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Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2011 6:16 PM
Don't worry.....
.....I haven't become a flowery shirted, sensitive 'new age' man just yet, but this sentimental little two and a half minute ray of sunshine was written for my own little ray of sunshine, Abbi, my eldest daughter and biggest critic!!!
The challenge with writing something for her, and she's seven now, so I've had plenty of time to do it, is that everything was coming out too saccharin and not really saying what I meant despite having a ton of words.
I sat down, and told myself 'write her something simple that feels like her energy '.
So I wrote 'Simple', and here it is, recorded in one take straight through at Jono's place in St. Ouens in a session that took half an hour including set up!! Not often things like that happen, good vibes today!!
Lyrics;
I'm of the mind that a man is but a creature flawed by nature, Dumb by design, I won't exclude my own self from this picture, I know I'm the worst of my kind,
This rule of thumb was born of careful observation of the world,
Nothing's ever changed my mind..... ....until you.
Oh, it's simple Yeah but it's true Nothing I can ever do will ever make me smile like you.
And here is the song;
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Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 8:48 PM
Richard Thompson is my favourite guitarist, I may have said that before.... I'm not a fan of all the music he's put out, I think his songwriting though, has the unfortunate burden of having to live up to a few songs he's written that are simply unabashed modern classics. I have marvelled at the depth of the writing in his song Beeswing (click that to hear the man himself playing it), not only for the lyrics,imagery and storytelling prowess of it, but also the rustic sound of the melody and arrangement....it kind of lends a timeless "trad" quality to the song, like you are hearing something ancestral, not a modern ballad with a story that begins in the 1970's, which it is. He has written alot more incredible songs too, a quick look at his recently released songbook here , shows a massive three volume epic, and remember, this is only his more popular songs.....he has had an incredible output over the years, and if you go to his website Beesweb you'll find a content packed,informative and personal site, that is a world apart from record company controlled pop idols and their autonomous,cold info and "where to send your hard earned cash". He has several pages of Q&A with fans up there, and he has opined on his massive songwriting output on there, several times saying himself that he has created alot of songs that aren't quite the jems that have formed at other points in the process. But all this is a digression from his guitar playing, I just wanted to mention his songwriting, because it adds another dimension to him than other virtuoso guitar types such as Tommy Emmanuel or Andy McKee...both of whom write nice melodies, but neither has a Beeswing or Vincent Black Lightning or the like in their back catalogue. Legendary American music producer Joe Boyd said of him; "He can imitate almost any style, and often does, but is instantly identifiable. In his playing you can hear the evocation of the Scottish piper's drone and the melody of the chanter as well as echoes of Barney Kessell's and James Burton's guitars and Jerry Lee Lewis's piano. But no blues clichés." .....and it's hard to explain it any better than that really, but as a guitarist myself, and one who would aspire to Mr. Thompsons ability on the instrument myself, I can break it down somewhat and tell you what makes it for me. He has a hybrid picking style, meaning he uses his fingers and a pick simultaneously... this in itself is not that unusual, a myriad of country players, and even I myself do this. But Richard has a seemingly separate brain for each part of his hand...he can run counterpoint melodies seemingly all over the instrument, with seamless musical results. He uses open tunings alot, but the striking thing about his hybrid picking is the rythymic independence of each part...it's truly like two or more people playing together at times, which inspired me to attempt similar things in the first place. He doesn't seem confined to scales, patterns or even genres in any one part of any piece of music.....other people do this and it sounds disjointed, but not RT, he pins it together by sheer virtue of it being Richard Thompson who's playing it. And lastly, but to me one of the biggest things; Much like another favourite guitar player of mine Jeff Lang (himself influenced admittedly by Richard), RT has had a decades long viable career in music, playing gigs all over the world and selling CDs and touching the lives of many, all without the fancy clothes, projected image and fame chasing marketing strategies that so many musicians feel they need to employ. It's all about the music. If ever I had any hopes for my "career" in music, it would be that someone would oneday feel similarly about me.....a tall order, but worth trying to achieve,don't you think? So click these links for some live youtube RT moments that I feel show some sides of the man himself; The stinging acid lyrics and jarring dark melody of Crawl back with incredible playing. A band version of Crawl back with RT playing some incredible electric guitar. A whacked out, crazy guitar solo with Fairport convention here. RJ |
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