1000 Years of Popular Music
Available at gigs and through BEESWEB.

Richard Thompson - guitar & vocals
Michael Jerome - percussion
Judith Owen - vocals

"The idea for this project came from Playboy Magazine - I was asked to submit a list, in late 1999, of the ten greatest songs of the Millenium. Hah! I thought, hypocrites - they don't mean millennium, they mean twenty years - I'll call their bluff and do a real thousand-year selection. My list was similar to the choices here on this CD, starting in about 1068, and winding slowly up to 2001. That they failed to print my list among others submitted by rock's luminaries, is but a slight wound - it gave me the idea for this show, which has been performed occasionally, and will hopefully receive a few more airings. The idea is that Popular Music comes in many forms, through many ages, and as older forms get superceded, sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bathwater - great ideas, tunes, rhythms, styles, get left in the dust of history, so let's have a look at what's back there, and see if still does the trick. I am unqualified to sing 98% of the material here, but me having a go could be considered part of the fun. Also, trying to render an Arthur Sullivan orchestration with acoustic guitar and snare drum is pretty desperate stuff, but may, at a stretch, be thought "charming." What appears on this CD is a performance, rather than a chronological, distillation of several different shows - hence some gaps in the 17th and 18th centuries, and too much weight on Music Hall and Rock & Roll - we just felt that some performances weren't quite captured - perhaps on Part Two?"- Richard Thompson

1. Sumer is Icumen In
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
2. King Henry V's Conquest Of France
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
3. When I Am Laid In Earth
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
4. So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo
   (Vecchi, arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
5. Shenandoah
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
6. Blackleg Miner
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
7. Waiting at the Church
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
8. Trafalgar Square
   (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
9. There Is Beauty?
   (Gilbert & Sullivan/trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music, admin. by Bug/BMI)
   
10. Why Have My Loved Ones Gone?
    (Foster/trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing. Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
    
11. Old Rocking Chair's Got Me
    (Carmichael; Songs of Peer Ltd./ASCAP)
    
12. Orange-Coloured Sky
    (Milton Delugg-William Stein; Amy Dee Music Corp./ASCAP)
    
13. Cry Me A River
    (Arthur Hamilton; Chappell & Co. Inc./ASCAP)
    
14. Drinking Wine Spo-dee-o-dee
    (Sticks McGhee-J. Mayo Williams; Universal MCA Music Publishing/ASCAP)
    
15. The Fool
    (Lee Hazlewood; Mother Texas Production Inc./ASCAP). Originally by Sanford Clark)
    
16. Legal Matter
    (Pete Townshend; Towser Tunes Inc.-Careers BMG Music Publishing/BMI)
    
17. Tempted
    (Glenn Tilbrook-Chris Difford; EMI Blackwood Music Inc./BMI)
    
18. Kiss
    (Prince; Controversy Music/Universal Music Publishing Group/ASCAP)
    
19. Oops! I Did It Again
    (Karl Sandberg-Rami Yacoub; Zomba Enterprises Inc./ASCAP)
    
20. Sam Hall
    (unknown, arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
    
21. Money
    (Benny Andersson-Bjoern Ulvaeus; EMI Waterford Music Inc.-Universal Polygram Int'l Publishing Inc./ASCAP)
    
22. It Won't Be Long
    (John Lennon-Paul McCartney; Sony/ATV Music/BMI)
    
23. Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt
    (trad., arr. by Thompson; Beeswing Music admin. by Bug/BMI)
    

Recorded by Ed Haber and Ilana Pelzig Cellum
Mixed, edited and compiled by Simon Tassano at Rumiville, Austin TX
Mastered by Jim Wilson at YES Mastering, Austin, TX
Package design by David Greenberger