Music

And Teddy Thompson.

 

These artists show up every time they publish a book or release a CD for the simplest of reasons --- I think they hang the moon.

Some of you also think so.

 

This was not always the case.  But you took my outlandish claims for their genius as an invitation, and you tried someone you’d never heard of. Next thing you knew, you were reading everything Peter Temple --- to pluck just one name from the Butler All Stars --- had written and were asking when the next book was coming.

 

Music’s a tougher sell.

 

Maybe Chris Rock is right: “Your musical taste freezes at whatever you were listening to when you started fucking.”

 

Maybe there’s just something about music that’s so personal it’s hard for even a friend to turn you on to something new.

 

Or maybe music is such a loser business that it casts a pall over everything it produces.

 

Whatever: You don’t like it so much when I go all Josh Ritter on you.

 

Problem: On September 21, you’ll be able to buy/download/hear “Bella,” the latest from Teddy Thompson. [To pre-order it from Amazon, click here.]  

 

I’ve been listening to it for a couple of weeks. So has my wife. Short review: I’m wild about this CD, my wife is wild about the CD and the extravagantly handsome, cool, ironic, self-destructive singer-songwriter.

 

I’ll get over my wife’s crushette on Teddy. What I need to figure out is a way to excite some of you about this guy --- without turning most of you off in the process.

 

I think I’ve got it: Remedial Teddy. A one-time look at his career leading up to “Bella,” with lots of videos so you can cut through the hype and judge for yourselves. And then, when it’s out, one day of “Bella.” And then I’ll shut up about Teddy Thompson. Maybe.

 

Start with the bio. In his case, a gift and a burden. His father is Richard Thompson, one of England’s legendary songwriters and guitarists. His mother is Linda Thompson, an English folkie with a glorious voice. Teddy, born in 1976, grew up listening to music made before 1959 --- rock’s first golden age. In school, he played in bands. He must have shown promise; one of his first professional credits is playing guitar behind Emmylou Harris.

 

From the beginning, his signature style has been self-deprecation, with despair lurking. Almost all of his songs are about romance: needing it, resenting the need, doing everything he can to screw it up, desperately trying to put the pieces back together. But don’t get the idea he’s Leonard Cohen, Jr. --- Teddy Thompson is the wittiest songwriter since Randy Newman, and it’s impossible to listen to his songs without joining him in the joke:

 

 

That, of course, is a dream. In real life, as in his songs, Teddy Thompson is ambivalent about many things --- starting with the wisdom of being in the music business at a time when it’s disappearing. But it’s deeper than that. This is a guy who dares to ask: Why do anything? “I should get up/ I should go out/ There must be something/ I can’t do without.”

 

Difficult? He revels in it. “Not an easy place to be/ in my arms,” for example. But watch how thorniness loses its bite when the music rocks. (Yes, that’s his friend Rufus Wainwright as the Elvis-like organist.)

 

 

Every once in a while, he drops the mask and writes with purity and feeling:

 

If possible, Teddy Thompson sings even better than he writes. His vocal range is vast. He can effortlessly ascend into Roy Orbison territory; he can growl and snap. And he can, in subtle snippets, deliver riffs from every period in pop music. Emphasis: pop. Teddy Thompson plays rock and roll, but in its most accessible form. Which is why admirers like me wonder why he isn’t huge --- he was born for FM radio. Oops. Forgot. There is none.

 

His first CD, “Teddy Thompson,” is just fine. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

Next is Separate Ways, his first masterpiece --- by which I mean: every single song a winner. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

He indulged himself with a country CD, Up Front and Down Low, which is a great deal better --- and certainly more authentic --- than most of what comes out of Nashville. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

Thompson very quickly followed that --- because he was afraid his record company might drop him --- with A Piece of What You Need. He calls it his “happy record.” That is, “happy” in his special terms: "Well, maybe not happy, but upbeat. Actually, maybe not upbeat, but it does have some up-tempo songs. Anyway, it's as close as I've gotten to making the record I've always wanted to make." [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.] 

 

In my dream world, you’d all write 250 words about Teddy Thompson and send them to me, and I’d give you all As --- for anticipation. And then “Bella” would come out, and we’d all grab it and go to his shows and tell our friends.

 

Would a booming career make Teddy Thompson happy? Dunno. But it would be fun to force him to confront…  success.