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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Collection of rarities, live recordings of varying sound quality still worth it for fans, February 8, 2006
He's not dead yet so all the better to celebrate the music of Richard Thompson. Fan- The word derives from fanatic. It perfectly describes the Richard Thompson fan (myself included) who would purchase this sprawling look back at the man and his music to the present. First don't let some of the other reviews scare you off. Yes the sound quality varies and yes some sound as good as good MP3s while others sound exceptional. That's because a lot of the material here was pulled from Thompson's own collection of older, rare recordings. The notes in the 160 page book point out that everything was done possible to improve sound on all the tracks and nothing is less than acceptable.
Free Reed's excellent anthlogy "The Life and Music of Richard Thompson" isn't the best place to become aquainted with Thompson's vast body of work but it is essential for fans of the man. While sound quality varies (remember many of these performances were never meant to be heard by the public and it includes many demos, live tracks recorded for the artist to keep and/or fan recordings, etc.)but on the whole Free Reed has done a splendid job of assembling rarities for Thompson fans.
We have five discs here. "Muswell Hill to LA" consisting of performances from 1972 with Richard's former wife Linda to 2005 with live recordings, demos, etc. opening ironically with "Now That I Am Dead" which originally appeared on the French, Frirth, Kaiser and Thompson CD "Invisible Means" opens the set with a nice dose of dark humor. Here Richard sings it (John French sings it on the original CD release). "Killerman Gold Posse" originally recorded for the F,F,K & T CD "Live, Larf and Loaf" appears in its original demo form here. The CD closes with the marvelous "Outside of the Inside" in a studio demo recording. I love the live recording of "Madonna's Wedding" coupled with "Nobody's Wedding".
CD 2 also features a treasure trove of Thompson tracks including "I Feel So Good", "Dimming of the Day" (from 1981 live recording with Linda Thompson), ""Crazy Man Michael" (a new recording for this set) a song that had its genesis in the death of his girlfriend in 1969 in a car accident involving the members of Fairport Convention. Thompson hasn't tackled this song for ages because of the depth of anguish he felt about this over the last 35 years. Again, sound quality varies from fair to exceptionally good depending upon the source, age, etc. Some of these are pulled from cassettes as early as the 70's. I suggest keeping expectations a bit realistic when listening to material this old. Personally, I'm much more focused on the performances some of which are astonishing.
CD 3 features cover songs (some of which appeared on 1000 Years of Popular Music), live recordings and some session work. Haven't been able to dig into this completely yet. It does sound pretty good so far. Likewise CD 4 so the four stars is based more on the first two discs and the bonus 5th disc which I popped in right away. That one also has varying sound quality. This collection isn't meant to be an audiophile's dream. That said could these have been cleaned up more? Sure and you could also be paying a lot more for it as well or never heard any of it for that matter.
The book accompanying the set is over 160 pages long with rare photos providing a biography of sorts (as much musical as personal). Nice packaging is a highlight of this set. I personally like what Free Reed has done here. There's also an excellent interview with Thompson as well as bits of trivia related to Thompson's music that are sprinkled throughout the booklet. This set certainly isn't for the casual fan but definitely worthwhile for fans who want various rare performances (including some they might have attended)and interesting one-off performances. It's a fun set that captures Thompson's spirit, wit and style with a guitar and lyric. Well worth it for fans of the man.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watching the dark for daylight like this, February 13, 2006
While this set certainly sates the converted, for those wondering what the hype may be about, why Thompson is so severely underappreciated, this set resoilves any and all questions. sweeping aside whatever you may think of any other guitarist who dares wield a Fender, Gibson or Martin, save maybe Robert Fripp, but then......
In any case, what's on offer here, dear punters, is something so much more sublime than the definitive collection (Watching The Dark did that in spades). Instead you have a cross section of the man himself - there are the obligatory ("Shoot Out The Lights"), the wittily perverse ("OOps I Did It Again") and the brilliantly executed (any and all of the live cuts with Danny Thompson), assembled here to show you why this gent, when he relinquishes the keys to his Vincent 1952 will never be duplicated, replicated, sampled or cloned with anything like the genuineness he has brought to his craft from Fairport on through to his Front Parlour.
The incision he makes on the human psyche has a nearly Hannibal Lechter-like glee in the resulting spillage of emotions and compulsions. Thompson investigates the psyche, the heart and the soul with a ruthlessness unmatched by any other writer, and convincingly portrays the collection of sots and scapegoats, fools and charlatans, the innocent and the guilty with an Olivier's command of their inner sanctums. And on top of that, the man can play his axe. No one, absolutely no one, save the aforementioned Fripp, has commanded their instrument with the same technique and power. And the best of all of these protean talents is presented with an Hitchcockian sneer for your consideration. This is the box set before which you may sacrifice all other box sets, and after which there is no need for anyone else to approach this pinnacle.
Like Wagner in opera, Thompson sweeps all away. In rarities, live cuts ans studio demos, this set makes it clear that NO ONE writes like Richard Thompson, NO ONE bares his soul like RT, and NO ONE sings as though his life depended on it being convincing than RT. It is an exhilarating ride, and unlike with so many boxes, you shall return to these treasures because they are each brilliant and sound incredibly alive in a fantastic mastering. A 168 book is included for those who still don't get it. For every one else, the time watching the dark is over, the exit from Plato's Cave leads through Richard Thompson.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic collection!, February 22, 2006
While this isn't necessarily the place to start if you're entirely new to Thompson's music [either Action Packed or Mock Tudor is a more accessible FIRST cd], this is the collection to go for if you like Thompson but still aren't quite sure what all the fuss is about. Certainly, at least one of these five cd's [six, if you get the Free Reed bonus -- a hoot!] is the one that every RT fan has always been waiting for, the cd that is sure to convert everyone who hears it -- that would be the 3rd cd, "shine in the dark," the cd that features RT's fantastic live improvisations, both acoustic and electric, on some of his best guitar songs. This cd on its own is worth buying the entire set for, even if the other cd's weren't so good in their own right. The 2nd cd, of 'essential' RT songs [as voted by his fervent fan base], is also one of the best cd's currently available for showing off RT's range as a live performer, singer, and songwriter. While it's true that the 'rarities' and 'covers' cds might be most appreciated by the RT fan who mistakenly thought s/he had everything, both feature winning tracks that newcomers will find just as appealing as some of his more famous songs.
Because RT and the compilers of this collection worked so hard to put together a collection that has such appeal for everyone from newcomers to fans who have everything [and then some], I can't agree at all with the reviewers who have been quibbling with the sound quality. The quality is excellent for each song per se, even if going from live track to live track means there's some inevitable discrepancy in sound between two consecutive tracks [louder to softer, crisp to resonant, etc]. At any rate, I think it's silly to expect perfectly consistent quality when RT and Free Reed have worked so hard to make available such a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings and demos. The bio is a nice addition, with some great trivia, excellent pictures, and a fine interview. But it's the music here that's such a revelation, even as compared to some of the fabulous live compilations RT's label has self-produced over the last ten years.
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