RICHARD THOMPSON Relationship
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NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN What do you believe is your primary I suppose it’s the combination of the TOOLS OF THE TRADE role as a guitarist? two that permanently scarred me. One I see myself as an accompanist. What I of the reasons we like detective fi ction Thompson’sThompson’s main guitar on his new Dream do is usually accompanying a vocal, either is that people are more interesting when Atticttic album is a Fender Stratocaster that my own or somebody else’s. If I play a they’re under pressure, when they’re in was custom-built by his guitar tech, Bobby solo, I’m really trying to extend the mood extreme situations. Someone commits a Eichhorn.Eichhorn. It features a ’57 Fender Reissue or the narrative of a song. There are a lot murder, and how they deal with it is very bodybody painted in a deep SonicSonic Blue, plusplus of guitar players I admire, but I don’t like revealing about their nature. People like that a modifi ed compound radius Fender SRV to compare them. I don’t like to say, “Chet good-versus-evil thing. neckneck fretted with jumbo narrow crowned Atkins is a better guitarist than Jeff Beck,” frets for better intonation and string bending. because at some point it all breaks down. Are you ever concerned that people will ThompsonThompson sometimes swaps in one of two Like, is Joe Satriani better than Andres confuse you with your characters? other modifi ed Fender necks, one soft V-neckV-neck Segovia? I mean, are they even playing I hope so! That’s the highest praise. Randy withwith a maple fi ngerboard for a brighterbrighter the same instrument? Hardly! Lists are Newman’s satire was so good that people tone and the feel of maple, and the other a fi ne, and on my website it says, “Named took it seriously. The satire in This Is Spinal rosewood necneckk with a slightly larger profi le. by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Tap was so good that some actually thought OnOn “Sidney“Sidney Wells,” Thompson used a Top 20 guitarists of all time.” I’ll exploit that, it was a real documentary. The closer you get KelleCasterKelleCaster Blackguard made by Rick Kelly ofof thank you very much indeed. But do I take the better, as far as I’m concerned. Carmine Street Guitars in New York City, and it seriously? Absolutely not. modifi ed with an added third pickup. Guitar Do you ever feel trapped by the designer Danny FerringtonFerrington created the green expectations of your audience? FerringtonFerrington Thompson plays on “Here Comes First of all, you are an entertainer. This is the Geordie.”Geordie.” It features a P-90 neck pickup, an job you choose to do. At one end you can Alnico Strat middle pickup, and a Broadcaster ‘I’m trying to make call it art with a small “a,” but at the other end pickuppickup at the bridge—all controlled with a it really is entertainment. So you can aspire to fi ve-position pickup selector.selector. be clever and tricky and a genius, et cetera, ForFor amplifi cation, Thompson uses a records that I but you still have to get out there on stage Divided by 13 Model FTR 37 amplifi er with a and play to people in a way that they’re not separate Divided by 13 212 cabinet fi nished think are good.’ going to fall asleep or start throwing stuff at in forest green, equipped with two differentdifferent you. (laughs) So a live show or a record is a Celestion speakers. His pedal board carries balancing act between what you want to do anan Ernie Ball volume pedal, Electro-HarmonixElectro-Harmonix Does this album have a theme? and what the audience wants to hear—and an Hum Debugger, Barber LTD Overdrive, Carl Ron Sleznak No, it doesn’t. There is something about audience is by nature a conservative body. Martin Red Repeat Delay, Fulltone Supa-Trem, when you write songs in a short period It wants to hear the stuff it already knows. Mojo Vibe chorus/vibrato and a Divided by 13 of time—they seem to have a fraternal But you can’t sit back and just play the RICHARD THOMPSON relationship. They seem to relate to each familiar material, because the audience will other. Records like Sgt. Pepper don’t really start to fade away. An eclectic guitar slinger continues a four-decade journey through music have a theme, but because the songs are written at a certain time you get the zeitgeist Are there songs you have to play? By Bob Cannon of Sgt. Pepper. Most nights I have to play “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and I have to OVER THE COURSE OF HIS LONG CAREER, RICHARD than its fair share of unexpected adventures. The 61-year-old Your songs are very dark. Why? play “Beeswing.” A couple of ballads, Thompson has become accustomed to hearing fans tell him they London native helped to found the venerated folk group Fairport As a songwriter you have to express the which is interesting. prefer the live versions of his songs over the studio takes. So for Convention while still in his teens. Upon leaving the group in 1971, highs and lows—and that’s some of the his latest album, Dream Attic, Thompson elected to cut out the Thompson cut a series of seminal folk-rock collections with then- more interesting stuff that you’re ever Is it hard to introduce new songs? middleman—all 13 songs were recorded live during a two-week wife Linda Thompson, including 1982’s landmark Shoot Out the going to write. It’s a place you go to, but I’ve found over the years that the audience American tour last February. “We basically chop out the studio Lights. Following their personal and professional split, Thompson not necessarily the place where you live. And has come to expect that. The audience process and go straight to live,” he says. “No overdubs, not a great established himself as a solo act—proving to be a relentlessly it’s important to show that to the listener as now challenges me back and says, deal of post-production on the record. It’s just as was played.” While creative instrumentalist as well as a top-notch songwriter whose a kind of shared experience. “You didn’t play any new songs tonight. the album accomplished Thompson’s goal of capturing the onstage tunes have been covered by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M. What’s going on?” Often with a live show energy generated by himself and his band, another goal remained and Robert Plant. Where does that impulse come from? you’ll think, “Here’s 50 percent songs that I stubbornly out of reach. “We were also thinking that it’s probably Earlier this year Thompson premiered Cabaret of Souls, an I was probably a strange child. My father think people would like to hear. These seem cheaper to record on the road,” he says with a laugh. “But it cost ambitious extended orchestral song cycle that he spent a year used to correspond with a playwright friend to be popular songs. And then the other almost exactly the same amount!” and a half working on. We caught up with Thompson between in New York, and they’d send each other 50 percent is what I would like to thrust Cutting an album of brand-new songs live in front of audiences shows on his current tour to discuss his constantly expanding books on criminology. Quite bizarre, really. upon the audience. Here’s some newer is only the latest twist in a musical journey that has included more body of work. So there’s a shelf of that, and I used to stuff. Here’s some weirder stuff. I think pick up those and fi nd them quite gripping. the audience, on balance, will be able Ron Sleznak Then there was a shelf of Scottish poets to absorb these.” ‘You can’t sit back and just play the familiar material, and ballads, books of traditional ballads. Switchazel.Switchazel. For shows, he plays his trademark There you had people being murdered and What’s an acceptable level of fame? LowdenLowden L32 FC equipped with a Sunrise because the audience will start to fade away.’ carried off by the fairies—different kinds It’s nice to have some anonymity. To magnetic pickup and a Countryman Isomax of criminal activity, but more historical. be famous is a curse that people wish condenser mic mounted in the soundhole. 626262 63 M mag 7_BARS.indd 62 11/17/10 5:07:55 PM M mag 7_BARS.indd 63 11/17/10 5:07:39 PM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN RICHARD THOMPSON SUGARLAND TRICKY NATASHA BEDINGFIELD JOE SATRIANI Wizard of shred LINKIN PARK Goes nuclear LIZ PHAIR Fun time Valerie Shoaps Valerie On stage in San Francisco, 2010 On stage in Seattle, 2010 WIRE AND WOOD ‘First of all, you are an entertainer. Richard Thompson is one of those rare This is the job you choose to do.’ players who is equally thought of as an acoustic and electric stylist. Accordingly, the deluxe edition of Dream Attic includes a bonus disc of acoustic demos that highlight the difference between his upon themselves, then probably regret stadiums all the time, that must be deeply, plugged-in and unplugged approaches. “As JOHN LEGEND & THE ROOTS immediately if it happens to them.