For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim is keeping up his new approach for the first Sunday of the month by inviting us to play a song written or performed by someone who was born in that month – which is now April, in case you hadn’t noticed. Jim’s post April Music Birthdays tells all.

I realised very quickly that I had played something by my obvious candidate as my lead song last week, and thought that perhaps that had ruled him out of contention. But then I thought, why should that be? He has loads of other songs, I know at least one other regular SLS player is an equally big fan, so even if she opts for him as well it is unlikely that we’ll choose the same songs, and that means at least one other participant will like my choice. So my decision was made: I’m going again this week with Richard Thompson, who was born on 3 April 1949 and celebrated his 77th birthday on Friday.

I then had to decide which of his songs to play, as he has been making music since 1967 and I love so much of what he has done. I have featured his songs several times before for SLS –  solo, as part of a duo, and as a member of Fairport Convention – and this week I’m playing you three, only one of which has been here before, and as that was two years ago I’m relying you not remembering! Let’s start with that reprise, as it is such a beautiful song:

If you’d like to see the lyrics, they are here at genius.com.

Richard and Teddy Thompson, his son, with a wonderful performance. The tune of Persuasion was originally written by Richard with Peter Filleul for the soundtrack of a movie called Sweet Talker, which was a joint Australian/American production, released in 1991 and starring Bryan Brown and Karen Allen. It wasn’t a great success, and I don’t think it was ever shown other than in those two countries. The lyrics came about when Tim Finn (of Crowded House) wrote them and released his version in July 1993 on his album Before And After. Richard liked them and has regularly played the song in concert, both with and without Teddy – and there is a video of him playing it with Tim’s brother Neil. It has been included on two of his live albums – Celtschmerz, in 1998, and Live From Austin, TX in 2005. He has never included it on a studio album, but he and Teddy did record a studio version for a compilation, Action Packed, in 2001, and a solo version was also on his 2014 album Acoustic Classics. It is such a superb song that any of those are worth hearing.

Having started in ‘beautiful’ mode I’ve chosen to go with that for all three songs today. Here’s the second, which has the bonus of being a lyric video so you can read them as you go:

Waltzing’s For Dreamers was, as the above image shows, on Richard’s sixth solo alum, Amnesia, which was released in October 1988 and reached #89 in the UK and #182 in the US. It is an achingly beautiful tale of a man down on his luck, willing to pay for companionship for a few hours and to have someone to hold and to dance with. I’ve never been in that situation but the way his words describe the yearning is so relatable. A gem of a song that I have loved since the first time I heard it: I bought the album the day it came out.

My final song of beauty for today is from Richard’s Mirror Blue album:

Again, if you’d like the full lyrics, genius.com is the place to go.

Mirror Blue was Richard’s eighth album, released in January 1994, peaking at #23 in the UK and #109 in the US. Like everything else he has done it found its way into my collection, and is another very good record. Beeswing is, for me, one of its standout tracks: a tale about a travelling girl and the prices that she and the young man who falls in love with her pay for the choices they make, that has come to be regarded by many as one of Richard’s very best compositions. He revealed in his autobiography Beeswing: Finding My Way and Losing My Voice that the female protagonist is based on the English folksinger Anne Briggs, whom Richard did not know personally but of whom he had heard many stories from their mutual close friend Sandy Denny, and the video I am playing includes photos of Anne in tribute to her.

The song’s lyrics describe a free spirit who can’t be tied down, and that was certainly true of Anne. In an episode of Folk Britannia (a documentary history of UK folk music aired in 2006) Richard recalled that he only ever encountered her twice and on both occasions she was drunk and unconscious. Her attendance at bookings was so erratic that it was said she turned up only five times between mid-1963 and early 1965. Yet somehow she made some very good music of her own, and had a lovely singing voice.

That’s all for today. Thanks as always to Jim for his usual superb hosting job, and I hope I’ve given you some beautiful music for a peaceful Easter Sunday. Enjoy your day, however you spend it, and I hope to see you again for Tuesday Tunes 👍