Pretend for a moment that you’re a musician who’s recently celebrated your 40 th year performing and recording. You have more than 40 albums to your credit and some of your best work has been covered by the likes of Elvis Costello, David Byrne, Bonnie Raitt and Dinosaur, Jr. You have your own tribute album. You’re skillful playing has earned you a spot as the 19 th -greatest guitarist of all time in a list compiled by Rolling Stone magazine, all the while earning consistently glowing reviews. Now imagine that you’ve only seen one US album venture within the Billboard Top 200, even then at No. 97, and the general listening public has no idea who you are thanks to a near-total lack of mainstream exposure. It’s difficult to comprehend such a paradox, but that’s also a rather unsophisticated summation of the career of British electricfolk hero Richard Thompson.
Of course, a more deserving analysis of his musical impact could fill a book. Though the humble Thompson sees himself as a mere footnote in a compendium of modern music, the truth is that songwriters with a wit as elegant and incisive as he possesses are a true rarity. His songs are characterized by morbid familiarity just as much as they are their eccentric protagonists. They’re seldom rooted in allegory, but still allow room for listeners to ascribe their own meanings. Yet Thompson still exists on the fringe of an industry with a history of rewarding the insipid and instantly gratifying.
“I think you have to be true to yourself musically, which means you really have to stand apart from the mainstream,” Thompson said during a recent phone interview. “The artist should be living somewhere on the rim of society rather than in the middle of it just so you have the right perspectives. You have to take risks just so you’re not being
conventional and making conventional choices.”
While Thompson can ravage an audience with the penetrating verses of “Down Where the Drunkards Roll” and “King of Bohemia,” he can also exhibit mind-blowing mastery over his ’59 Sunburst Stratocaster on “Hard On Me” or “I Can’t Wake Up to Save My Life.” While peers like Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton were off re-creating the nonnative spirit of the American bluesman, Thompson looked to the musical history of the British Isles for inspiration. He incorporates Celtic and Arabic modes amid his love of indigenous folklore, accented by a little bit of ironic British humor. Look no further than his own cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” for solid proof of the latter. While his preferred style may not be immediately relatable to most, it also doesn’t bother him one bit that more widespread success and acceptance has eluded him for so long.
“The way people find the music is through concert and word of mouth, but it tends to mean that once people find you, they’re loyal and they stick with you because there hasn’t been much hype,” he said. “There hasn’t been this sort of artificial idea created of who you are and when people really examine your work, they’re disappointed.”
Indeed, to use the term “hardcore Richard Thompson fan” might be redundant, as it takes a sincere commitment to navigate his intimidating catalog. He was a founding member of seminal British electric folk pioneers Fairport
Convention, released some of his bestreceived work alongside then-wife Linda, spent time as a prolific session player and now he’s enjoying a fruitful solo career. He’s rewarded his faithful fans with two box sets full of rarities and obscurities, but until recently no conventional gateway to a less adventurous audience existed. That changed when Walking on a Wire: 1968 –2009, a 71-song compilation of some of his most adored material from every era, was introduced in August. Thompson is clearly not the nostalgic type, however, and the new set is by no means meant to be a retrospective. On the contrary, when asked of his favorite era of his career, Thompson alluded to his own uncultivated future.
“2009 is going very well. I think I’m always optimistic and forward-looking,” he stated. “I always think the thing I’m working on is the best thing going and I tend to forget about the things in the past.”
I think you have to be true to yourself musically, which means you really have to stand apart from the mainstream
