Richard has a new shirt.
Richard sang a new song.
On "Tambourine Man" with McGuinn,
Richard sang the high part.
He's hoarse.
He's intrepid.
Boffo.
Don't read this if you are going to see other McGuinn/Thompson shows and you don't want to know anything about the shows!!! :)
OK! This was a fantastic show! I have never seen RT play with any other artist and never heard any of his earlier performances with McGuinn. I am glad I got to see this rare appearance. McGuinn played a very good set, I am only familiar with his Byrds stuff so I can tell you some of those he played were "The Ballad Of Easy Rider", "You Ain't Going Nowhere", "Mr. Spaceman", and "Pretty Boy Floyd". He also did a really great song he said was on his first solo album, so I'll have to check it out! He also did a number of traditional songs, and he played 12-string acoustic, banjo, and 12-string electric (of course!). RT came out and joined him for a brilliant selection of the Byrds most famous songs. McGuinn played electric on all the songs. They started with "My Back Pages" and went through "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Turn, Turn, Turn", and then an incredible "8 Miles High" with great jamming. RT and McGuinn's vocals blended perfectly. This was worth the admission alone but of course we still had RT's set.
After an intermission RT came on stage and opened his solo set with "Mr. Rebound". He included a number of songs from Mock Tudor and I was glad to get to hear these live this time since the last time I heard them the album was not out so I was not familiar with them. The highlight for me was "Crawl Back Under My Stone" which had RT building to an intense climax, screaming the lyrics with great passion! Other songs from Mock Tudor he played were "Walking The Long Miles Home", "Uninhabited Man", "Dry My Tears And Move On" and "Cooksferry Queen" (closed the set). A surprise for me was "The Great Valerio", it was a captivating version. Some other old favorites played were "I Feel So Good", "52 Vincent", "When The Spell Is Broken", "Cold Kisses" and a version of "Shoot Out The Lights" where he forgot the words! For comedic relief there was "My Daddy Is A Mummy" which some of you have probably heard at recent shows. Then another funny number was played for the first time ever, called "I Agree With Pat Metheny". I'll have to explain the song - RT told a story about how someone asked Metheney what he thought about Kenny G. Well, Metheney said that he doesn't like to rank on folks but he had just heard that Kenny G had done a track where he overdubbed on top of Louis Armstrong, so the "gloves are off". So this song was goofing on Kenny G and it was hillarious. One line commenting on Kenny G overdubbing on Satchmo was "a meeting of minds like Einstein and Sporty Spice". This song was so new in fact RT had to read all the lyrics off a paper. :) The encores were "Dimming Of The Day" and "I Misunderstood". The auditorium was filled except for a couple rows in the back. Unlike some other billings of RT with another artist, people were obviously here to see both RT and McGuinn, and they both got standing ovations. IMO it was a perfect bill. If you can catch one of these shows don't miss it!!!
The new song is an amusing number bashing Kenny G for his recent computer-generated duet with Louis Armstrong. Very Funny.
On a whole, a great RT acoustic show, although he was little hoarse, and forgot the words to watching the dark. Also didn't think his guitar work was quite at the top of its game. However, he seemed to be really enjoying himself. Very funny, very comfortable.
Sure hope he releases "Mr. Rebound."
Call me a blasphemer, but I saw him with the MT band three times, and I like him better solo.
BTW, Roger McGuinn was absolutely terrible. When he played Ballad of Easy Rider I wondered whether he wasn't embarrassed to play it in front of OH, who did such a fantastic cover. If the room hadn't been full of aging former hippies, he probably would have been booed off the stage. Those of you going to McGuinn shows, spend the first hour of the show in the bar and walk over afterwards.
Scott Watson
scott_l_watson@hotmail.com
OK, I'm barging in again...(yeah, Ben was at the same show, but I think he's confusing Goucher with Gallaudet, which is in the same general region).
Scott said:
BTW, Roger McGuinn was absolutely terrible. When he played Ballad of Easy Rider I wondered whether he wasn't embarrassed to play it in front of OH, who did such a fantastic cover. If the room hadn't been full of aging former hippies, he probably would have been booed off the stage. Those of you going to McGuinn shows, spend the first hour of the show in the bar and walk over afterwards.
McGuinn was actually heckled. He was having a hard time keeping his 12-string in tune (he had a 12-string acoustic, a banjo, and an electric guitar that I know someone else can name-I'm blanking on the model). It was very warm in the hall, and quite humid. So he finally set the 12-string aside and said, "I'm going to switch guitars." Whereupon some rude bastard yelled something like "You should change music, too." (Scott, I hope I didn't just call you a rude bastard!)
I'm not a McGuinn fan, but a lot of people seemed to enjoy him, rude bastard notwithstanding. We (husband and I) thought he seemed very ill at ease--and we have this thing about people demanding that we sing or clap along, so we were conscientious objectors to his attempts to get us to join in.
Still, if you wait an hour before going in, you might miss some of McGuinn's performance with RT, which was pretty entertaining. RT is a generous accompanist--he really makes McGuinn sound better. And I liked "Easy Rider," though it didn't hold a candle to Fairport's version.
Assuming that the McGuinn set in Harrisburg tonight is similar to last night's, you'll definitely find me in the bar during that @%!^#$! chestnut mare song, which opened last night's show. If there is a bar. I've never been to this venue before.
By the way, last night's show started very late. I heard (unconfirmed) that the reason was that the sound crew that was supposed to set up the auditorium had been in a terrible traffic accident and had to be replaced by a new crew. I hope everyone's OK. (I think this was a local crew--not Simon, who was there, or anyone who travels with McGuinn.)
Our beloved Pam writes:
It was very warm in the hall, and quite humid. So he finally set the 12-string aside and said, "I'm going to switch guitars." Whereupon some rude bastard yelled something like "You should change music, too."
(Scott, I hope I didn't just call you a rude bastard!)
No worries Pam, I was not that rude bastard, although he did give voice to many of us in the room. I felt bad for McGuinn-- he did seem to love playing and music-- but jesus christ! I play that badly, but I only inflict it on my girlfriend and my dog. Still, I don't think it was appropriate to heckle him.
I was a little surprised that OH would stoop to play with RM, although I imagine he had little choice once he was asked.
The RM/RT contrast was striking. RM sat the entire show, including when he played electric. Isn't playing electric guitar live, seated, precluded by some kind of state or federal law? In contrast, RT was up, moving, vibrant, I dare say as energetic as I have ever seen him (10 shows in 2.5 years).
Maybe RT likes playing with RM to make him look better-- kinda like the pretty girl and her ugly friend. (OK, or the handsome guy and his ugly friend-- Don't want to catch hell here).
So Pam, how was Harrisburg?
Scott Watson
scott_l_watson@hotmail.com
So I took close friends who had never seen Richard before, and who I wasn't sure would like him, to the Towson show. They were quite taken by both his music and his humor (they hadn't expected him to be so funny...they must have absorbed that whole doom-and-gloom cliche).
One of them especially liked "Crawl Back" (or, as her husband referred to it, "that 'I'll Crawl Under the Rock With All the Worms and Have a Snack' song). She said she "identified" with it, which I found interesting because I've felt the same way about that song but I'd never spoken with her about it before.
She e-mailed me for the lyrics (and wants to borrow Mock Tudor next time we see each other); I replied with a discourse on the themes of small-mindedness and class oppression in Richard's songs. (See, I don't just drone on to strangers--I drone on to my friends, too!)
Some excerpts that might be useful to other new fans:
- - -
You're gonna be sorry you kept me engaged in this conversation. I'm currently in what I think of as "high Thompson mode"...it happens during tours. Just remember: you've known me a long time, and I *am* capable of talking about topics that have nothing to do with Richard Thompson. (Eventually.)
[I told her RT's dad was a cop, that he was a somewhat shy youngster, etc. I may have said that I've met a fair number of RT fans who think of themselves as socially awkward and/or who've felt constrained by social class.]
So he's very adept at expressing his feelings about social constraints, both political and personal. I always liked his song "Can't Win," from 1988's Amnesia. He's said it's about Thatcherite London, but I used to think it was about my family...
[Here I quoted the lyrics]
Yeah, my family wasn't *that* bad, and there was certainly no gin, but you get the idea.
By the way, I heard something interesting about small-town Southerners not that long ago. Someone said that the reason it takes a long time to get accepted in a small town, the reason the locals are suspicious of newcomers, is that they can't fathom any good reason that anyone would *choose* to have that lifestyle...so the suspicion is rooted in low self-esteem, in a way.
[More personal stuff deleted...basically about how certain of my relatives think "Pride goeth before a fall" is the First Commandment....]
Another RT song along those thematic lines is "Small Town Romance" (where the catty neighbors drive the couple apart and then say "See, she never loved him anyway"). But let me go ahead and give you the lyrics to "Crawl Back"... [which I did]
On the subject of humor, last night [at Harrisburg], when Richard started talking about Kenny G, someone in this very animated audience yelled, "He sucks!" Richard replied, "No, he blows. He sucks because he blows."
McGuinn was far better tonight (Harrisburg, 18 October 2000), though maybe it was just because I was in spitting distance (row A, seat 2...what can I do to ensure that I have this seat at every RT concert I attend for the rest of my natural life? Lordy!) and was getting the sound pretty directly, without a lot of speaker distortion. He did "Bells of Rhymney," which was a real treat. On the other hand, my clever attempt to miss "Chestnut Mare" by hanging out in the lobby bar was foiled by a rearrangement of the set list.
Speaking of rearranged set lists, Richard shook his lottery barrel tonight a wee bit. We got a lot of the same stuff as last night, but overall the set list tonight was even stronger than last night's. And he didn't seem to be in any throat distress. And he didn't flub a single line, as far as I can recall. (And there I was, up front with my cue cards....)
He opened with "Walking the Long Miles Home." I hope that someone else kept track of the rest of it. I remember these songs, not in this order (and abbreviated 'cause I'm a lazy git who should be in bed): Galway to Graceland, Ghost of You Walks, When the Spell Is Broken, Turning of the Tide, Daddy Is a Mummy, Valerio, Waltzing's for Dreamers, Dry My Tears, Uninhabited Man (I think....), Crawl Back, Valerie, Easy There Steady Now, Mingus Eyes...what have I forgotten? (Oh. Vincent. Duh.)
Someone more techie than me should describe what he did with his tuning for "Easy There Steady Now"--retuning the lowest string way down and thereby simulating Danny a wee bit.
Highlights included a somewhat more polished version of "I Agree with Pat Metheny," a Nader endorsement of sorts, a story about Ralph McTell's skewed audience demographics, and the outburst of an obviously very young attendee: "I love Richard Thompson!" to which RT gamely replied with a few bars of Raffi's "Baby Beluga."
Anomalies noted: a ball cap with a red "F" on it during the duet with McGuinn (for the main set it was back to the ol' beret/balmoral); something pink wedged in at the head of the guitar (thumbpick?); three-count-'em-three cheat sheets plus an index card from his pocket; more elaborate stage lights than I've seen at a solo show in a while. (This was a pretty posh setting--700 seats, two balconies.)
A spectacular show, well worth the drive, even without the stop for donuts.
Pam (on a sugar/caffeine high)
pmw@annapurna.com
P.S. Oh, yeah, though I was in spitting distance, I didn't spit. I got spat upon, though, however inadvertently. And I didn't really have cue cards, honestly.