't know if I'll be writing from New York City, but at least my ocd focus on music will have been broken.

Not sure who took this, so no permission.

BLABTHERING RT

Janine and I went to see RT at Town Hall on Saturday night. Town Hall is just off Times Square. We ran into a lot of traffic as we were "dashing" to the gig in a cab. Once we got out of the cab, I realized that Occupy Wall Street had moved up to Occupy Times Square. I wish I had taken a photo of the police cars lining 42nd Street from 6th Avenue west to Times Square. And the rows and rows of police persons. And there was not a lot of activity where we were. Overkill or prepared-ness? You be the judge.


I've seen RT quite a few times, enough so that I can neither remember nor count them all, but let's say between 20 and 30 times since 1986 or '87 ... I was a little slow to the party. I think the first time was at the Cotati Cabaret in Cotati, California, which is near Petaluma. I know I was still working at Colossal Pictures as we had a coterie that went up. My brother David and my dear friend Terry came up from Santa Cruz, which added another two hours to their trip, about 4 hours each way. The Cotati Cabaret was a former church. And we did worship that night. I remember my exhilaration during the long drive back to down to Berkeley. I didn't even regret it at work the next day.


And so it went, me seeing Richard pretty much whenever I could, catching shows in San Juan Capistrano, Boston, Seattle, Poughkeepsie besides the bigger cities I've lived in. I thought the high point might have been two years ago at City Winery at an all-request show. Janine (again!) and I had great seats and I am still amazed and humbled by his barn-burning live rendition of Hard On Me (that's a studio version there). He was a bit loathe to play it as he said it was really a live band song, but then he just played the living daylights out of it.


Undoubtedly, I could put you all to sleep (no matter when you are reading this) blabthering on about RT. This show was different in that it was so good, it was ALL so good, that I felt as if I were overating coquilles st. jacques as fast as I could. (Heart attack to heaven.) It was like shovelling brilliance at us. No modulation, no blinders, no sunglasses. The full sun of a musical genius shone right on us. The hall is smallish, the acoustics were fantastic and I had a great great view of Richard so that I could watch him play, which is about the most mesmerizing thing in my life. 


Here's what Michael Giltz said about the RT Band Dream Attic tour which stopped at Town Hall the year before (I was at a yoga retreat, okay?)


"the music built and built and built with Thompson tearing into a guitar solo that virtually lifted the crowd off its feet. (I say virtually because we actually stayed seated so we wouldn't miss a note before leaping and roaring our pleasure.) Thompson was deep into it when he slowly worked his way back out again, finally looking up at his bandmates with a look of pleasure and setting them all off on another fierce passage.

The world is filled with virtuosos, guys who can play the guitar in a fast and flashy manner. What is it about Thompson's playing that elevates it so? First, of course, the solos are musically consistent -- they follow an internal logic (often a mathematical one that we instinctively respond to even if we couldn't parse it). But Thompson's solos are never just about runs or showing off. They're also emotional journeys."

Ummm ... emotional yes. I don't know how RT could keep playing. He did three encores after a blistering 90 minutes. I was dazed. And for the first time in my life, I actually wanted him to stop. I needed to absorb the wonder that I had beheld. I had been moved to tears, goosebumps, and gasps. 

"...he's constantly illuminating while giving very little away. Serious, with flashes of dry humour, he shies away from the cult of personality. Instead, he thinks deeply about music, its function in society, how and why it does what it does, and he certainly knows his stuff. The last time we spoke, he talked knowledgeably about gangsta rap and emo, and explained why he is often drawn to darker subject matters.

"In a song, often you're dealing with slightly troubling things below the spoken desires of the audience," he said. "As a songwriter, you look for those things. Sometimes it can be unsettling for the audience, especially the ones that deal with serious subjects, but because it's entertainment you can do it and the audience will go through that process – they almost like to be unsettled. It's part of the job."

Read the rest of that article here.

My ears are still full of RT. And I get to see him again tomorrow night!