“Come home. All is forgiven.” — E II R

Richard Thompson concluded his 1,000 Years Of Popular Music tour in
Princeton tonight, kicking off with what he said was the first known round
in the English language, from the early 1200s, and finishing up with his
version of Britney Spears’ “Oops, I Did It Again.”* Which has a somewhat
medieval chord structure as he demonstrated by playing a verse in the15th
century style. The final encore was a kickass cover of “1985.”

Apparently, he is his own guitar tech, because when he broke his D string
during the first verse of “Friday On My Mind,” he changed it himself while
singing the a capella tune “Sam Hall.”

Then at one point, some wag yelled, “Richard Thompson for President!” (There’s always a preponderance of wags at Richard Thompson shows.)

“I spoke to the Queen just this morning,” he said, “and she’s willing to
take you all back. We’ve got a good economy and lots of oil and that nice
Tony Blair who speaks in complete sentences.” Even in Princeton that got
applause.

*As an encore, he did a song written by Richard I while being held
hostage in Germany following the Third Crusade, so he almost
made the 1,000 years of the title. Having done a song by a King and a
(brilliant) cover of Prince’s “Kiss,” he really should add, say, “Another
One Bites the Dust” to the set.