We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
There is just something different about English folk music to these American ears. We have been weaned on Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan & John Prine, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. So when you put someone like Richard Thompson on the turntable, you’re going to get an almost alien sound.
Thompson had just left Fairport Convention, that great British folk-rock group, to strike out on his own. In 1972 he released his debut solo record “Henry The Human Fly”.
From the opening chords of “Roll Over Vaughn Williams” Thompson gives you a course in the long history of English ballad singing with the added bonus of his tasty guitar playing.
You’ll need the lyrics to follow his Brit-Scottish brogue but the LP gives you some fine tunes. My faves include the aforementioned “Roll Over Vaughn Williams”. Willams was a famous British classical composer and I have no idea what the song is about…but it sounds good.
The songs are laden with characters from the shadows of society. From the door to door dreary life of “That Old Changing Way” to the working girls of “Painted Ladies” to the dreams of the poor sot in “The Poor Ditching Boy”. Other standouts include “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away” and “The New St. George” (which shows you that politicians have been screwing us for generations).
He’s got a fine array of musicians to join him on this including Fairport mates Ashley Hutchings and Sandy Denny. Unfortunately it was critically slagged at the time although some liked “the songs tinged with perversity and populated by odd-balls”. The album has been re-examined after Thompson’s later success and some have looked at it with a better view. Not every song was available for sharing but this gives you a good overview of the record.
This won’t be for everyone…but make yourself a cuppa and spend some time in the English countryside. It’s not a bad place to be when Richard Thompson is playing his guitar.
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