Having never kept any journals, he relied on his “selective memory” to paint a vivid portrait of the artist - namely him - as a young man. So, I said: ‘Scott, you should come in at the end in more of an editorial role.’ Sadly, Scott passed away (in late 2019) before the end of the writing process.” I didn’t find that very satisfying I thought whatever voice I had was being lost. “But Scott started doing interviews with me and wrote them up. “Scott harangued me for a couple of years that I should just write this book about that (1960s) time period, and wouldn’t it be great?’ And I said: ‘Well, I don’t know about that’,” said Thompson, who lived in Pacific Palisades from 1987 to 2017. Make that a couple of hours a day over a period of three years, although the genesis of “Beeswing” - which was co-written by now-deceased Los Angeles Times journalist Scott Timberg, a close friend - dates back nearly a decade. It was not too demanding just a couple of hours a day and you had a book!” “I’d hit a time or incident, and think: ‘How in the hell will I describe this?’ For the most part, it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed doing it. as part of the 2021 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. “It was difficult in parts,” said Thompson, who will do a livestream interview and two-song performance Monday at 5 p.m. I also wanted to see if I could write something longer than a three-minute song, something more disciplined.” People still listen to (Pink Floyd’s) ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and ‘Led Zeppelin II.’ The 1960s, especially, was a very influential decade and I just wanted to add another voice to the recollections of that time. “Those continue to be important decades for people. But younger people ask me a lot about the 1960s and ‘70s. The arrow is arcing through the air and speeding towards its appointed target.”Īsked if he penned the memoir for his fellow Baby Boomers or for his three adult children and six grandchildren, Thompson replied: “For my fellow travelers and for succeeding generations. The peace-and-love era Thompson grew up in and its immediate aftermath are focal points of “Beeswing,” in which he writes: “I don’t want to remember, but now it is time to look back. I was still having trouble saying no to most things, and with a hippie-esque shrug of the shoulders, I said, ‘Yeah, okay,’ with little thought for the responsibility and consequences, which were considerable.” This was not untypical of the thinking of the times. She requested Thompson impregnate her, “no strings attached,” he writes, because “she was quite prepared to be a single parent. In “Yankee Hopscotch,” the eighth chapter of his book, Thompson notes that he fathered his first son, Jesse, in 1970 with a Los Angeles-based woman, Liz Gordon. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images) It was necessary to write about the hooker to explain the song, or vice versa,” Thompson, now 72, said from his home in Montclair, N.J. “It just seemed important to the general curve of the story. Others are aware that Thompson, a devout Muslim since 1974, wrote his blistering 2002 song, “Outside of the Inside,” to convey his contempt for the Middle Eastern perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.īut there is much more to learn about this veteran troubadour in his absorbing new memoir, “Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice, 1967-1975.” It offers an array of revelations, including his early use of drugs - primarily speed and cocaine - and the fact he wrote his haunting song, “Turning of the Tide,” after spending a night with a hooker in Hamburg, Germany, when he was barely 21. And fans know Thompson has been a prolific solo artist for nearly 50 years, during which time his songs have been recorded by everyone from R.E.M., Johnny Cash and The Pointer Sisters to The Neville Brothers, Tom Jones and bluegrass king Del McCoury. They also know he helped create English folk-rock in the 1960s as a member of Fairport Convention, a pioneering London band with which Jimi Hendrix liked to sit in and jam. know he has long been critically acclaimed as one of the finest and most distinctive guitarists and singer-songwriters on either side of the Atlantic. Fans of Richard Thompson - whose admirers range from Bonnie Raitt and Bob Dylan to the members of Los Lobos and Dinosaur Jr.

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