when you go buying the wrong CD? Basic schoolboy error!

RT has always been captured better live than in the studio, in my opinion

RT electric band and RT solo acoustic are very different experiences. A good solo introduction would be Celtschmerz: Live UK '98 available in $8.99 download formats from his merch agent via his website

But for a really excellent introduction to RT live my advice would be the down-load only Two Letter Words: Live 1994 - Digital Album - $16.99 which is the very last item on the aforementioned web page. This was released as a fan club only double CD and I bought one at the time. It's fantastic, with some tremendous electric stuff, and an excellent acoustic solo set and some duo numbers with Danny (no relation) Thompson on double bass. The long set list contains some of his best material, including a top-notch reading of Vincent Black Lightning

decent guitarist, average voice, some decent tunes. Nothing more,nothing less.
Perhaps he's the Morrisey for the 50+ brigade. Untouchable to many.

What's such a surprise about RT being a bit boring? I attended a gig by him. it was OK, but I couldn't understand the reverence. it was all a bit earnest, though definitely better than Billy Bragg. Frankly, i think the audience's piety rather pissed RT off, too. Many times friends have said i should try something by him, and an OKish but ultimately dull borrowed album has followed. But I don't understand the popularity of Fairport Convention - they just seem the Steeleye Span it's hip to like to me (and again plenty of friends have foisted their great album on me, i've seen gigs, etc.). About the only folk rock I like is Traffic doing "John Barleycorn".

you buy "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" and "Pour Down Like Silver" if you still no like then there is no hope..Here is a sample of what you get:

very good!

I deleted my XTC 2CD Best Of from iTunes (and therefore my iPod) last night. I planned to blog about it but then I decided not to as I'll just be accused of being a troll. Seriously though, XTC sound ugly. The vocals and the production are often like sandpaper. I'm unaware of ever being happy that one of their songs has turned up on shuffle. Making Plans For Nigel is the only song of theirs I like, and I much prefer the Nouvelle Vague cover.

As for RT. He's good. Not great. Good. Sometimes very good. Action Packed and Mock Tuder get lots of plays as I really enjoy those. His songs are memorable I think. Personally I dislike his stuff with Linda Thompson. Her voice is awful and the songs from that era are boring (I only have a Best Of, which frankly I should also remove from iTunes).

You'll never look back.

it comes down to...to each his own..ears of the beholder etc...

The comments about RT above definitely apply to Sandy Denny as well. I'm a definite lost cause when it comes to almost anything 'folk'. I like my music to have some swing, groove and abandon, and British folk music rarely has it (though I do find Kathryn Tickell wonderful, and up-tempo Irish folk music has the abandon I seek). Now Bulgarian folk music - that's great stuff:

Give me the Pogues, Andre Williams, or Hatfield and the North any time.

I bought this as my introduction to RT and thoroughly enjoyed it. Turning of the Tide, I Misunderstood, Waltzing's for Dreamers, The Ghost of you Walks...all brilliant songs, I reckon. As for being an average lyricist, I'm not having that. There's more wit and panache in Turning of the Tide than in most songs you hear, and at least he didn't blatantly nick lyrics, unlike a certain Mr Morrissey.

As soon as I get home I will report you, and sympathetic commenters, to the RT Discussion List...unless someone's already done it.

Not God indeed. That's fighting talk... and disappointing coming from someone called Excitable Boy.

but not a patch on The Libertines

but not a patch on The Reynolds Girls.

..but he is Christ.

I think there are two questions here - the one which goes 'Do you like RT or not? - because I don't think he's all that'. And of course, some of us weigh in for and some against.

But the other question was - what's the fuss about? I'd have said:
1) He's a virtuoso guitarist - I don't know that such folk are really THAT numerous, and certainly not as likely to perform with such ease on both acoustic and electric.
2) He takes the trouble to write thoughtful, involving lyrics.
3) He has a Costello-like impulse to try different things - in RT's case, the 1000 Years of Music would be a good example, and his new song-cycle thingammy. Recording the new album live. Plus the soundtrack work.

I love him, but there's no point saying 'he's made a load of great records' because obviously not everyone will like them. But he's the kind of artist and musician we could do with more of.

I think everyone has made good points. I bought a couple of Albums. "Bright Lights..." and "Mock Tudor". Due to the build up on here i was expecting a road to Damascus experience. Bright Lights is a bit dull,exciting it ain't. Mock Tudor had a couple of great songs on it.
I appreciate that RT can play and is much revered by some of my favourite Musicians but like i've already said,it's a bit dull to these ears..
Some of the songwriting is top drawer and some of his solo's are sublime but a lot of the stuff left me feeling,well,nothing.The good stuff was great but the rest........
I also don't get the sacred cow status he gets. I love the passion people show for him and good luck to you but RT's music doesn't live up to the hype i'm afraid.Thought his chat with DH on the podcast was brilliant though.

..that have popped up here are not as specious as one might at first imagine.
Both are particularly English artists (although Thompson is quite at ease with American roots styles) but surely Thompson towers over Moz on purely musical terms,
For all his facility as a lyricist, he's been basically singing the same tune since "Reel Around The Fountain".
I think many British people shy away from Thompson because they're embarrassed by their own folk music, and RT still retains that tone, especially in his vocal style.

"Rumor and Sigh" as his most accessible. Starting with Bright Lights will not endear you to him.

Personally, I think that the guitar/accordian (I know! I know!)workouts of "Night Comes In" and "Calvary Cross" on "Guitar/Vocal" are as close to transcendental playing as I've ever heard.

Anyone who wrote "Genesis Hall", "Meet on the Ledge" and played the audacious modal break on "Nottamun Town" before the age of 20 is alright by me.

Luckily I don't have to convert anyone to the cause. He does it for me.

..is like me not "getting" The Stooges, VU and MC5.
Never have, never will.
So there.

a more apt comparison would be Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai: technically very proficient but unable to write memorable songs that appeal to a wider audience than that of their 'genre'?
Discuss.

RT was featured in the BBC4 doc of this title last Friday; I guess partly because he's an articulate talking head but also because he's been around so long, he knows stuff

One of the other heads was Joe Boyd who pointed out that although The Stones, The Who etc were still performing as well as ever, they weren't writing good songs anymore. Another commentator repeated that, suggesting that as long as an artist was comfortable with the fact that his best work was a long time ago, it was OK to keep performing rather than "hope I die before I get old"

One of the reasons I admire RT is that, as well (as someone points out above) as his voracious appetite for new musical experiences, his songwriting is still up to scratch. He's put out the odd clunker over the years, but by and large his songwriting remains very strong. Compare to say Van Morrison who to my ears gave up years ago and just started recycling the same material

Which reminds me, I must go and wash my hands

..major success.
That'll kill the creative spirit as much as just about anything else.
He still in his own mind, has something to prove.

I have all of RT'S solo albums plus many unofficial cd's and quite a bit from his earlier days with Linda. Bright lights was the album that introduced me to him and I am surprised to see more than one comment on here that suggest that album is no good. Personally I think it is one the great albums of all time. I have also seen him live on more than a dozen occasions. My wife saw him once acoustic solo and thought he was dreadful. She saw him for a second time performing his 1000 years of music show and thought it was great - I thought it was dull. His acoustic guitar playing on 1952VBL and Beeswing is exceptional - his electric playing on Shoot out the lights, Valerie and Calvary Cross as just a couple of examples is pretty awesome. His lyrics on songs such as Turning of the Tide, A heart needs a home, Dimming of the day and End of the Rainbow is beyond excellent. Yet, I confess that on most of his albums there are at least one or two songs that completely miss the mark. He is however a national treasure and we should be proud to have him as one of our own.

I'm rather late on this thread, but don't want to stay silent as I am such a big RT fan. I'm going to set aside the "it's all a matter of opinion" rule which I normally hold sacrosanct, and say to jimmyshoes that if you really think RT can't write memorable songs (especially when you compare him to Vai and Malmsteen!), then you haven't really listened to him.

I've seen the man live more times than I can count, and he is hands down the best guitarist I've seen in a rock/pop/folk idiom. It's been said already: he can do pretty much everything, from bashing out the chords to Substitute, which he performed as an unexpected encore once; to beautiful and melodic acoustic picking; to virtuosic pieces like 1952 Vincent Black Lightning; to compact solos on electric, like on Wall Of Death; to stunning, extended, improvised exploratory solos as on live favourites Night Comes In or Shoot Out The Lights.

Songwriting? He is amazingly versatile here too. I've included three songs: Crazy Man Michael, which he wrote when barely 20, and which sounds like an English folk standard. He wrote it for Sandy Denny (another great talent he has is writing songs for women to sing, as he of course did with Linda Thompson), so you get to hear her glorious voice singing his glorious song. What's not to love??

Crazy Man Michael

I know I posted this song here recently, but I'm jolly well going to post it again, even though the first half of it is missing, as I think it is a genius song - deeply, deeply moving lyrically and musically. To set the scene, here are the missing verses before the clip picks up:

I found your picture in a corporal's pocket
His cold fingers still pressed it to his chest
Sniper's bullet took his eyes and his breath away
Now he lies out in the forest with the rest

You looked shy in your grandmother's wedding dress
Feet set wide like a farm girl stands
Too young to love and too young to lose
In a cracked picture frame in a dead man's hands

I kept it with me for the luck, for the magic
Maybe fate wouldn't strike in the same place twice
But something stirred and I dared to dream of you
And I knew I'd look for you if I should survive

Whe we stood down at last it was easy to find you
And mine was the shoulder you cried on that day
Just an old comrade doing his duty
Bringing the news from the woods of Darney

When I showed you the picture, perhaps I felt jealousy
As your tears welled up with each reminisce
And my hands may be rougher and my tongue may be coarser
But I knew I could give you a love good as his

Now listen on...

Woods of Darney

And he can do good-time knockabout stuff, as this clip of him performing with Cajun star Jo-El Sonnier shows. And now I'll shut up.

Tear Stained Letter

Whilst we're on the subject of untouchable artists who are vastly overrated, may I.... no? oh ok.

The great

in the 1990s, I was fortunate enough to watch RT recording a session for Johnnie Walker. Whilst he was getting ready he started playing snatches of songs with his eyes closed. His own music was transporting him to some other place. As I was watching I realized that music for him was a deeply spiritual experience. It was a beautiful thing to have witnessed.

Not sure this helps resolve the issue of whether he's a genius or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

How do I get back out?

Over-prolific, in my worthless opinion. Live is a different story - I've only seen him twice but he was absolutely stunning. To top it off, he seems a genuinely nice bloke who enjoys being in front of an audience. You don't see much of that anymore.

is usually to profess that you don't 'get' them.