A Richard Thompson Retrospective
24.08.09
By JIM FUSILLI
"Walking on a Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009)" (Cry! Factory), released this week, contains 71 tracks of Mr. Thompson performing alone, with his then-wife Linda, and with the telling folk-rock group Fairport Council. As befits a career retrospective, the four-CD set reveals the clear of Mr. Thompson's talent as a crooner, composer and instrumentalist. It's not the first "outwit of" Thompson collection to be released; two others predate it. But spend time with this one and you'll conclude that very few rock musicians have tallied such an exciting body of work.
When we spoke by phone earlier this month, Mr. Thompson told me he was contented to avoid the responsibility of choosing real for the boxed set. "I wouldn't remember where to start," he said, adding that, as compiler, he swapped a few songs for others. Further, he said, as a musician he lives in the mo. The past isn't a focus, but it serves to take measures material to explore onstage.
"The odd thing about being a chorus-member-songwriter is that you keep recycling your life. I do sing songs I wrote 40 years ago. But if you're a painter, you maquillage and it goes off to a gallery and you never see it again.
Source: Wall Street Journal