Re-Up Date : Richard Thompson - The Life & Music of Richard Thompson [2006] (5 x CDs) + Bonus | Butterboy + Richard Thompson BBC 4 Session - Goodbye TVC-2013

Often Butterboy updates his links to special volumes he has shared with us and I do check on them regularly but I figure most folks do this when they are looking for something in particular but this one caught the eye this morning (something to do with being an indispensable classic!?)

 Richard Thompson - The Life & Music of Richard Thompson [2006] (5 x CDs) + Bonus

Butterboy notes:  Richard Thompson - The Life & Music of Richard Thompson [2006] (5 x CD's) + Bonus

For Richard Thompson fanatics (and those who admire the brilliant songwriter and virtuoso guitarist tend to be quite ardent about him), this five-disc set of obscurities, outtakes, live performances, and previously unreleased material is the holy grail. Earlier releases from Free Reed found the label mining the riches of British folk-rock from the likes of Fairport Convention (which featured Thompson in its most popular incarnation), but here they've hit the mother lode. This isn't the place for a newcomer to start with Thompson, as other "best-of" anthologies and career-spanning compilations might provide a better introduction. Instead, this is a treasure trove that will offer discovery for even the most devoted fan. Each disc has a theme--epic ballads, discarded songs, the essential canon--with the disc of cover versions particularly fascinating. From performance tapes, Thompson makes everything from the Who's "Substitute" and Squeeze's "Tempted" to the traditional "Danny Boy" and "Shenandoah" sound like his own. The expansive selection illuminates Thompson as an artist of great range and subtlety, humor and heart, from the intimacy of his solo acoustic performances to galvanizing, electrically charged renditions of masterpieces such as "Shoot Out the Lights," "For Shame of Doing Wrong," and "Calvary Cross."   (Amazon)

A sixth CD "RT on FR" is offered free of charge by returning a coupon included in the 5,000 box sets. (included in this post). 

The tracks date from 1971 (the year RT left Fairport convention) to 2005 (including two tracks recorded specifically for this project. There are twelve tracks from the seventies and the rest are fairly equally distributed over the next three decades. 

If you haven’t got it and are a Thompson fan (who isn’t?!) have at it - you should really have this!

You won’t regret it!

WHY?

Well this  . . . . . .. saying Goodbye to BBC TV Centre

with Kami Thompson

Richard Thompson BBC 4 Session - Goodbye TVC-2013

if you listen to one thing I post today , , , ,  .   .    . make it THIS

As part of the Goodbye TV Centre celebrations, guitarist, singer and songwriter Richard Thompson plays a one-off concert filmed in TC8.

Thompson has been performing in BBC TV studios since 1969, starting on Top of the Pops with Fairport Convention and then making frequent appearances on the Old Grey Whistle Test, The Late Show and Later with Jools Holland as a solo artist and bandleader.

Filmed before the opening night of the tour celebrating the Top 20 placing of his album Electric, Thompson leads his current power trio through songs from that album, including Salford Sunday and Stony Ground, alongside classics from his songbook like I Want to See the Bright Lights and Tear Stained Letter. Thompson is joined on a couple of acoustic songs by former Fairport bandmate and master fiddler Dave Swarbrick, frequent collaborator Pete Zorn adds sax to Al Bowlly's In Heaven and his daughter Kami Thompson harmonises on Waltzing for Dreamers.

Filmed before a small studio audience in the bare style of some of the previous BBC music shows on which Thompson has appeared, this concert celebrates Thompson and a tradition of popular music performance from TV Centre.

1. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

2. I'll Never Give It Up

3. Good Things Happen to Bad People

4. Salford Sunday

5. Medley: a) Wishing, b) Victors' Return, c) Gravel Path to Granny

6. Waltzing's for Dreamers

7. Stony Ground

8. Sally B.

9. Al Bowlly's in Heaven

10. Saving the Good Stuff for You

11. Tear Stained Letter