Beeswing - Richard Thompson

Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice (1967-1975) by Richard Thompson, 2021.

This was a very interesting memoir written by the guitarist Richard Thompson who has been one of my favorite musicians for well over fifty years. I read this book over the course of about three months and three e-book downloads from the library. It was one of those books that was easy to put down but then I was looking for it to get back to it.

His viewpoint of playing London in the 1960's was fascinating and his years in Fairport Convention. I had also forgotten that he later became a Sufi Muslim in the early 70's with his then wife Linda and still is a practicing Muslim. I really loved those albums he did with Linda Thompson.

Another interesting anecdote was his story about his Scottish heritage where he describes an incident where his grandfather named Thomson had a plaque engraved with their family name to be placed on the front of their cottage in Scotland. The plaque arrived with the family name misspelled Thompson with the p. Instead of paying for a new plaque, his Scottish grandfather figured out it was cheaper to officially change the family name to Thompson to match the misspelled plaque which he did. So Richard Thompson was laughing about the cheap Scottish stereotype with a family example.

I saw Richard Thompson in concert with Fairport Convention in a Philly club in 1969 and then many years later Becky and I saw him at the Tralf in Buffalo where he performed a very entertaining solo concert.

I became really interested in this memoir after reading another memoir from the record producer and manager Joe Boyd whose book White Bicycles covers a lot of the same time period and situations in London. He was even the promoter for Richard Thompson's band Fairport Convention. 

Also from reading these two books I have added a biography of Sandy Denny to my list of books to read and will do so this winter and I'm looking forward to it.

Richard Thompson albums in my collection:

• Fairport Convention, 1968
• Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking, 1969
• Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief, 1969
• Fairport Convention - Full House, 1970
• Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights, 1972
• Richard & Linda Thompson - Hokey Pokey, 1974
• Strict Tempo!, 1981
• Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights, 1982
• Hand of Kindness, 1983
• Across the Crowded Room, 1985
• Amnesia,1988
• Rumor and Sigh, 1991
• Watching the Dark, 1993, box set
• Mirror Blue, 1994
• You? Me? Us?, 1996
• Mock Tudor, 1999
• Best of Richard and Linda Thompson: The Island Record Years, 2000
• Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years, 2001
• The Old Kit Bag, 2003
• 1000 Years of Popular Music, 2003
• Live from Austin TX - 2001, 2003
• Front Parlour Ballads, 2005
• RT - The Life and Music of Richard Thompson, 2006, box set
• Sweet Warrior, 2007
• Dream Attic, 2010
• Live at the BBC, 2011
• Electric, 2013
• Acoustic Classics, 2014
• Still, 2015