We went to see Richard Thompson performing over two nights at the Dakota on a Monday and Wednesday in May 2023. Minneapolis was the first stop on his 2023 North American tour and the Dakota the only spot that booked him for two nights. I took the occasion to study up and present Thompson to Power Line readers in a post that I ask you to indulge me for revisiting. Hearing “Hard Luck Stories” (from Pour Down Like Silver) on the radio yesterday whetted my own appetite to return to his music. I thought it might provide a break from the news of the day for a few readers like me.
Thompson is a giant of British folk and folk-rock — a founding member of Fairport Convention and gifted singer/songwriter. In Fairport and in his own career after leaving the band he has drawn on the British folk tradition to write classic songs that sound like part of it. He titled one of his albums 1000 Years of Popular Music. It’s a title that comports with my sense of his place in the music universe.
Thompson is not an artist for every taste. I don’t think he’s ever had a hit. Yet he has developed a loyal and appreciative following over the course of a long career. Musician Wesley Stace (stage name: “John Wesley Harding”) writes of Thompson that he is “not only the greatest British guitar player (regardless of genre)” but also the man who (quoting Robert Plant) “freed British music in the 60s from the slog of the blues” by leading (this is Stace again) “the marriage of electric instruments and traditional song that became British folk rock[.]”
I was glad that we went to see both of his 2023 shows here. As Stace puts it, “Thompson is a master showman. I’ve never seen him give a bad concert, either solo or in any more ambitious musical configuration.”
Monday night’s show was excellent. However, Wednesday’s was beyond excellent. It was incredibly intense. Sitting up front (from where I snapped the photo at right), I could see him zoning into the emotions of the songs and coming out of them at the end as though emerging from a trance.
What accounted for the difference between Monday’s and Wednesday’s shows? As I say, Monday was his first night of the tour. He adjusted the setlist and dug more deeply into the songs on Wednesday night. Maybe Graham Nash’s presence in the audience on Wednesday had something to do with it.
Among the songs I am certain he performed only in Wednesday night’s show are “Walking on a Wire,” “Valerie,” and “Persuasion.” I would add “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” if it weren’t listed here on Setlist.FM, although I think it errs in listing it and “I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight” on Monday night’s setlist. They may have been on his setlist, but he didn’t play them.
Drawing on the recorded versions of songs he performed in the Dakota shows, I would like to introduce Thompson to readers who may be unfamiliar with his work. His career has had three phrases — with Fairport Convention, with ex-wife Linda Thompson, and on his own as a solo artist. He has written an improbably large number of great songs. With his eye for the dark side of love and life, he is not for everyone, but he is an incomparable artist and, his view onto the dark side notwithstanding, he has a terrific sense of humor. See, for example, “My Daddy Is a Mummy” among the videos below.
In its original iteration Fairport Convention was a sort of British — emphasis on British — version of the Byrds. This is a good account of the band. The core of the original group formed when Thompson was 16. Reading Thompson’s memoir Beeswing, I was not surprised to see him name the Byrds as an influence on Fairport. However, I was a little surprised to learn of their taste for the Lovin’ Spoonful and American jug band music as well. In the shows Thompson recalled his tenure with Fairport in a performance of his “Genesis Hall” from Unhalfbricking (1969).
I’m cheating a little by posting Fairport’s version of the song with the late, great Sandy Denny on the lead vocal. This is what it sounds like with Thompson playing it all by himself on Acoustic Classics II (2017).
Thompson paid tribute to Denny with a performance of her “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” Judy Collins seized on the song when she heard a tape of Denny’s demo. It is a song that puts me in mind of Yeats’s “The Wild Swans At Coole.” Fairport’s version of the song features Denny on the vocal and Thompson on electric guitar. Other than a few traditional songs, I think this was the only cover he included in his sets on Monday and Wednesday. He wanted to make sure we left knowing who Sandy Denny was.
I thought I felt a shiver go through the audience on Wednesday night when he lit into “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” from the album of that title with Linda Thompson (1974).
“Dimming of the Day” is from Richard and Linda’s Pour Down Like Silver (1975). This is what I mean by saying Thompson writes songs that sound like they have been around forever.
From the classic Shoot Out the Lights (1982), his last album with Linda, “Walking on a Wire” reflected the unraveling of his marriage.
“Wall of Death,” also from Shoot Out the Lights, let his dark side emerge in a witty and rollicking tune. “Let me ride on the Wall of Death one more time.”
“1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” from Rumor and Sigh (1991), has become something of a bluegrass classic thanks to the cover by Del McCoury. Woo hoo!
Sitting right in front of Thompson on Monday night, I had to restrain myself from asking him to play “Persuasion.” Without my bidding he played it on Wednesday night. I love the song. He said he originally wrote the tune for an Australian film and that Tim Finn subsequently added the lyrics. Son Teddy contributes to the poignant version on Action Packed (2001).
The solo version of “Valerie” on Acoustic Classics (2014) is exactly how it sounds live. It provides a good representation of Thompson’s picking style.
Thompson explained that he wrote “My Daddy Is a Mummy” when he was living in California. His then seven-year-old son went to a progressive school at which parents were expected to lend a hand. He said they called the school “Little Hippies By the Sea.” This was his contribution to the first graders’ education. I can’t find a recorded version of the song. The video below is from a live 2004 performance. (In his memoir Thompson describes his father’s accent as Scotch-Cockney. I’m not sure what his is, but it is thick.)
Thompson closed both shows with the tender “Beeswing,” from Mirror Blue (1993). We left on a high singing “Fine as a beeswing” to each other.
