Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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As Richard Thompson explains in his typically droll annotation, 1000 Years of Popular Music came about after Playboy asked various musicians to rank their top ten songs of the millennium. While most dipped no farther back than a few decades–a century at most–Thompson's musical memory rose to the challenge. The result is this concert set's encapsulation of 22 songs that trace a musical progression from the Middle Ages through Britney Spears, with Judith Owen and Debra Dobkin providing spare instrumental and rich vocal support. Released as a concert DVD with two audio CDs, the selection is irrepressibly idiosyncratic, from rounds, madrigals, and British balladry that recall Thompson's early days in Fairport Convention through the music-hall singalong of "I Live in Trafalgar Square" to dips into the songbooks of the Kinks ("See My Friends"), Squeeze ("Tempted"), and Bowling for Soup ("1985"). Among the highlights are the soulful tenderness of the 17th century's "Bonnie St. Johnstone," a haunting "Shenandoah," a samba arrangement of Cole Porter's "Night and Day," and a deliriously rocking rendition of the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind."

~ Don McLeese

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006)

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