World Cafe; Richard Thompson 1992

On the World Cafe, that's put your trust in me. I guess a fairly new song from our guest Richard Thompson who's joined us here in the World Cafe. It's from a soundtrack to a film that's... It's not out here in this country, I call it Sweet Talker. Well, it was once. Ooh, it was one of those. It was only shown once. Oh, in order to win an award? In order to... I think just for the record, I think, you know, they were forced to just to say it had been there. Well, the soundtrack sort of snuck out, too. I mean... Yeah, well, it wasn't intended to be, you know, like a release release. It's very much, you know, a secondary product. You'd done... You did a soundtrack... Actually, it wasn't a soundtrack, really. It was a whole bunch of other people doing songs for a British television show. That's right. It was called Hard Cash. In the end, the show was withdrawn by the BBC, which was an unusual move. They thought it was too political. It was just a show about the minimum wage in Britain, which misses tea. Now the baroness. Thought it was a waste of time and should be abolished because, gosh, you know, who's hungry in this country? Nobody. Yes. Everybody will pay them a minimum wage anyway, I'm sure. Yeah. Sure they will. But that's interesting that it was

withdrawn. Yeah, it was withdrawn, but, you know, the record lingers on. I think the record was really good. I can say that because I'm only on two tracks. No, it was a great record. Just great songwriting to order, because people were kind of commissioned to write stuff. And the quality of what came in was fantastic. That's a good one. Well, welcome. Thank you. You're traveling around by yourself. I kind of have a feeling that, I mean, I'm sure you do it for economic reasons, but do you enjoy playing alone? Oh, I enjoy it as well, yes. Economically, it's handy. It's very expensive to tour the band, you know, more and more and more so. I've seen you do these solo shows, and you tend to work out some new materials. I was wondering if you had anything that you'd been trying out on this tour. Oh, okay. I can try a couple of things. This first song is called Beeswing, and this is... Don't be put off by the fact it's got 12 verses. It just flies by, but it's telling a story, so, you know, necessary. Narrative tradition. I called it the summer of love. They were burning

babies, burning flags, the hawks against the dogs. I took a job in the steamy, down on Caldron Street, and now fell in love with a laundry girl who was working next to me. Oh, she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing. So fine a breath of wind might blow her away. She was a lost child, was she was runnin' wild. She said, as long as there's no price on love, I'll stay. And you wouldn't want me any other way. Brown hairs zigzag around the face and a look of half surprise like a fox caught in the headlights. There was animal in her eyes.

She said, young man, oh, can't you see I'm not the city kind. If you don't take me out of here I'll surely lose my mind. Oh, she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing. So fine that I might crush her where she lay. She was a lost child, was she was runnin' wild. She said, as long as there's no price on love, I'll stay. And you wouldn't want me any other way. She said, as long as there's no price on love, We busked around the market towns with pick -fruit down and

cat. And we could take a lamp and putts and knives wherever we went. And I said that we might settle down, get a few acres dug, fire burnin' in the hearth and babies on the rock. She said, oh man, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell. You might be lord of half the world, but you're not on me as well. We was campin' down the gawa one time. The work was pretty good. She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost and I thought maybe we should. We was drinkin' more in those days and tempers reached a pitch and like a fool, I let her

run with a ramblin' itch. The last I heard, she's sleepin' rough back on the Derby beat. White horse in a hip pocket and a wolf home at her feet. And they said she even married once a man named Romani Brown. But even a gypsy caravan was too much settlin' down. And they said her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze. But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse. Oh, she was a rare thing. Fire's a bee's wing. And I miss her more than ever words could say. If I could just taste all of her wildness

now. If I could hold her in my arms today. Well, I wouldn't want her and you're the way. You're the way. On the World Café, I guest Richard Thompson, a new song, and for those of you who can't see, is that how you always play sort of a cross between flat picking and finger picking? A lot of the time. Sometimes I just use a straight thumb pick as well. I was wondering, because he grasps. Folks, he grasps the flat pick and plays, obviously. Yeah, there's things you can do that you can't do with any other technique. It's quite... An example. You

can double pick on the bass strings. You can pick back and forth, and then you can play tunes on top of that. Which is handy. When you write a new song, do you sense, ah, this is a good one, or does the audience tell you that? Or what's a good one? I think you can have an idea that a song is good. Otherwise, there's nothing like an audience to concentrate your mind on what's wrong with a song. If you play it in front of people for the first time, you're suddenly very aware of what's wrong with it, or if the pacing is wrong or something, or where it needs tightening up. I think that's true, if you make a film, it's the same sort of thing. That's why you do test screening. How is making records for you? Rumor and sigh was such a balance between your Celtic half and your pop half. Was that a conscious thing? Not really, but I'm glad we got that kind of balance, because that's the sort of thing that I'd like, really, to achieve. So I'm glad.

Just so we don't all have to hear you play live, is there something from Rumor and Sigh that you particularly thought worked well? Well, something that I'm not sick of, because I don't play it live, would be grey walls, which I was surprised how well it turned out, because it didn't seem promising at certain points, and then it kind of fell into place. It's a neo -psychedelic number. True. Let's listen to it from Rumor and Sigh. This is grey walls. On the World Café, I guest Richard Thompson. Where are you at in terms of a new one? We're at writing. We're supposed to be recording for a new album, which will be out for April. Oh, good. So we should be out and touring next spring. Do you want to do another new one? Sure. This is a little slower and shorter. This is called Jack Straw's Castle, which is actually a geographical location for the song, rather than anything to do with the content. Did your

dreams die young? Were there two hard ones? Did you reach too high and fall? And there is no rest for the ones God blessed and you're blessed, you're best of all. You're rising from a different face they've seen that much that soon the cheek too cold, too pale to shine like an old and waning moon and there is

no peace, no true release no secret place to crawl and there is no rest for the ones God blessed and you're blessed, you're best of all. You're blessed, you're best of all. You're blessed, you're best of all. If two's unshared could heal your heart if words unshared could

sway the watch you melded into the night adieu and rule the day. Did your dreams die young? Were there two hard ones? Did you reach too high and fall? And there is no rest for the ones God blessed and you're blessed, you're best of all. Richard Thompson,

our guest on the World Cafe and another new one, which you described as a depressing one. Oh, I just mean that in a general sense. Well, you've been accused of having a dark vision. Yes, indeed. I don't think I write dogs. I think I write serious songs. I think if you're going to cover the range of human emotions, you have to get in there somewhere. You also write lively, up -tempo dark songs. Yes, I do indeed, yes. Which is a great contrast. Tongue and cheek dark, yes. Jimmy Shans, tell me about Jimmy Shans. Jimmy Shans Singular is a famous Scottish musician. Very old now, he's about 85. Probably the most famous Scottish dance band musician. He had a couple of actual big hits. A song called The Bluebell Polka was his huge number one. It was big in Canada, but when I played in Canada, everybody knew who he was. That's great. Well, let's listen to the song about him from Reware and Cy on the World Cafe. Richard Thompson, our guest and very happy to have

you here. Have you ever done a guitar instruction tape or any of that kind of? I did. I've done a couple. I did one for Homespun tapes, which is... Artie Troms. Yeah, which is an audio tape, which isn't bad. I think it's probably a little too complicated and not well explained enough, but we were in a hurry. I did a really funny video quite a long time ago now. It must be about seven or eight years ago, which was me and Michael Shanker and Ron Wood, which is a very unlikely combination of people. Was it an instructional? It's supposed to be instructional, but I don't know what anybody could have learned from it. You were doing Going Back a few minutes ago. Is that something you would want to commit to? Yeah. I did it at sound checks, and I just started playing it because I recently did a little tour with Roger McGuinn, and one of the things that we did together was Going Back. We did World Mountain Time and Going Back, a nice selection of bird -esque numbers. Well, we like to ask people to do songs they do in sound check, because you get

some... This is one that sort of makes sense, but sometimes you get songs that... I do this and my generation at sound check. There was young enough to know the truth Now there are no gains To only pass the time No more electric trains No more trees to climb Being young and growing older Is no sin And I can

play the game of life to win I can recall the time But I wasn't ashamed to reach out to a friend Now I think I've got A lot more than just my toys to lend Now there's more to do Than watch my sailboat ride But every day can be A magic carpet ride A little bit of courage is all we'd like So catch me if

you can I'm going back Going back, a song Carol King wrote a long time ago that the birds did on a fine album, if you can get ahold of it. Called The Notorious Bird Brothers. Slip my mind, I'm glad you remembered it. Thanks a lot for stopping by. Thank you, pleasure. Really appreciated. Our guest, Richard Thompson, on the World Cafe. Have you ever done a guitar instruction tape or any of that kind of thing? Oh, I did. I've done a couple. I did one for home -spun tapes, which is... Already tromps? Yeah, which is an audio tape, which isn't bad. I think it's probably a little too complicated and not well explained enough, but we were in a hurry. I did a really funny video quite a long time

ago now. Must be about seven or eight years ago, which was me and Michael Shanker and Ron Wood, which is a very unlikely combination of people. Was it an instruction? It's supposed to be an instruction, but I don't know what anybody could have learned from it. I think I'm going back to the things I learned so well in my youth. I think I'm returning to those days when I was young enough to know the truth. Now there are no gains to only pass the time. No more electric trains, no more trees to climb. Being young and growing older is

no sin. And I can play the game of life to win. I can recall the time when I wasn't ashamed to reach out to a friend. Now I think I've got a lot more than just my toys to lend. Now there's more to do than watch my sailboat ride. But every day can be a magic carpet ride. A little bit of courage is all we'd like. So catch

me if you can, I'm going back.