Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975

An intimate look at a period of great cultural tumult, chronicling the early years of one of the world's most significant and influential guitarists and songwriters.

Known for his brilliant songwriting, his extraordinary guitar playing, and his haunting and lovely songs, Richard Thompson has garnered a longtime cult following and is considered one of the top 20 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone. Now, in his first memoir, he lyrically chronicles the start of his legendary career.

Thompson packed more than a lifetime of experiences into his late teens and twenties. From the pivotal years of 1967 to 1975, he matured into a major musician, establishing the genre of British folk rock with the era-defining band Fairport Convention, only to depart for a duo act with his wife, Linda, at the height of the band's popularity. His discovery and ultimate embrace of Sufism profoundly reshaped his approach to everything in his life and, of course, the music he wrote thereafter. In this intimate memoir, Thompson reicreates the spirit of the 60s as he found, and then lost, and then found his way again, and takes us inside life on the road in the UK and the US, crossing paths—and occasionally sharing the stage—with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and more.

Like Patti Smith's Just Kids or Marianne Faithfull's Faithfull, Beeswing vividly captures the life of a remarkable artist during a period of creative intensity in a world on the cusp of change.