Row E, Seat 105 (5 rows back, almost dead center)
One of the pleasures of seeing Richard Thompson is the
mixture of familiar and seldom-heard tunes, with the latter changing from tour
to tour. This time, most of the “hits” appeared relatively early, with the
obligatory “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” nestled among “Valerie”, “Beeswing”,
and “Walking The Long Miles Home”. The less-heard tracks included three that
were new to me: “Sunset Song” (which kicked off his three-song encore), “The
Poor Ditching Boy”, and “Pharaoh”.
Zara Phillips came out to provide harmony vocals during the
second half of the show, which consisted primarily of Richard and Linda
Thompson tracks, along with three cuts from his upcoming Ship to Shore
album. The high points were “Wall Of Death” (which ended the main set) and “I
Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”, which was the final encore.
Thompson’s vocals and acoustic guitar work were great
throughout, although he did forget one verse of “Sunset Song”. He was certainly
well-received by the sellout crowd, although it was notably less demonstrative than
those that typically attend his performances at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis.
During my first run(jog) following our return from a trip up the Rhine River, the top 40 from last week's 1969 list, I heard in succession, hits from the Temptations and Supremes, Crazy Elephant, and the Foundations. Little else can bring one back to being 16 again then Crazy Elephant (though I still ran like 71). Also, this list included a rather forgettable (IMHO) cover of This Girl's In Love With You by Dionne Warwick, and an even more forgettable cover of The Letter by the Arbors.
ReplyDeleteThat week's list brings back some more recent memories for me. In August 2017 a couple of friends and I took a mostly-baseball midwestern road trip. Our first stop was Cleveland, but since the then-Indians were out of town, we stopped at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame instead. Their gift shop at the time had quite a collection of CDs. (I was informed by a more recent visitor that it's now all-vinyl.) I had just picked up the Peppermint Rainbow CD that had Will You Be Staying After Sunday (#39). When a staff member asked if he could help with anything, I explained that I loved the song, but a whole CD by them seemed a little too much. He asked me to wait a minute, then found it on a compilation, which I purchased.
DeleteAlso, when we got to Pittsburgh a few days later and went to a Pirates-Dodgers game, the 7th inning stretch song was Build Me Up Buttercup.
I still think Joe Cocker did the ultimate version of The Letter. 3 Dog Night's take on Try A Little Tenderness is OK, but doesn't come close to Otis.
Agree on all counts, though I played Tenderness on a Three Dog Night album (Live at the Forum - I think), again and again in high school, and did not hear the Redding original until later.
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