Richard Thompson (musician)
“Who?”
“Hats off, gentlemen. A genius!”
“My favourite guitarist!”
Richard Thompson is a British songwriter, guitarist and singer but is most famous for his sailing. His musical style is often described as folk-rock, meaning rock music played by people (as opposed to cow-rock or dinosaur-rock). Many of the people in the know (i.e. the people that are getting paid to write their opinions so others don't have to think for themselves) regard him as the most awesome British stringwriter and songbender of his generation. The reason he's not as popular as his more famous comtemporaries Dylan Young and Bob Neil is probably because he usually manages to sing in tune.
Life[edit]
Thompson was born in the late middle ages, not long after World War II. Little is known about his father Thomp. Thompson's first years as a professional musician was spent playing with the nuns at the Fairport Convent. There he wrote his first classic song, "A sailor's life", inspired by an earlier job. This was later famously covered by Rod Stewart. Other important tunes from this period include "Peter Gabriel's Hall" and "Meet me in Leeds."
His first solo album is rumoured to be the best selling record of all time issued on the Hannibal the Cannibal label. It topped the lists everywhere - at least in Muppet Land. This was probably due to the cover picture of Thompson posing as Kermit the Frog. Highlights include "A frog's wedding" and "Roll over Vaughan Williams, Rock'n'Roll is here to stay".
Thompson's first record with singer Linda Thompson (no relation) included such light-hearted tunes as "Where the drunkards rock'n'roll" (an inspiration for the Pogues) and "There's gold at the end of the rainbow" (an inspiration for nearly all other musicians). Other jaunty songs and albums followed until they decided to shoot out their collaborative lights in 1982 with "The Walk of Life".
A number of songs and albums followed throughout the 80's and 90's. Highlights include the anti-witch song "When the spell is broken", "I have a dream" (From the Amnesty album), "Mr. Burns supper" and "The Words of Barney", the latter two written in the 1990's while smitten by Springfield yellow fever.
Other recent projects includes leading roles in the movies "Sweet Balker dogg dogg" and "Grizzly man", in the latter presumably portraying a male grizzly.
Recordings[edit]
With Linda Thompson:
- Agh my eyes! I'm gonna shoot out the bright lights tonight (1974)
- Hanky Panky (1975)
- Pour down some quicksilver (1975)
- First light, no wait, this is the second light, I've already shot the first light out (1978)
- More jaunty songs from the sunny side of the street (1979)
- Even more lights?? Shoot them out! (1982)
Solo:
- Starring as Kermit the Frog (1972)
- Tricky tempo! (1981)
- Land of Kindness or The Streets of Paradise (1984)
- Across a Crowded House (1985)
- Darling adventures: Baby talk with Jeannie & Valerie (1986)
- Amnesty: The tide will turn (1988)
- Rummy and gin (1991)
- Blues for Lady Shalott's mirror (1994)
- You? Me? Slim chance (1996)
- Industry: A tribute to the recording industry (1997)
- Mock the Tudors (1999)
- The old hit bag: The #1's (2002)
- Oops! I did it again: 10.000 tributes to Britney Spears (2003)
- Backyard rock'n'roll (2005)