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Re: (TV) Now Playing



Rick Greenwald <greenie@interaccess.com> wrote:
> At 06:14 PM 4/27/01 -0400, you wrote:
> >I saw RT last Saturday in Boston - just superb.  The man gets more out of
> >one guitar than many entire bands!  He had Dave Mattacks com out and play
> >an encore.  Dave had a snare and a hi-hat, and the two of them filled the
> >sonic space completely.
> 
> Oooh, with the band.  I am jealous.

Actually, not with the band - it was RT solo until DM came out.  Still,
one RT is worth two of almost any other guitarists.  And I mean that
literally: RT's developed a style based on some interesting tunings
where the bottom two strings will be complementary to many of the chords
voiced on the remaining 4.  He then has his right hand to double-duty,
with his thumb and forefinger playing bass riffs and the other three
fingers handling chords and/or leads.  Having played some guitar myself,
the disconnectivity between the two halves of his right hand absolutely
boggles me.  He really has them working independently and the effect is
of one man playing two guitars.

I've seen some hot-shit guitar players over the years, but for sheer
technical mastery, RT is second to none.  Then adding his emotion and
style to the playing as well as his brilliance in songwriting, and
you've got a musician of the very highest caliber.  And I haven't even
mentioned his electric skills!

> BTW, when I spent some time on the Richard Thompson list, the topic of
> similarities between RT and TV came up on occasion.  There are times when
> RT sounds a bunch like Verlaine to me (parts of the live "Calvary Cross"),
> although Thompson was obviously out on record long before Television.
> 
> Thoughts from the list?

If RT and TV were to collaborate, my head might explode from the greatness
of it all.  RT's previously worked on the monumnetal pieces; both Calvary
Cross and Sloth are monster pieces like MM that wax and wane emotionally
and pull the best from the performers.  I would also suggest the RL would
make an excellent foil for RT in very much the same way he does for TV.
That would be equally as compelling to me.

Micah added:
> I definetly hear two different artistic
> tempermnets here. Thompson's playing seems to always
> seek some kind of catharsis. While Verlaine's playing
> intends to sustain a certain "dreaminess."

RT's a master at building up to the great release; again, that part of
VBL52 that sends the shiver down my spine is really a release of tension
that slowly and inexorably built in the song without the listener ever
realizing it.  I think that the push-pull of TV and RT could be brilliant;
there's also a chance that it wouldn't work at all, but I think they're
far too good at what they do to fail at it.

OK, I'm going to try playing MM and CC at the same time and see what
develops :)


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