Richard Thompson Sings About ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’

Richard Thompson has written great songs about just about anything. He’s penned and performed wonderful tunes on heavy topics such as love, death, and sex (“Beeswing”, “Dimming of the Day”, and “Read About Love”) as well as silly ones about topics as odd as Janet Jackson‘s wardrobe malfunction and a short biography of Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He tells a story in folkloric detail with quiet accompaniment as easily as he delivers modern rock tropes with slashing guitar solos. A true master of the axe (both acoustic and electric), he seems to do nothing this musician cannot do. So, what does the artist have to offer these days?

Quite a lot. It has been over 50 years since Thompson first joined the legendary British folk-rock band Fairport Convention as a teenage founding member, yet he has just released one of the best albums of his long career: Hippies, Thugs and Heroes. The dozen story-songs vary in topic and tone, yet they share a consistent, almost sneering attitude. This perspective lets him empathize with nasty wrongdoers and their victims alike. In his worldview, we’re all guilty, though some of us are simply more desperate than others.

Consider a song like “Everybody’s Stealing”. It begins as a jaunty ballad about a home robbery, then pivots into a diatribe against institutional theft by the government, landlords, and the police. No one is innocent here, including the narrator, who ambiguously seems to be confessing to his own crimes by the end of the track. If everyone is larcenous, Thompson implies, then we are all complicit. The instrumentation is carnivalesque and happy, if a bit off-kilter, which perfectly underscores the fractured morality described in the lyrics.

The lead single, “Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking”, offers an even more disturbing look at human interaction. The song begins with a seduction, but Thompson looks far behind the simple hookup of two drugged-out pleasure seekers. This is explicitly not a love song. The man plays a calculated role just to get laid, acting mysterious and sophisticated while quoting Shakespeare and feigning knowledge of Greek and hieroglyphics. We learn less about the woman and her motivations, but the clear presumption is that the affair will be short-lived. The point is that both people are entirely in it for themselves and momentary gratification.

Thompson’s lyrics are full of rich shorthand: symbolic references, literary allusions, and intellectual intimations. He cites everything from Disney movies to Federico Fellini in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. He invokes ancient Celtic legends of “mandrake roots and serpent’s kisses” in “She Burns It All”. Meanwhile, “Siren” recalls classical mythology as an allegory for his love of another—presumably his wife, Zara Phillips, who sings harmony throughout the new album.

Richard Thompson’s virtuoso guitar playing complements and deepens every track, from the fiery, fuzzed-out electric guitar licks on the crime-boss saga “Stringer” to the mournful, simple acoustic guitar riffs decorating “Pauper’s Grave.” He initially recorded these songs as detailed demos before inviting his longtime band—bass player Taras Prodaniuk, drummer Michael Jerome, and multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield on guitar and fiddle—to contribute to the finished product.

Ultimately, Hippies, Thugs and Heroes shows a master of his craft who is still actively striving to put out his best work. Old fans will be absolutely thrilled, and new ones are bound to emerge as a result.