Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music - Third Version (2008-2009)

From about 2001 to 2009, Richard Thompson occasionally put on a special type of concert, called "1000 Years of Popular Music." The idea started for him around the year 2000, when Playboy Magazine asked him and a bunch of other famous musicians to list what they considered to be the best songs of the millennium. Thompson alone took them literally and gave them a list that genuinely covered 1000 years, whereas everyone else made lists just of the last century. That inspired him to perform this concerts where he played some of his favorite songs of the last 1000 years, with many going back centuries. 

In 2021, I compiled and posted two versions of these kinds of concerts. Those mostly were sourced from concerts between 2001 and 2004. At that time, I also made a third version, mostly consisting of concerts from 2008. But I never felt ready to post it until now. The reason was sound quality. Most of the songs from the first two versions came from soundboard bootlegs or a DVD video. But this one pretty much entirely comes from unreleased audience bootlegs. (As usual, you can find sourcing details in the mp3 tags.) I felt that didn't meet the sound quality standards I'd set for my music blog. I waited, hoping either better sources would be found, or audio editing technology would improve enough for me to make this sound worthy of posting.

Well, better sources never were found, but audio editing technology did improve. Now, in January 2026, I feel this one sounds nearly as good as the first two. I just recently discovered a relatively new filter the MVSEP program has called "denoise." It's great for getting rid of hiss. So I used that on all the songs. I also ran all the songs through MVSEP's reverb reduction. And I additionally ran all the talking tracks through Adobe's vocal enhancer, which does wonders adding clarity to talking.

I know a couple of commenters have been asking for this ever since I mentioned a third version back in 2021. Thanks for your patience! Sorry it took so long. 

Speaking about that Adobe vocal enhancer, since that works so well, I recently used that on many of the talking tracks in the first two versions. Many of those talking bits were from audience boots instead of soundboard boots, so they needed help too. They sound much better now. So I strongly recommend you redownload those albums, if you'd downloaded them before.

Here's the link to the first version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/05/richard-thompson-1000-years-of-popular.html

And the link to the second version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/06/richard-thompson-1000-years-of-popular.html

I was very careful to avoid duplicating any songs from version to version. Luckily, Thompson kept changing the songs on his different "1000 Years" tours. So this should be just as entertaining as the other two versions. Also, like those versions, I've included sourcing information in brackets in the song titles. That includes the songwriter or writers, when known, and the year the song was written, if known.

Actually, I believe the last time Thompson toured with this theme was 2008. I have one song here from 2009, "Substitute," that came from a different kind of concert. But it was done in acoustic mode, like all the songs here, and I thought it fit in nicely, so I included it. Let's hope he comes back to this tour concept someday, because it's a fun way to learn musical history. (Besides, I'd love to see what songs he would deem worthy from the 2010s and 2020s.)  

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long. 

01 Edi Beo Thu Hevene Quene [Praise to You, Queen of Heaven] [1200s] (Richard Thompson)
02 talk (Richard Thompson)
03 The Three Ravens [1400s or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 Ja Nus Hons Pris [King Richard, 1192] (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Richard Thompson)
07 Cutty Wren [1300s] (Richard Thompson)
08 talk (Richard Thompson)
09 False Knight on the Road [1820s or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
10 talk (Richard Thompson)
11 Pipe, Shepherd's Pipe [unknown] (Richard Thompson)
12 talk (Richard Thompson)
13 A Man Who Would Woo a Fair Maid [Gilbert and Sullivan, 1888] (Richard Thompson)
14 talk (Richard Thompson)
15 Down by the Salley Gardens [William Butler Yeats, 1889, set to music in 1909] (Richard Thompson)
16 talk (Richard Thompson)
17 Rigs of the Time [1905 or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
18 talk (Richard Thompson)
19 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime [Bing Crosby, 1932] (Richard Thompson)
20 talk (Richard Thompson)
21 Strange Fruit [Abel Meeropol, 1937] (Richard Thompson)
22 talk (Richard Thompson)
23 Parchman Farm [Mose Allison, 1957] (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 Little Boxes [Malvina Reynolds, 1962] (Richard Thompson)
26 Hold Me Tight - There's a Place - I Want to Hold Your Hand [Beatles, 1963] (Richard Thompson)
27 talk (Richard Thompson)
28 All Right [I'll Sign the Papers] [Ray Price, 1964] (Richard Thompson)
29 Substitute [Who, 1966] (Richard Thompson)
30 talk (Richard Thompson)
31 Workin' Man Blues [Merle Haggard, 1969] (Richard Thompson)
32 talk (Richard Thompson)
33 Get Up, Stand Up [Bob Marley & the Wailers, 1973] (Richard Thompson)
34 talk (Richard Thompson)
35 Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime [Korgis, 1980] (Richard Thompson)
36 talk (Richard Thompson)
37 Beds Are Burning [Midnight Oil, 1987] (Richard Thompson)
38 talk (Richard Thompson)
39 Maneater [Nelly Furtado, 2006] (Richard Thompson) 

https://bestfile.io/en/ruKCZLQUli3nX0K/file 

The cover photo comes from a concert at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2008. I also used the same framing artwork that I used on the first two versions.