Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Beeswing cover art

Beeswing

Written by: Richard Thompson, Scott Timberg
Narrated by: Richard Thompson
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $25.20

Buy Now for $25.20

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2021

“Thompson is a master showman . . . [Beeswing is] everything you’d hope a Richard Thompson autobiography would be . . . It’s both major and minor, dirge and ditty, light on its feet but packing a punch.”

The Wall Street Journal

Now Featuring an Interview with Elvis Costello

In this moving, immersive, and long-awaited memoir, beloved international music legend Richard Thompson recreates the spirit of his early years, where he found, and then lost, and then found his way again. Considered one of the top twenty guitarists of all time, Thompson also belongs in the songwriting pantheon alongside Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Randy Newman. Here the British folk musician takes us back to the late 1960s, a period of great change and creativity for both him and the world at large.

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. It was a thrilling period of massive tours, where Thompson was on the road in both the UK and the US, crossing paths with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as a time of heady and explosive creativity for Thompson, who wrote some of his most famous songs during this time. But as Thompson reveals, those eight years were also marked by upheaval and tragedy. Honest, moving, and compelling, Beeswing vividly captures the life of a remarkable man and musician during a period of artistic intensity, in a world on the cusp of change.

“An absorbing, witty, often deliciously biting read, as all rock memoirs should be.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

©2021 Richard Thompson and Scott Timberg (P)2022 Hachette Audio

What the critics say

Beeswing is wry, un-ponderous, anti-obligatory. Because the sound Thompson created with Fairport was rooted in centuries-old songs, he isn’t captive to ’60s clichés; and because British electric folk is off the classic-rock grid . . . The book’s period accent makes it feel fresh and exploratory.” The New York Times Book Review

“Mr. Thompson is a master showman. The balancing act of major and minor, strung together by his witty, self-deprecating banter, is the crux of Mr. Thompson’s shows, and that same equipoise between dirge and ditty is the hallmark of Beeswing: It’s everything you’d hope a Richard Thompson autobiography would be . . . It’s both major and minor, dirge and ditty, light on its feet but packing a punch: like the very best Richard Thompson show.” —Wesley Stace​, The Wall Street Journal

“Thompson has a reputation as a guitarists’ guitarist and a top-notch singer-songwriter . . . With Beeswing, Thompson proves himself equally adept as a memoirist . . . Just as he has a knack for lyrics, Thompson has a way with words on the page, offering colorful portraits of his contemporaries and collaborators . . . Thompson’s humor and insight also shine. He evocatively recreates a time and place, and, like his shows, his memoir leaves you wanting more.” Booklist, starred review

What listeners say about Beeswing

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A definitive history of British folk rock

In the early 80s following a reunion of Fairport Convention at a weekend folk rock festival event well attended in Croperdy with great warm weather and the flowing of good ale along the sides of the audience area, I met up with various members of the band's alumni for interviews in my role as a college newspaper entertainment reporter. Over the 1980s, I had met several stars of various rock traditions for interviews with a wide range of personality. None as kind and interested as Richard Thompson was with his audience. He was the rare blend of talent, humility and friendliness, even to an annoying student reporter. We met on Sunny Goodge Street the following weekend and he paid for lunch and tea, while I recorded my questions about his career probably in the same predictable manner as so many others before me. But he was gracious and patient with me. The experience was one that continues to be a good memory. His music was important to me, and it was nice to meet a talented lead guitarist and songwriter who wasn't a major dick. This autobiography explains a lot of why he was that way. It is a great read, especially if you are interested in 60s rock history. A tale in good time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!