Richard Thompson is one of the most revered guitarists and singer/songwriters in the world. A member of the pioneering Fairport Convention, Thompson has gone on to create a vast and legendary body of work since breaking away from Fairport.

We’ve been following RT’s solo career for years, and his shows never fail to disappoint. The usual formula is that he’ll perform a selection of tracks from his latest album, before moving on to the comfort zone – the ‘hits’ as he’s inclined to define them. And, of course we love them – Wall of Death, Tear Stained Letter, Bright Lights, Beeswing, Vincent Black Lighting, From Galway to Graceland – the list is inexhaustible. It isn’t without good reason that Richard Thompson sits up there, alongside Ray Davies, on the top step of the podium of British songwriters. However, if you count his work with ex-wife Linda, we reckon that Richard Thompson has some 26 albums under his belt and, within that extensive catalogue, there are a whole load of gems that never/rarely seem to appear in Richard’s live set. But what if some of them did…?

Here, ATB’s Dom and John dig into his hefty back catalogue and pick out 13 deeper cuts; gems tucked away in amongst his brilliant discography as a solo artist and from his output with Linda Thompson.

As ever, this is just our opinion. We’d love to hear yours!

ROLL OVER VAUGHN WILLIAMS – HENRY THE HUMAN FLY (1972)

It was 1973 before I (John) had my Fairport Convention epiphany. Up until then, they’d been a band that filled the grooves on the impressive sequence of those enduring Island Records sampler albums. But, when the message hit, it hit with the force of a hurricane and it left an impression that remains to this day. Richard had left the band that he’d helped to form a couple of years before I realised what I’d been missing, but his shadow still loomed, and my initial exploratory delves into the Fairport back catalogue confirmed what a significant presence he’d been. But, it wasn’t until I’d delved a little deeper and discovered Richard’s amazing – and criminally under-rated – 1972 solo album, Henry The Human Fly that the immensity of his talent really hit home. It’s an album that’s packed with dark, off-kilter classics and the album’s opening track, Roll Over Vaughan Williams is -maybe – the pick of the bunch. Dour lyrics, a chorus that insists you join in, even though you don’t really understand it, and a guitar solo that blends eastern influences with the best of Scottish tradition – there was a pattern being laid here, although we perhaps didn’t realise it at the time. (JB)

SMIFFY’S GLASS EYE – HOKEY POKEY (1975)

Whenever those willing to peel away the layers of doom and despair that, to the casual listener, seem to pervade the work of Richard Thompson, they always discover a vein of light heartedness. But – it’s light-heartedness, Jim, but not as we know it. Take Smiffy’s Glass Eye for example – the smooth-as-silk danceable tune that followed the violent, suicidal, self-hating I’ll Regret It All in the Morning in the running order on side one of Richard & Linda’s 1975 album, Hokey Pokey. It’s bright, it’s breezy and it’s catchy. It makes you want to embrace the world and shout “hallelujah!” until, that is, you listen to Richard’s lyrics and realise that this is a song about a child who was half-blinded by a friend and was bullied so relentlessly that he took his own life, Linda delivers a typically wonderful vocal and Richard chips in with a comic faux-Scottish accent in the spoken-word interlude, and it proves that it’s possible to jolly, and jolly depressing, in the same song. (JB)

CIVILISATION – SUNNYVISTA (1979)

Even Richard Thompson has publicly stated that he doesn’t really like Sunnyvista, but I (John) still reckon that Richard & Linda’s bitter, cynical, 1979 album is a hidden gem. It’s a bittersweet album that combines the hard rock – almost punky – flavourings of songs like Borrowed Time, You’re Going to Need Somebody and the title track with the country rock of Saturday Rolling Around and the sentimentality of Sisters and Traces of My Love. But, it’s the album’s title track that grabs the listener by the unmentionables and flings him/her into a fast-flowing tide of Richard’s guitars and John Kirpatrick’s frantic accordion. Richard’s lyrics are scathing and venomous – “They’re not human,” and “They eat food I wouldn’t give to my dog” and a scathing put-down of the robotic manipulation that would later give us Boris Johnson and Brexit. But wasn’t he right? (JB)

DEVONSIDE – HAND OF KINDNESS (1983)

It was a quick and mighty comeback when it happened. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that quite a bit of recovery time would be needed after Richard and his wife Linda suffered their acrimonious split in the wake of their well-received yet chaotic 1982 US tour. The pair’s final album together – Shoot Out The Lights – took us all by storm; it was surely their finest achievement together. How could either of the pair possibly hope to reach those kind of heights again in the wake of such personal turmoil? And yet. Richard pulled a bunch of his friends together to form a core band: Simon Nicol on guitar, Dave Pegg on bass , Dave Mattacks on drums, Pete Zorn on sax, John Kirpatrick on squeezeboxes and Clive Gregson on backing vocals, and off they went to Olympic Studios to lay down the tracks for one the all-time greats of comeback records. Hand of Kindness was a revelation and the most revelatory song of the lot was Devonside, a desolate tale of a desolate meeting between two desperate people. Richard’s lyrics are chilling and his guitar solos send shivers down the spine . It’s perfect, and it seemed to come from nowhere. (JB)

HOW WILL I EVER BE SIMPLE AGAIN – DARING ADVENTURES (1986)

When Daring Adventures, Richard’s 1986 album, first appeared, it was greeted less than enthusiastically by the waiting music press. Writing in Q Magazine, scribe Colin Irwin said words along the lines: “This won’t be the Richard Thompson album that I take to my grave.” Attitudes soon changed and, again as I recall, the album made the mag’s year-end list of top albums. But, even as he retained his cynical attitude, Irwin had to admit that How Will I Ever Be Simple Again was a song in a class of its own. Like several of his greatest songs, it’s just Richard alone with his acoustic guitar and his lyrics are devastatingly brilliant. Apparently about dealing with the fallout of paramilitary action in divided Belfast, it’s a song that I, like – I suspect – many others have adopted for my own purposes. Lines like “I wanted to weep and my eyes ached from trying,” “her smile was so clear and my heart was so troubled” and – especially – “O teach me to see with your innocent eyes, love” have helped me on countless occasions to overcome the grief of loss or bereavement. It’s a song that I hijacked to turn into a coping mechanism. Thanks Richard. (JB)

CAN’T WIN – AMNESIA (1988)

A song of contradiction that is placed just before the beautiful Waltzing’s For Dreamers on 1988’s Amnesia.

Can’t Win builds and builds with the lyrics of contradiction and the gradual layering of music. There are backing singers giving a harmonic touch as well as some earthy organ loitering in the mix.

Front and centre is obviously Thompson who sings with bite before tearing off a blazing solo as the song fades away. In Thompson’s live set, this song has been extended with Thommo getting into ‘that place’ he goes to when soloing. (DW)

I CAN’T WAKE UP TO SAVE MY LIFE – MIRROR BLUE (1994)

Richard’s 1994 album, Mirror Blue, is revered principally because it’s the home of Beeswing – without doubt, one of the finest songs ever written. By anyone, anywhere. But there’s more to Mirror Blue than just that one song, and I Can’t Wake Up to Save My Life is a gem. It’s a surging rocker, played by a tight band and Mitchell Froom’s production is polished and faultless. There’s the requisite amount of horror and disgust in Richard’s lyrics, but I Can’t Get Up has an energetic joyfulness that is impossible to ignore. (JB)

PUT IT THERE PAL – YOU? ME? US? (1996)

The double electric/acoustic album, You? Me? Us? seemed to represent some kind of landmark when it was released back in 1996, but time seems to have passed it by in the intervening years and it doesn’t get revisited half as much as it should. It’s full of great songs – Razor Dance, Bank Vault in Heaven and Cold Kisses are just three such examples and this one, Put It There Pal is my pick of the bunch. It’s Richard at his most cynical, as he spits out lines like: “When you pat me on the back, that was quite some slap, That kind of compliment could kill a chap ,” and “Some say you’re a rattlesnake in the grass, but I say the sun shines out of your arse,” and the guitar solo is glorious as it builds and builds from understated to dominant. I recall a Friday evening back in 1996 when Richard set the Cropredy night on fire with this song. That’s an experience that I’d like to have again. (JB)

DRY MY TEARS AND MOVE ON – MOCK TUDOR (1999)

Dry My Tears And Move On is more of a straightforward ballad. One of yearning for clarity and one wanting to be able to move on.

Whilst we talk of Thompson and his skill on the guitar, this song really showcases how great and versatile Richard’s singing voice is. As he sings the ‘Faded love…’ section, you can hear the fragility and strain that Thompson wants to bring to the narrator.

Faded love
As if you need a reason
Am I out of your dreams
Or just out of season
Oh the flame of love
Oh you wouldn’t understand
You hide it in your heart
You don’t hold it in your hand

The use of brass as the song moves into its final furlong really adds to the drama. For me, it feels a little like Elvis Costello’s Alison in it’s structure and style. It is a beautiful song that has been played over the years but is tucked away in the midfield of Mock Tudor and deserves more of a light shone it. (DW)

ONE DOOR OPENS – THE OLD KIT BAG (2003)

The Old Kit Bag is another of Richard’s oft-overlooked albums, but One Door Opens is a song that I’ve returned to again and again over the years. It’s another song that I’ve adopted as coping mechanism, this time to help me put the occasional setbacks I’ve encountered – in personal and professional life – behind me and to move on. It’s taught me that there’s always something just as good as whatever it is that I missed, lurking just around the corner. Of course, this being a Richard Thompson song, the lyrics aren’t quite as straightforward as that – his struggles with an inability to retain and nurture relationships can sound harsh and offhand, but a song means what the listener wants it to mean – that’s what I say. And, to cap it all, Richard plays some glorious mandolin, and Judith Owen’s backing vocals are divine. (JB)

TAKE CARE THE ROAD YOU CHOOSE – SWEET WARRIOR (2007)

Take Care The Road You Choose is a lamenting and cautionary tale about taking a moment to when there are things to figured out.

The song ambles on at a canter, rarely straying from the tempo. Thompson delivers the vocals with a worn-ness; you can hear and feel the emotion of the song in his delivery. Naturally, the song is embellished with Thompson’s signature guitar style; the solo in the song compliments the emotion of the piece. (DW)

IF LOVE WHISPERS YOUR NAME – DREAM ATTIC (2010)

Like Take Care The Road You Choose, If Love Whispers Your Name opens up at a canter and builds slowly, but majestically.

Such was Thompson’s faith in the material for Dream Attic, If Love Whispers Your Name is cut live. Multiple lead guitar parts punctuate the growth of the song with an ever increasing snarl in the vocals.

For me (Dom), this is one of Richard Thompson’s finest solos on a song. I’m no musician but the fury that comes within this solo is spine tingling and gets me every time. The aforementioned ‘place’ is reached in grand fashion. Behind him, the band reciprocate with vigour in the drumming and bass work as Thompson cuts loose in trance like fashion.

Such was the live setting of the song, the applause at the end of the song is rapturous. Before that, there are brief whoops of acknowledgement; such is the reverence of the crowd, they hold back until the silence hits. It’s one of those moments where Thompson shows why he is such a revered musician. (DW)

STUCK ON THE TREADMILL – ELECTRIC (2013)

A song that can speak to a lot of us. Musically upbeat, Richard Thompson’s swipe at the daily grind of the common man is the focus here. The song bursts into life and hits a guitar melody that is unmistakably the sound of Thompson and his six string. It is this melody that is returned to throughout the song, thus showcasing the treadmill. There a couple of short solo sojourns (as ever) and plenty of wry lyrics; specifically, the prophetic note on the robot looking at the worker…

Me and the robot working away
He looks at me, as if to say
“I’ll be doing your job someday”
I’m stuck on the treadmill

When the song returns to the original guitar melody for the end of the song, it is a perfect ending as it clocks out as quickly as it clocked in. Stuck On The Treadmill is one of Thompson’s finest compositions of recent years and one I’d love to see him performing again. (DW)

Check out our companion playlist to this article on Spotify:

Richard Thompson is on tour in 2024 stopping off at several places in the UK as well as an extensive US tour. All the tour dates and information can be found here.

Read more of our archive material on Richard Thompson here.

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