Comments on: Black Lightning

Black Lightning

vronsky — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:35:25 -0800

Vincent Black Lightning 1952

By: joecacti

joecacti — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:41:22 -0800

I've always been a huge Del McCoury fan, but seeing them do this song at Merlefest a few years back sealed the deal. Classic song. For completeness, Richard Thompson is the composer.

By: everichon

everichon — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:01:24 -0800

I've seen Del play this a couple of different times. I don't like bluegrass generally, but they kick all kinds of ass. And now I have a visual!

By: ba

ba — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:25:04 -0800

To hell with the song; awesome bike!

By: Knicke

Knicke — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:26:30 -0800

Thanks for this; I'm a big fan of both Richard and Del, and this is one of the best motorcycle songs out there.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:49:57 -0800

This is one of those songs that I thought could only be made worse if not performed by Richard Thompson, but Del really takes ownership of it and makes it his own. His voice actually fits the feel of the song better than Richard's - almost as if Richard wrote it with that voice in mind.

By: AsYouKnow Bob

AsYouKnow Bob — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:54:46 -0800

I had the PBS bluegrass show playing in the background and wasn't paying much attention to it, when Del's cover version of VBL1952 slowly insinutated itself into my consciousness: "Holy fck, that's a Richard F. Thompson song!" Not for the first time, RT has written a timeless classic. (Really, now: the song sounds older than the internal combustion engine.) Thanks for the links.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:58:43 -0800

Another man with a fondness for Vincents

By: hwestiii

hwestiii — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:06:52 -0800

Also linked from that YouTube page with the Thompson version, Richard Thompson and David Byrne in duet performances! I'm in heaven. How did I not know they'd worked together like that.

By: nola

nola — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:09:58 -0800

I love the Del McCoury version , and got to hear it at Bristol TN's Rythmn and Roots festival last fall.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:23:53 -0800

"Del really takes ownership of it and makes it his own" I love how he changes Box Hill to Knoxville. And that high lonesome voice really complements the song. and cool link DN.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:30:09 -0800

For completeness' sake it should be mentioned that the Vincent appears to have been resurrected.

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:32:04 -0800

Shame on Del McCoury for transposing little Box Hill , Surrey to Knoxville Tennessee like that! This is my favourite RT song - driven more by a love of guitars (and redheads) then by big scary bikes. They could probably expand the plot out to make a good feature length film. I seem to remember hearing him talk about writing this and saying that he wanted to try to make up for the relative dearth of British songs about being on the road (relative to the thousands from the USA). Great post.

By: quin

quin — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:42:05 -0800

I think this motorcycle was just mentioned on the TV show The Loop last week. Weird. Very cool machine though.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:54:02 -0800

OK, I didn't think that anyone else than Thompson could do that song justice but McCoury does kick butt on that. Cool post.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:57:08 -0800

vronsky: I love how he changes Box Hill to Knoxville. Wow - I didn't even notice that! I like it even more now.

By: felix betachat

felix betachat — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:09:30 -0800

Saw the Del McCoury band perform this a couple years ago. It's always been one of my favorites and I had no idea that they covered it. I couldn't stop smiling for hours. It's a fantastic song, and the cover is perfect.

By: absalom

absalom — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:15:39 -0800

For when Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do. (PS: It'll always be "Knoxville" for me.)

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:33:01 -0800

That is a top cover that I'd not heard before but still preferring RT's voice I think. Great post.

By: sy

sy — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:50:03 -0800

Love this. Excellent.

By: Rangeboy

Rangeboy — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:50:28 -0800

It's difficult for me to believe that anybody besides Thompson could do justice to that song, though Del comes close. Only Mary Lou Lord's cover of "Beeswing" rivals this for best interpretation of a Thompson original (the latter found here).

By: Relay

Relay — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:05:24 -0800

Ah yes, the Vincent Black Lightning, sister bike to the Black Shadow, the preferred bike of ... carp, doctor_negative beat me to it.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:36:51 -0800

Coincidently, today's LargeHeartedBoy links to an NPR stream of a Richard Thompson show from last night at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club! Over 2 hours of piping fresh Thompson!

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:52:11 -0800

Saw him do this in Ashland, KY with Rhonda Vincent opening. Amazing show. Cheers!

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:56:41 -0800

I saw Richard Thompson perform this at the Palms Public Playhouse in Davis before it came out on the album. Richard Thompson shows are great for the neat surprised he throws in: unreleased songs, covers, etc. Needless to say everyone was floored after he performed it. When the album came out, I wouldn't have believed one guy on a guitar and singing could perform this if I hadn't of already seen it. (Oh, and live RT often sticks Harleys in with Nortons and Indians...) As for Del McCoury doing this, there was a story about them recording this, and how the idea came about. It was the Bluegrass song of the year or some such thing. It's nice that people are covering RT songs, but in this case I really prefer his version. To me it was perfection the first time I heard it so long ago.

By: pineapple

pineapple — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:15:01 -0800

Be sure to also see Reckless Kelly's version, which I think is an even better interpretation than Del McCoury's (the harmonies of the Braun brothers on James' last words are chill-inducing). (bizarre, my second time in 15 minutes posting about the same band on MeFi)

By: aladfar

aladfar — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:17:52 -0800

I discovered the song through Greg Brown, who used to perform it pretty regularly when I'd see him in Iowa City. It didn't take me long to trace it back to Richard Thompson, and I became a fan. I dig the High n' Lonesome sound of Del McCoury, but I definitely prefer the original. I think I prefer it as a British song. The American/Southern transposition doesn't work for me.

By: palmcorder_yajna

palmcorder_yajna — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:58:32 -0800

I agree that McCoury really makes the song his own. Reckless Kelly's sounds more like an homage to me. Though I think actually makes me like the Reckless Kelly version a little more. Of course, I am a person who first heard Richard Thompson at Exactly The Right Age, and I imprinted on him like a little baby duck.

By: suki

suki — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:12:51 -0800

Gives me goosebumps every time.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:08:34 -0800

Gives me goosebumps every time. Same here. Not many songs do that, but this one does.

By: rdr

rdr — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:58:47 -0800

Possibly true bit of trivia.... I believe that Linc in the Mod Squad rode a Vincent.

By: hortense

hortense — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:26:39 -0800

Ariel square four

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:50:59 -0800

I saw once a Black Shadow in the flesh, so to say. What an absolute beauty. I don't think I'd have liked to have "Mr. Duke" as a neighbour, but I sure as hell approve of his taste in motorbikes.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:19:14 -0800

This is one of those songs that I thought could only be made worse if not performed by Richard Thompson I was in a band that covered this once. It was WAY worse than Richard Thompson performing it!

By: HyperBlue

HyperBlue — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:37:27 -0800

The goosebump inducer for me was the lead guitar work from about 5 min in to the end. After playing that drone riff the entire song he cuts out wit some killer bluegrass riffs mixed with just the right amount of vintage, stratocaster dirt. Both new interpretations are sweet - a good indicator of quality songwriting craftsmanship. Nice to hear different takes and styles. I actually like these versions better. Don't get me wrong. I like RT's voice, but sometimes he sounds too much like he has the flu or completely collapsed nasal cavities. When listening to his songs I often expect him to start into "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:58:49 -0800

Man I can be dense sometimes. I thought it was "angels on aerials" like he was seeing angels standing on rooftop antennas as he was dying, coming to take him home. Then I see hortense's link and am like, oh, Ariel motorcycles. Duh.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:18:25 -0800

And Reckless Kelly (first I had heard of them) reminds me of Steve Earle, who could probaly do a pretty cool cover of this song as well.

By: hwestiii

hwestiii — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:44:26 -0800

Jo El Sonnier (sp?) does a pretty good cover of "Tear Stained Letter" with a nifty Cajun beat.

By: cazoo

cazoo — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:22:29 -0800

when i lived in los angeles, i once saw a vincent. i was so taken by the beauty of the bike that i didn't realize the rider was jay leno. and as for those new line of vincents; it just seems wrong to build them with a standard frame.

By: dopeypanda

dopeypanda — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:52:38 -0800

There is also Hunter Thompson and the Vincent Black Shadow.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:43:58 -0800

I did not know the song was so popular; I had a friend who kind of would not stop playing it when it first came out and have only rarely heard it since. The Del McCoury version was/is really terrific and that really was great to hear. I think I prefer Thompson's, I really like the guitar in it, but I am very very glad to have heard this other version. < derail> You gotta understand what the Vincent Black Lightning was; not even necessarily for the song, but just because it was a milestone of engineering. It was a machine of unalloyed speed. It was the fastest motorcycle ever built. It was the fastest motorcycle you could get until the early seventies. If you wanted to drag race cars or bikes or cars and bikes and airplanes and you had a Vincent then you knew that if a bumble bee didn't fly up your nose and distract you by starting to sting you, then you would win. To see one live, one that is being ridden, not paraded around coffee shops and/or events, but ridden, is to understand that the intersection of man and machine is at times a locus for religious sentiment: It is sexy like a Ferrari but without all that bulky body-work. Rollie Free (the guy in the photo of your last link) is going over a 125 mph when that photo is taken. He's half naked not because his leathers ripped earlier in the day but simply because the bike is that beautiful and he knows clothes so close to its sublime form would only be the baseset kind of insult. That few things could compare to flying a fighter jet on the street. It is a paragon of engineering on a par with Diesel's little contraption and the Brooklyn Bridge. It is one of the valves at the heart of the 20th century. It is on display at MoMA. It is something to aspire to, and from which all the smart bits were taken to build better motorcycles. < /derail>

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:10:59 -0800

one of the best things I have read on metafilter.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:36:21 -0800

color me impressed From Bklyn.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:08:30 -0800

Thanks, vronsky, that's really decent of you.

By: MapGuy

MapGuy — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:11:57 -0800

And now I know another deadly sin, Lust.

By: paddyboy

paddyboy — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:19:24 -0800

Thanks.