Creativity Quote by Richard Thompson

To go onstage alone with an acoustic guitar is to remove every layer of production that can flatter you: no volume to hide behind, no band to share the risk, no effects to blur a mistake into atmosphere. Richard Thompson’s “man without any clothes on” lands because it’s an old metaphor (the naked truth) with a musician’s practical edge. Acoustic performance is exposure as a technical condition, not just a poetic one. Every squeak, every breath, every micro-waver in pitch is suddenly part of the story.

Then he swerves into comedy: “And that can be fun.” The joke isn’t merely bawdy; it’s a way of taking control of vulnerability before the audience can. By calling himself an “exhibitionist,” Thompson reframes the power dynamic. The crowd isn’t catching him out; he’s chosen the situation, chosen the risk, chosen the intimacy. It’s a musician’s version of gallows humor: if you name the fear, you shrink it.

The subtext is also a quiet flex. You only “quite enjoy it” if you’ve earned the craft to survive it. Thompson came up in a British folk-rock tradition that prizes songs that work in the barest form, and his reputation rests on precision and storytelling more than spectacle. The line nods to a cultural moment where live music is often built from layers and lighting cues. He’s arguing, wryly, that the older thrill still hits hardest: one person, one instrument, no safety net - and the pleasure of being seen anyway.