This morning’s CarTune is one of Richard Thompson’s best-loved compositions, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” 

A guitarist’s guitarist, a songwriter’s songwriter, Richard Thompson is one of the most highly acclaimed performers on the alternative folk scene. First known to the world as a member of the British ensemble Fairport Convention, then as half of the duo Richard and Linda Thompson, in 1983 he recorded his first solo album, Hand of Kindness. 

In 1991 came Rumor and Sigh, the record that included “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” The song takes elements of English balladry and American folk music and combines them with a tale of doomed lovers and a classic British bike. “It’s a simple boy-meets-girl story, complicated somewhat by the presence of a motorcycle,” Thompson says.

Said Red Molly to James that’s a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat’s off to you
It’s a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952

“When I was a kid, that was always the exotic bike, that was always the one, the one that you went “ooh, wow”, says Thompson of the nearly mythical motorcycle. “I’d always been looking for English ideas that didn’t sound corny, that had some romance to them, and around which you could pin a song. And this song started with a motorcycle, it started with the Vincent. It was a good lodestone around which the song could revolve.”

“Vincent” has become a worldwide folk standard, covered by everyone from Del McCoury to The Mammals. Our version this morning is by Thompson himself, naturally, in a live performance at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2006.