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The lighter side of Richard Thompson
Don't let his dark lyrics deceive you; this ''late developer'' can be light-hearted and playful.
By GINA VIVINETTO
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 24, 2001
[Photo: AP]
Richard Thompson, known for his guitar mastery, plays Tampa Theatre on Friday.
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British folk singer Richard Thompson has just been informed that he and wild man punk rocker Iggy Pop will both be performing in the Tampa Bay area on Friday. Some music lovers, naturally, are having trouble deciding which show to catch. Thompson, calling from a tour stop in Birmingham, Ala., asks if Iggy still performs without his shirt on.
Indeed he does.
"Then I suppose I'll play without my trousers on," Thompson quips.
The troubadour is as revered for his brilliant songwriting as for his masterful guitar work. Thompson, 52, got his start in the late 1960s with the innovative folk act Fairport Convention, and later won acclaim performing with his ex-wife Linda Thompson. He's been earning raves for years now with superb solo work.
Last year's Mock Tudor, colored with Thompson's dark humor, probes into the creepier parts of the human psyche. It made many critics' best-of lists. Action Packed -- The Best of the Capitol Years has recently been released.
What makes Thompson want to go into the creepy crevices of the human condition?
"I like to get just below the surface, just beneath what people talk about," says Thompson, "those slightly unexpressed things."
A song such as Cold Kisses, which opens with a man rummaging through his absent lover's personal belongings, is a prime example.
"A lot of people do that," Thompson says. "Is it creepy? Well, it's part of human nature."
Has Thompson ever snooped through a lady's things?
"Oh yeah."
That macabre humor, he says, is to disarm the audience. Thompson likes to give them a bit of a jolt, so they don't quite know where a story will take them. He says, too, that the British process everything with humor.
"I once heard someone say that the British can't say three sentences without making a joke. I think that's true."
Despite his dark lyrics, Thompson says he's an okay guy.
"I'm fairly light-hearted, I believe," he says. "I do go to strange places in my head, and for a family, that can be difficult to live with." (Thompson's adult children, including singer Teddy Thompson, live on their own. He has a 9-year-old at home.)
Each Thompson solo album garners more acclaim. Is he getting better with age?
"No," Thompson jokes. "I'm just a very late developer.
"There's this forced expectation with music that you're supposed to peak at 24 and then quietly die or develop a drug habit that prevents you from doing anything good again," Thompson says. "Keats and Shelley, I suppose, were the role models for this sort of thing where you just burn out. But, there's no real reason to stop being creative, except for maybe extreme senility."
Artists in other disciplines such as painting and writing just begin to hit their stride around age 40. Why, Thompson asks, should it be different for pop musicians?
Is pop music great art?
"Well," Thompson says, "It's not Rembrandt. It's not Mozart, but it's not bad. It's a beautiful thing. I love it."
Since much of rock 'n' roll celebrates American icons and popular culture, Thompson makes a point to refer to British culture in his songs, such as 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, an ode to a rare high-end British motorcycle.
But not all British things impress Thompson.
What's one dish from Britain, never a country known for its cuisine, that Thompson won't even eat?
"I can't say I'm a huge fan of tripe and onions," Thompson says. "It's basically cow's stomach with onions. So, I suppose you do get onion with it. It's an acquired taste, but I never bothered to acquire a taste for it."
PREVIEW
Richard Thompson, Friday at 8 p.m. Tampa Theatre, 711 Franklin Street Mall, Tampa. $30. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.
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