[Text by Pamela Goddard; article appears in the Ithaca Times]
In 1999, Playboy magazine asked well-known musicians to make a list of the ten greatest songs of the millennium. British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson thought, “’Hah! Hypocrites. They don’t mean millennium, they mean 20 years. I’ll call their bluff and do a real thousand-year selection.” Thompson’s list didn’t make the pages of Playboy, but it did lead to a musical adventure that continues to this day.
On January 30, master guitarist and acclaimed songwriter Richard Thompson, with musical friends Judith Owen (keyboards, vocals) and Debra Dobkin (percussion, vocals), comes to the State Theatre for a two-hour journey through 1,000 years of popular music. Thompson has been known to include “Summer is Icumen In,” the oldest known song in the English language, and then continue through time to madrigals, ballads, sea shanties, the British music hall, Broadway tunes and garage rock.
The Ithaca Times was able to catch up with Thompson and ask about popular music, time and the creative process.
Popcorn Youth: Tell us more about 1,000 years of music.
Richard Thompson: It’s an insane idea, and can’t really be done. What is “popular,” really? The title is really a lie. The idea is that popular music comes in many forms, through many ages, and as older forms get superceded, sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bathwater… Great ideas, tunes, rhythms, and styles get left in the dust of history, so let’s have a look at what’s back there, and see if it still does the trick. I enjoy finding what’s there, and discovering threads — from the troubadours to Gilbert and Sullivan — seeing how things don’t necessarily change. This is one idea to whet people’s appetite; see what they might like and what they decide they must hear some more of.
Popcorn Youth: How did you choose the particular pieces of music?
Thompson: There are certain things I like and know, and never had an excuse to do.
The research is obviously fun… See what’s out there and what I can challenge myself with. We’re trying to have something from every century, something every 50 to 100 years. Half the show will be from the 20th century. This may be good news to the audience. Early music can seem awfully unfamiliar.
Popcorn Youth: What will the arrangments be like?
Thompson: Well, there are certain imposed limits, just from who we are. The music has to be reduced to these voices and to these instruments. Trying to render an Arthur Sullivan orchestration with three musicians is pretty desperate stuff, but may, at a stretch, be thought charming. I am unqualified to sing 98 percent of the material here, but me having a go could be considered part of the fun. Obviously, there are specialists who can do much better, but hopefully this will have a certain charm and be entertaining. We hope so.
Popcorn Youth: Are these musicians you’ve worked with in the past, or did you pull this band together especially for this project?
Thompson: Yes, and yes. We’ve worked together before, and so I knew that it could work for this project. I chose local people, so it would be easy to get together and it would be easy to make arrangements and rehearse. The first show was done in 2000, as part of an off-beat series of concerts — something that was not our usual show. I thought it might be amusing. In the years since, I’ve kept doing research. This show is 95 percent different from the 2000 show. We’ve got seven to eight new numbers for this show.
Popcorn Youth: Has the project caused you to look at your songwriting in a different way?
Thompson: You know, it has changed some…in subtle ways. Looking into music from 1000 to 1700, especially the music of the troubadours… It’s had a subtle effect on the ways I think of my own music.
Popcorn Youth: Where do your own songs fit in 1,000 years of music? Will long-time fans hear your own songs during this concert?
Thompson: No. They won’t be hearing my songs. Tough, sorry. That would be presumptuous, if I were to say, “Here’s 1,000 years of the greatest music, and by the way here’s mine.” I think most fans are fine with that. I do a lot of touring and there’s plenty of opportunity to hear what I usually do. This is something different and, you know, it might reach out to a new audience.
Richard Thompson will perform at the State Theatre on Wed, Jan. 30, 8pm. For more information, call 607-27-STATE.