Salut! Live

Join the Salut! Live Facebook group. Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2902595146676633. You'll get there immediately if you're already on Facebook and it's simple and free to join.

But our readers rarely post comments here. Only one nominated a song when I threw out the invitation. More feedback came from the poll that I embedded but then I discovered it was limited to 25 responses unless I was prepared to pay at least $39 a month. 

It could hardly have been a more different story once I’d alerted subscribers to relevant Facebook groups. Hundreds of votes have been cast and lots of lovely comments posted at Salut! Live our own group but more significantly at the UK & Irish Folk and Acoustic 60s-80s, Richard Thompson and Fairporters groups.  

My count is imperfect. I cannot be sure I have spotted and dealt with votes cast in different places by the same people. It’s naturally that they should do so. A Richard Thompson fan could easily belong to each of the RT, UK & Irish, Fairporters Facebook groups and even ours. Distractions while counting may have led to errors on my part though I am fairly confident these would have affected only songs receiving one vote or two, not the frontrunners.

With those minor caveats, the final results, at the top end of the table, are:

Beeswing .... 42 votes

Dimming of the Day ... 30

1952 Vincent Black Lightning ... 30

From Galway to Graceland ... 19

Wall of Death….. 18

Meet on the Ledge .. 13

Wall of Death was the only one not included in my own list when I launched this little exercise.

But an incredible tally of more than 120 songs resulted from the voting. I'm the first - but not the last - to admit some were previously unknown to me. That speaks volume for the scope and excellence of Richard Thompson's body of work.

I will duck the task of listing every single song that attracted support. And while there are likely to be further votes here and there, this is my final word on the subject.

Here, with my involvement complete, are the songs that did not make the top six but secured three votes or more:

Eleven: Tear-stained Letter

Nine: I Misunderstood/ Persuasion/ Calvary Cross

Eight: Down: Where the Drunkards Roll

Seven: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight/ Woods of Darnley/ Shoot Out the Lights/ When the Spell is Broken

Six:Poor Ditching Boy/ How Will I be Simple Again?

Five: Waltzing's for Dreamers/ Keep Your Distance/ Don't Sit on my Jimmy Shands/ Hard on Me

Four: End of the Rainbow/ Farewell Farewell/ Walking the Wire/ When I Get to the Border/ The Great Valerio/ Hokey Pokey

Three: Hand of Kindness/ Take Care the Road You Choose/ Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair/ God Loves a Drunkard/ Al Bowlly's in Heaven/ Crazy Man Michael/ Can't Win/ Genesis Hall/ I Feel So Good/ Time to Ring Some Changes/ Twisted/ For Shame of Doing Wrong/ Guns are the Tongues/ Streets of Paradise/ Now Be Thankful

Apologies in advance for any mistakes with the song titles. This self-inflicted endeavour has proved laborious thanks to the heartwarming response. I'll end by saluting a truly great artist and repeating the wise words posted by Louisa Mallett at the Richard Thompson Facebook group:

How do you sum up a +50 year career this simply?.

Not denigrating the aim, but some of us will love rock, some folk, some acoustic, some ballad, some (positive/negative) emotion. Some guitar over lyrics; some vice versa. We'll have emotional connections with songs, love them each for different reasons

** If you feel inclined to support this site and all it seeks to do to spread the word about the music we love, feel free to ignore the suggested amounts (not my suggestion, I should add!). The sums proposed exceed what I would expect anyone to contribute. Just come here for free - it's a labour of love - or give what you can.