Richard Thompson at his best on acoustic guitar is far beyond mere performance, especially when he takes on such a classic song, as he clearly does here; he channels the holy magic of the universe that is music and if you'll only listen he will enable you to touch what for lack of a better word I think of as "god."
That’s the way to do it… joke and banter, make fun of your own past, acknowledge your ageing relevance… then send shivers down their backs from the first notes of the song.
Thinking of this song w/o Sandy brings tears to my eyes, but Richard has been my favorite guitar player since I purchased my import copy of "What We Did On Our Holidays" 53 years ago and his solo rendition of this folk classic testifies once again to his subtle greatness.
Nobody writes love songs, or lost-love songs, unrequited-love songs, outlaws in love songs, songs of madness and obsession, like Richard Thompson. Dimming of the Day, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Beeswing, Galway to Graceland, Devonside, Jenny, Tearstained Letter, Missy How You Let Me Down, A Poisoned Heart And a Twisted Memory, I Misunderstood.....John Hiatt has written some good broken-hearted live songs for sure, and of course there are some real good vintage country-music weepers (Today I Started Loving You Again) but Thompson is in a class of his own.
Not to mention 'I wish I was a Fool For You'. The dude is good, but I wish he would just tune his guitar, say 'One Two' and get on with it. Chatting is a mistake when you got to sing instead.
"I wish i was a fool for you again" is a lyric from the song "For Shame of Doing Wrong", from the record "Pour Down Like Silver", definitely one of the better early Richard and Linda Thompson albums....
Sandy Denny's vocal on this song, on one of the early Fairport Convention albums, is still great to hear after all these years. Sandy still moves me through the fair emotionally. I hope you are Resting In Peace Sandy.
My Mom passed over the weekend. I got to be with her. Just the two of us, and she knew I was there. After she passed I fixed her up, combed her hair and played this, and sang it it. Just stayed there until noon hour watching her glow return.
Very impressive! I am more familiar with Sandy Denny's music than Richard Thompson's, though was aware of their collaboration. I know radio djs who spun this man's music left and right, and it never grabbed me as I was spinning my own music back then, other than folk. Now that I am away from all of that, not spinning my own picks, I have been tuned-in to so much more, especially while browsing TH-cam. I gotta say, it took me a while, but this Richard Thompson, and especially this song, which I was familiar with via Fairport Convention, or Sandy Denny, really grabs me. This man is good! Very distinctive voice, very distinctive style! Thank you!
This really knocked me for a loop! Fantastically powerful! It's good to see Richard as a strapping young lad (younger than what is held generally in my mind's eye). And that unmistakable powerful Lowden... My, oh my!
This is the best version of this song out there, at least my favorite....delivered cleanly, with guitar fills that suggest the Celtic roots that this song is rooted in. Masterful performance.
Around this same time he would often perform instrumental versions of what I assume are traditional English/Irish tunes such as "The Choice Wife" and "Banish Misfortune".
"The Choice Wife" is on a Newport folk fest CD, musically it's like diamonds glinting in the sunlight....though it is mispelled as The Choke Wife , ouch....Banish Misfortune comes from the Strict Tempo cd.
I can pick up a guitar every other hour for the rest of my life, be it ten, twenty thirty years and I will never get near this guy. I've been trying for forty years already. What a player.
@@tomdevlin9274 Now we shouldn't compare musicians like this, but they say that Bert Jansch was the No 1 acoustic player. And he was great, but I wonder if they didn't forgot RT then. I like him really even better as an acoustic guitarist, he has developed tremendously there during the years.
Richard is intelligent and very funny. IHe's quite right about the names of sixties bands. It take real intelligence to toss off a line like "So many hits, so little time". Typical of our day and age that someone of his brilliance is under-recognized. If only he had dancing back-up singers dancing in their underwear wearing pointy bras.
I've always loved this song. I play it on the dulcimer - already tuned just right. ;) When it comes to Richard Thompson, Americans are missing out. People just don't know about him.
Fairport was the name of the house they used to rehearse in. It was a "convention" at the house. Fotheringay was the band that Sandy joined after leaving FP. He gracefully and humourously handles the hecklerat 0:58.
one of my favorite quips from Richard to a drunken audience member, at the Newport Folk Festival some years back, was this: "I'm sorry, I haven't got my Dick Tracy decoder ring with me today".
"My dead love came to me... And she said, 'It will not be long till our wedding day...' " Last night she came to me, My dead love came in So softly she came That her feet made no din As she laid her hand on me And this she did say It will not be long, love, 'Til our wedding day
I was at this show. Since it was Bumbershoot, we entered one of the auditoriums at McCaw Hall which was fairly dark about an hour early to get a decent seat.. Felt a bit odd to go indoors as almost of other acts performed on outdoor stages on glorious September day. It was a good sized enthusiastic crowd which RT played off of. He was introduced by Marty Reimer of local station KMTT; one of the few commercial (as opposed to community/NPR etc) stations that played RT's music. RT has always had a good following in Seattle. Once joking to the audience that all he saw were "grizzled old men with white beards instead nubile young women he hoped for:."
Why do these people who go to a concert to hear an artist--especially an acoustic artist--insist in talking throughout the show? Geez, it is not about you, pal. Please allow others to experience the moment.
All this time and I just found out that 'lack of kine' means not having cows i.e. cattle which a suitor was expected to have to show the parents of a prospective bride that he was a man of means.
That guitar works evokes some long ago shared human past where we sat by fireside divining how to survive another day with the dark surrounding all around.
Richard's guitar playing is just so unfair - try playing like he does and you will want to quit and become a janitor instead. No need for a Marshall stack when you can make an acoustic sing like this. Between him and Lindsey Buckingham, I'm glad I'm just the bassist.
i've heard many versions of this song & liked most of them.this is the 1rst time i heard this one although i think the singing leaves a little to be desired, i think the guitar plaing was genius.
Folks who are saying its a Lowden and not a Martin are correct. The 65 Martin 000-18 has been retired for decades, and is not a cutaway. Folks who suggest that this guy is pretentious are incorrect. He may seem to be hyper between songs, but that is just his schtick ... when beat #1 of measure #1 of this song (or any song he plays) hits, how can one say, upon witnessing the performance, that he is not completely into the deep zone. Actually I guess you could say it ... but it's just not so
Er.... No. The End has one string dropped one tone. This has another three changed. DAGDBE as opposed to DADGAD. At least you're hearing the key though.
Richard Thompson at his best on acoustic guitar is far beyond mere performance, especially when he takes on such a classic song, as he clearly does here; he channels the holy magic of the universe that is music and if you'll only listen he will enable you to touch what for lack of a better word I think of as "god."
That’s the way to do it… joke and banter, make fun of your own past, acknowledge your ageing relevance… then send shivers down their backs from the first notes of the song.
Thinking of this song w/o Sandy brings tears to my eyes, but Richard has been my favorite guitar player since I purchased my import copy of "What We Did On Our Holidays" 53 years ago and his solo rendition of this folk classic testifies once again to his subtle greatness.
A haunting magical performance from a massive influential artist.Love DADGAD
Nobody writes love songs, or lost-love songs, unrequited-love songs, outlaws in love songs, songs of madness and obsession, like Richard Thompson. Dimming of the Day, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Beeswing, Galway to Graceland, Devonside, Jenny, Tearstained Letter, Missy How You Let Me Down, A Poisoned Heart And a Twisted Memory, I Misunderstood.....John Hiatt has written some good broken-hearted live songs for sure, and of course there are some real good vintage country-music weepers (Today I Started Loving You Again) but Thompson is in a class of his own.
Not to mention 'I wish I was a Fool For You'. The dude is good, but I wish he would just tune his guitar, say 'One Two' and get on with it. Chatting is a mistake when you got to sing instead.
"I wish i was a fool for you again" is a lyric from the song "For Shame of Doing Wrong", from the record "Pour Down Like Silver", definitely one of the better early Richard and Linda Thompson albums....
This was a poem by padriac colum 5:31
This is an ancient IRISH song, not British
Best performance of this song that I've ever heard.
Have you heard Sandy Denny singing this?
@@stuboyd1194 Yes. It's beautiful.
Love this version❤
Mmm, what about Van Morisson & the Chieftans?
Just heard Hovier do it up right.
Sandy Denny's vocal on this song, on one of the early Fairport Convention albums, is still great to hear after all these years. Sandy still moves me through the fair emotionally. I hope you are Resting In Peace Sandy.
Now this is what (the quality of musician/songwriter/singer) you want to aspire to kids........authentic, original, majestic.
Love Sandy's version of blackwater side❤
This is lovely❤
Absolutely love this song. That guitar playing is hauntingly beautiful. Thankyou 🙏
My Mom passed over the weekend.
I got to be with her. Just the two of us, and she knew I was there.
After she passed I fixed her up, combed her hair and played this, and sang it it.
Just stayed there until noon hour watching her glow return.
..and she moved through the fair.
Johann Bogason thanks. I saw Richard last February front row seats.
Awesome
I love this song! I can't get it out of my head. Too many memories I suppose.
Fantastic song, Amazing guitarist.
chilling, haunting, & absolutely beautiful ... Miss Denny's perfect counterpoint ... thanks so much for the upload
Try this version th-cam.com/video/fD0V1sdGi88/w-d-xo.html
Very impressive! I am more familiar with Sandy Denny's music than Richard Thompson's, though was aware of their collaboration. I know radio djs who spun this man's music left and right, and it never grabbed me as I was spinning my own music back then, other than folk. Now that I am away from all of that, not spinning my own picks, I have been tuned-in to so much more, especially while browsing TH-cam. I gotta say, it took me a while, but this Richard Thompson, and especially this song, which I was familiar with via Fairport Convention, or Sandy Denny, really grabs me. This man is good! Very distinctive voice, very distinctive style! Thank you!
What a wonderful voice! His playing is almost angelic. Great posting. Thank you.
A haunting rendition of an amazing song
This really knocked me for a loop! Fantastically powerful! It's good to see Richard as a strapping young lad (younger than what is held generally in my mind's eye). And that unmistakable powerful Lowden... My, oh my!
Great lowden I seen one for sale on eBay for 4K I was tempted 😃😃I live 10 miles from the lowden factory some beautiful guitars 🎸🎸🎸🎸🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪Brian Ireland
This brought tears to my eyes
Try the version by John Martyn - also very intense th-cam.com/video/fD0V1sdGi88/w-d-xo.html
Best performance of this song ever! Magic guitar sound❤️
This is the best version of this song out there, at least my favorite....delivered cleanly, with guitar fills that suggest the Celtic roots that this song is rooted in. Masterful performance.
Around this same time he would often perform instrumental versions of what I assume are traditional English/Irish tunes such as "The Choice Wife" and "Banish Misfortune".
"The Choice Wife" is on a Newport folk fest CD, musically it's like diamonds glinting in the sunlight....though it is mispelled as The Choke Wife , ouch....Banish Misfortune comes from the Strict Tempo cd.
Try this version
Astounding performance!
He offers to take you back to the 1960s, then he takes you back to the 960s.
I can pick up a guitar every other hour for the rest of my life, be it ten, twenty thirty years and I will never get near this guy. I've been trying for forty years already. What a player.
@@tomdevlin9274 Now we shouldn't compare musicians like this, but they say that Bert Jansch was the No 1 acoustic player. And he was great, but I wonder if they didn't forgot RT then. I like him really even better as an acoustic guitarist, he has developed tremendously there during the years.
@@hni7458 I heard Bert Jansch do this it was lively,but this blows my mind❤
@@josefinagarza241
Awesome
Can’t think of anyone I’ve listened to that can match the performance of this tune.
Try this one th-cam.com/video/fD0V1sdGi88/w-d-xo.html
Sandy Denny vocals on the Fairport version with RT on Guitar. No one but no one tops the great Sandy Denny! RIP Sandy x
love this!!
I keep coming back to experience this performance. Wonderful... thank you Richard and thank you Joni36 for posting!
Yeah. It's wonderful
Mystical guitar work. Just beautiful.
Richard is intelligent and very funny. IHe's quite right about the names of sixties bands. It take real intelligence to toss off a line like "So many hits, so little time". Typical of our day and age that someone of his brilliance is under-recognized. If only he had dancing back-up singers dancing in their underwear wearing pointy bras.
Id pay to see that....
@@wingandaprayer Dave beat me to it but yes Grant Hurlburt love Richard and been watching this particular clip since it was first posted
Superb. Fairport's version of this was, to my mind, the best thing they ever did.
bloody outstanding!
A gem. Thanks for posting!
Beautiful rendition.✨
Fan bloody tastic. No one comes close to the master
amazing guitar playing
I've always loved this song. I play it on the dulcimer - already tuned just right. ;)
When it comes to Richard Thompson, Americans are missing out. People just don't know about him.
sciencebabe i would love to hear this on your dulcimer
sciencebabe i would love to hear this on your dulcimer
I'm American and I've heard of him...
Word is that he is better known in the US than in the UK.
Fairport was the name of the house they used to rehearse in. It was a "convention" at the house. Fotheringay was the band that Sandy joined after leaving FP. He gracefully and humourously handles the hecklerat 0:58.
one of my favorite quips from Richard to a drunken audience member, at the Newport Folk Festival some years back, was this: "I'm sorry, I haven't got my Dick Tracy decoder ring with me today".
Makes you wonder what portion of the crowd picked up on RT's intro. He's such a class act in general besides being a remarkable songwriter/guitarist.
How does he play guitar like that? Superb!
Excellent music as always, but I was particularly impressed at how well he handled a boisterous crowd.
"My dead love came to me... And she said, 'It will not be long till our wedding day...' "
Last night she came to me,
My dead love came in
So softly she came
That her feet made no din
As she laid her hand on me
And this she did say
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day
I was at this show. Since it was Bumbershoot, we entered one of the auditoriums at McCaw Hall which was fairly dark about an hour early to get a decent seat.. Felt a bit odd to go indoors as almost of other acts performed on outdoor stages on glorious September day. It was a good sized enthusiastic crowd which RT played off of. He was introduced by Marty Reimer of local station KMTT; one of the few commercial (as opposed to community/NPR etc) stations that played RT's music. RT has always had a good following in Seattle. Once joking to the audience that all he saw were "grizzled old men with white beards instead nubile young women he hoped for:."
brilliant man, right here...
I remember Beat Dancing, that was pretty Cool then!
I Love Richard Thompson...Great musician and entertainer :-)
That was scary and I love it.
Why do these people who go to a concert to hear an artist--especially an acoustic artist--insist in talking throughout the show? Geez, it is not about you, pal. Please allow others to experience the moment.
Bob Dylan's shows used to be almost silent while he played - folks hanging on every word...we don't see that too much anymore
All this time and I just found out that 'lack of kine' means not having cows i.e. cattle which a suitor was expected to have to show the parents of a prospective bride that he was a man of means.
Yup. I've noticed this in every version. It's because "kine" just isn't a word we use any more so everyone hears "kind."
Thank you 😊
Oh gosh I was there!
i'm putting this on myspace come back through the paisley corridors of time
Amazing that so many people are talking in the audience it seems rude and stupid and disrespectful to such a great artist
Just plain rude and disrespectful
That guitar works evokes some long ago shared human past where we sat by fireside divining how to survive another day with the dark surrounding all around.
Incredible!
Oh that would be good I have to look for it... thanks
Also: read his book. Fascinating and moving memoirs. Beeswing.
He said fotheringport confusion which is a mash up of two bands names Fotheringay and fairport Convention.
A great version!
Richard's guitar playing is just so unfair - try playing like he does and you will want to quit and become a janitor instead. No need for a Marshall stack when you can make an acoustic sing like this. Between him and Lindsey Buckingham, I'm glad I'm just the bassist.
one of the very greats
The Paisley corridors. Great band name there! I saw them once at ...well never mind...
Actually, "Urge for Going" was written by Joni Mitchell, and covered by Tom Rush. As for RT's playing, I have no superlatives to describe my awe.
beautiful
awesome stuff
@sternecaugek The guitar is actually a Lowden F series. Not sure which model exactly though.
Brilliant.
Guitar magician.
awesome
Van Morrison does a great version too
Down the Paisley corridors of time ...classic!
great song
Anybody have any idea what song the heckler at the start asks for? I can't figure it out.....
a great performance from a great performer.
Superb playing,,,,,C
Paisley Corridors...
Love u r.t.
Great song with slick witty repartee. Anyone know what tuning RT used here? Thanks!!
@joni36 It doesn't look remotely like a Martin. It's a Lowden. His gear details are on his website.
Is it me,…or is there a hint of “The End” by the Doors in his guitar playing?
It's DADGAD tuning. The chords are mostly C major and D major, with G major thrown in here and there.
Is he playing DADGAD?
@joni36 no cut out on an 000-18 mate
@joni36 Are you sure that's not his Lowden?
Listen to the version Shane MacGowan does. That’s a cool arrangement too.
That is a cedar and walnut lowden model F with a sunrise pickup.
@joni36 I think you will find it is a Lowden.
This is great... if I could only stop thinking of Sandy Denny singing it. Damn it, she'd be 62 this year.
@sternecaugek -----It's his main Lowden, when it was relatively new. he still plays this one, but he has a signature model now.
he recently got on stage with hugh cornwell an old friend any footage?
👍💙
What tuning is he using ?
holy cow
@sternecaugek It's a Lowden- Made in Northern Ireland.
Wow
the best
I love his line: "So many hits, so little time" Wonderful!
+Arielle Hart
& "come with me down the paisley corridors of time" ... hilarious
@caferive It was 1990 - everyone did!
Sweet! Is that DADGAD tuning?
The song belongs to Sandy but the music belongs to my friend DAVEY GRAHAM. Much love and sadly missed. Nice cover by RT
i've heard many versions of this song & liked most of them.this is the 1rst time i heard this one although i think the singing leaves a little to be desired, i think the guitar plaing was genius.
God is Good
My favourite singer of this song is Anne Briggs but Richard is up there .
Folks who are saying its a Lowden and not a Martin are correct. The 65 Martin 000-18 has been retired for decades, and is not a cutaway.
Folks who suggest that this guy is pretentious are incorrect. He may seem to be hyper between songs, but that is just his schtick ... when beat #1 of measure #1 of this song (or any song he plays) hits, how can one say, upon witnessing the performance, that he is not completely into the deep zone. Actually I guess you could say it ... but it's just not so
Yup! Dates back from his time with Fairport Convention. Guess it was something like 1967.
Dates back to maybe medieval times in IRELAND!
@sternecaugek Most likely it's one of his Lowdens.
Er.... No. The End has one string dropped one tone. This has another three changed. DAGDBE as opposed to DADGAD. At least you're hearing the key though.
There should have been a mention of Davey Graham's great arrangement of this traditional Irish song.
Keith Armstrong And here it is!