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This month’s free CD is a treasure trove of Richard Thompson rarities.
TitledCollected Classics: Rare & Live, it’s available free withUncut‘s November 2026 issue, on sale now.
We speak to the guitarist, singer and songwriter at length inside the issue, but he also took the time to talk us through this compilation, a handy refresher before the release of new album Hippies, Thugs And Heroes.
Thompson himself tends to think in terms of songs rather than albums, so he’s relaxed about compilations of his music.
“You try to record the best songs that you can at the time,” he explains. “From my own work, I tend to say, ‘Well, I like three songs from that record, and four songs from that record, and no songs from that record…’ With my new album, I still love all the tracks, but I’ll get sick of them at some point. That’s just the nature of creativity – if you’re a painter, you fill a canvas and you might never see it again. You’ve moved on to your blue period or your pink period.”
The album includes tracks from some of Thompson’s finest live performances, most originally on his own Beeswing label. There are also some lesser-heard studio recordings, squirrelled away on EPs and deluxe editions, but easily the equal of those on Thompson’s actual albums – and sometimes just as dark.
“Having grown up with The Everly Brothers or something, sad songs are enjoyable in a kind of twisted way. I can’t even think of that many happy songs really…”
Read on for Richard Thompson’s detailed lowdown on the CD…
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1 Fork In The Road
RICHARD THOMPSON: “This is from the Still deluxe edition. Rather than being leftover songs, I think they were songs written in between albums. Of course you always get people writing and saying, ‘Oh, it’s much better than the actual record.’”
2 Shoot Out The Lights (live)
“A song like this is a fairly simple song for the band to play, so it gives me room to mess around instrumentally. It always turns out different, and there are some live performances that are better than others. But some of those are definitely better than the studio version.”
3 What’s Up With You?
“This was recorded at home during Covid [for Thompson’s “Bloody Noses” EP]. I’m just playing hand percussion – it’s not quite a flat-out rock’n’roll song, but I think it’s good. It may re-emerge at some point, either with a band or acoustically.”
4 When The Spell Is Broken (live)
“This is another song where I can interpret it in all different ways: if I’m with the band, then I can really take as many solos as is comfortable, and again, it’s different every night. Always fun to play – perhaps we’ll revive that one on the next tour.”
5 Family (Guitar Version)
“It’s fun to do soundtrack work sometimes, and [The Cold Blue] were really enjoyable sessions. We got to record a bit in my favourite studio, Capitol B in Hollywood, what they call the ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ room, although they did a lot of Nat King Cole, a lot of Sinatra there as well.”
6 Dad’s Gonna Kill Me (live)
“This song [after its use in Sons Of Anarchy] introduced my music to thousands of kids, which is fantastic, and also to a somewhat newer audience of bikers. It’s a song about the American invasion of Baghdad, from the soldier’s point of view. It’s still relevant… just transfer to the next country.”
7 The Soul In Me
“I still like this [new] song, amazingly enough. Melodically it’s not unlike something like ‘Silver Dagger’, which is an American song with roots in the UK. Breakup songs are a large part of folk and popular music, and I’m happy to write those kind of songs.”
8 When The Saints Rise Out Of Their Graves
“This is a solo recording. At some point we might do it with the band. Here I’m drawing from the Western Christian viewpoint, about the end of time and resurrection. I suppose it’s a moral song, about consequences, karma, whatever you call it.”
9 Hard On Me (live)
“Every other tour, we might do this. Again, there’s a lot of space in there to improvise, and I can get weird on it, dissonant, melodic, whatever. It still speaks to me as a song after 20, 30 years.”
10 Small Racket
“The idea [for Grizzly Man] was to do an improvised soundtrack. Werner [Herzog] didn’t want us to play to picture, so every piece had its own integrity, and told its own little story as well. You can make some very interesting music that way.”
11 Will You Dance, Charlie Boy
“We had basically recorded Electric, and then we did about four bonus tracks straight after. They were all done live, and I think I wrote this for that situation: having a two-chord song is easy to throw at people.”
12 The Great Valerio (live)
“It’s an interesting song, and I’m not quite sure where it came from. I like the fact that I’ve not written anything quite like it before, or since, but nor has anybody else. One of the nice things about it is the kind of stillness it can create in the room.”
13 Tear Stained Letter (live)
“This is fun to play: it’s up-tempo, it’s a good opener or finisher. It’s a slightly unusual chord sequence, but you can go round and round and round. We did it at the Albert Hall in 2024, and we had about nine guitar players all contributing solos to it, which is just great, great fun.”
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