Steve Peck writes: Richard Thompson’s mind-boggling catalog of extraordinary songs makes it nearly impossible to know them all. Today’s Song of the Day is a latter-day classic that may have slipped the mind. Fittingly, it features his musical brother, the late, great Danny Thompson, on double bass.
The other day, I was listening to an old Brit-folk CD-R that I made twenty-some years ago. Up popped a Richard Thompson song I had totally forgotten about—Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne from 2003’s The Old Kit Bag. I was flabbergasted. How in the world did I lose track of this song, and why isn’t it considered one of his great classics?
Ironically, the answer might lie with Thompson himself. He’s just too damn good for fans to keep up with.
Since the 1960s, it’s hard to find another artist with such a consistently excellent career as Richard Thompson. While many of his contemporaries in both folk and rock have had their share of creative peaks and valleys, Thompson has forged ahead, maintaining an exceptionally high standard—a level few have ever reached, even at their best.
Photo: Richard Thompson – RT Facebook page
Like clockwork, you can count on the good King Richard to put out another fine album every couple years.
Still, he’s best remembered for his storied days with Fairport Convention, his partnership with Linda Thompson, and his incredible run from 1985 to 1996. But since then, he’s released the equivalent of eleven albums of fresh material.
Richard Thompson in 1970 – Photo: Fotoburo De Boer – Noord-Hollands Archief
Considering the listening patterns of most music fans, it’s no surprise that longtime acolytes usually reach for the records from his earlier days—the ones where they first fell in love with his music.
Although I endeavor to stay current, I fall into the same pattern. That means a lot of his latter-day albums haven’t gotten my full attention. I’ll hear the latest one and think “that’s pretty darn good,” and then go back to I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight the next time I need a RT fix.
It’s like—ho-hum, another excellent Richard Thompson album.
That kind of casual dismissal—even though it’s positive—does a disservice to his recent work. If fans gave these recent albums deeper listens, I bet we’d add plenty of new favorites to our already massive list of Thompson treasures. While nothing may reach the stellar heights of Dimming of the Day or Beeswing, you’ve gotta ask: what does? Is it even fair to make that comparison?
As for Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne, it’s classic Richard Thompson—a ballad about a woman who gets dumped by her partner at a roaring New Year’s Eve party. Although her emptiness is devastating, she endures by “wearing my smile like a mask and I’ll care for each stranger I kiss.”
This elegiac gem has one of those memorable choruses that makes you want to grab a pint and sing along. Richard gives a rousing vocal performance, and his sweet acoustic guitar licks help soften the woman’s bitter pill.
And sometimes you never connect with a song
Till it’s telling the way that you feel
Putting words to your story, all the pain and the glory
How can it be written so real
Truth that. Another golden moment for the good King Richard.
Even though I’ve listened to all his newer albums—and own most of them—I still have lots of RT homework to do. That said, I do know enough to share a couple of my more recent favorites.
When I Was Drunk from his 2021 EP Serpent Tears.
And another:
She Never Could Resist a Winding Road for 2015’s Still.
Steve Peck also writes at his Facebook music blog Hickory Notes.
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