1. Sumer is Icumen In
2. King Henry V's Conquest Of France
3. When I Am Laid In Earth
4. So Ben Mi Ch'a Bon Tempo
5. Shenandoah
6. Blackleg Miner
7. Waiting at the Church
8. Trafalgar Square
9. There Is Beauty?
10. Why Have My Loved Ones Gone?
11. Old Rocking Chair's Got Me
12. Orange-Coloured Sky
13. Cry Me A River
14. Drinking Wine Spo-dee-o-dee
15. The Fool
16. Legal Matter
17. Tempted
18. Kiss
19. Oops! I Did It Again
20. Sam Hall
21. Money
22. It Won't Be Long
23. Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt
1000 Years of Popular Music
Beeswing Records 2003, BSW003
current status: in-print
Richard Thompson - guitar & vocals
Michael Jerome - percussion
Judith Owen - vocals
"The idea for this project came from Playboy Magazine - I was asked by 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 The idea is that Popular Music comes in many forms, through many ages, and as older forms get superceded, sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bathwater - great ideas, tunes, rhythms, styles, get left in the dust of history, so let's have a look at what's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
2004 '1000 Years of Popular Music' Links
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