An intimate look at the early years of one of the world's most significant and influential
guitarists and songwriters. In this moving and immersive memoir Richard Thompson
international and longtime beloved music legend recreates the spirit of the 1960s where he
found and then lost and then found his way again. Known for his brilliant songwriting his
extraordinary guitar playing and his haunting voice Thompson is considered one of the top
twenty guitarists of all time in the songwriting pantheon alongside Bob Dylan Paul Simon and
Randy Newman. Now in his long-awaited memoir the British folk musician takes us back to the
late 1960s a period of great change and creativity?both for him and for the world at large.
Thompson packed more than a lifetime of experiences into his late teens and twenties. During
the pivotal years of 1967 to 1975 just as he was discovering his passion for music he formed
the band Fairport Convention with some schoolmates and helped establish the genre of British
folk rock. That led to a heady period of songwriting and massive tours where Thompson was on
the road both in the UK and the US and where he crossed paths with the likes of Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. But those eight years were also marked by change upheaval and
tragedy. Then at the height of the band's popularity Thompson left to form a duo act with his
wife Linda. And as he writes revealingly here his discovery and ultimate embrace of Sufism
dramatically reshaped his approach to music?and of course everything else. An honest moving
and compelling memoir Beeswing vividly captures the life of a remarkable artist during a
period of creative intensity in a world on the cusp of change.
