Ope3
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I was completely unfamiliar with Richard Thompson, but back when Bob Mould was touring for Workbook in 1989, he included Richard & Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights (title track) in his live set. The song floored me, and I did not know it was a cover until reading the review the next day. I bought the that album shortly thereafter, which is amazing. Over the next couple of years I bought a few more albums, plus the 3 disc box set, Watching the Dark. Also I got to see him live in 1993 at 1st Ave where he played a well over 2 hour show with acoustic and full band sets.Richard Thompson is towards the top of my list of artists that I need to listen to more of their catalog. Thanks to Stereogum's "Number Ones", I came across his cover of Prince's Kiss which I think's pretty damn great:
The influence on Mould's guitar playing is obvious, both acoustic and electric. Flash forward to 1994 and I got to go to a Sugar Release Listening Party for File Under Easy Listening. There was an assembly line meet and great where we got to chat with Mould for a few minutes and I could see that he was not enjoying the fan adulation, though he was very polite with everyone.
It got to my turn and instead of telling Mould how much I enjoyed his work all the way back to the Husker Du day, I just said "Thank you so much for introducing me to the music of Richard Thompson". All of a sudden his face lit up like a Christmas tree, asking about the details from the 1 Ave show, and listing off 3 or 4 must haves from the Richard Thompson/Fairport Convention discography that I had to pick up (which I did in short order).
Here's the cover.