Richard Thompson Recalls Bob Dylan Covering "1952 Vincent Black Lightning"—Ten Years Ago Today
2013-07-14, DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI
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In July 2013, Bob Dylan was in the middle of the so-called “Americanarama” tour with a number of rotating opening acts. Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Bob Weir, Beck, and, on some dates, revered singer-songwriter Richard Thompson.
One of those dates occured ten years ago today, in Clarkston, Michigan. And that night, Richard Thompson wasn’t the only person on stage singing Richard Thompson songs; Bob Dylan sang one too! For the first and only time, Dylan covered Thompson’s immortal “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”
Sadly, not having been given a heads up, Thompson wasn’t still in the building to hear it. But a recording eventually surfaced.
When I interviewed Thompson for my new book Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members, we talked primarily about the time he and Dylan actually performed together, at a guitar festival in Spain in 1991 (the picture up top comes from that). But, near the end, I asked him about Dylan covering his song. So, in honor of its tenth anniversary today, I’m excerpting that bit of our conversation. For the full interview, including his story of frantically trying to tune his guitar onstage while Dylan wouldn’t wait, you gotta buy the book!
Jumping forward a few decades, let’s talk the “Americanarama” tour in 2013. What did you think when you were invited on that?
I suppose I thought, “This is exciting. It’s a tour. We can get paid. That’s good; we like to get paid. Dylan’s on the bill, Wilco’s on the bill, My Morning Jacket’s on the bill. How bad can it be?”
The only downside for us was we were basically opening the show, usually something like 5:30 PM, when there were about 500 people in the arena. People slowly trickled in during our set. So our sets were a bit throwaway in that sense. But we had some fun. We did a lot of jamming with Wilco, who like that sort of thing.
Towards the end of the tour, I met Bob. He invited me to his bus, and that was very nice. He was very gracious and friendly. He said he was appreciative of the stuff Fairport had done with his songs [discussed earlier in our interview]. That was lovely.
Was this before or after he covered your song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” onstage?
It could have been the same day, possibly. Can’t remember.
You said afterward you had no clue that he was going to cover the song. You were not even still in the building when it happened.
That’s true. We had to get to the next date, wherever that was, and in order to do it we had to leave pretty much after our set and then drive 600 miles or something. It was a necessity, so I missed it.
Do you remember how you first heard about it and what your reaction was?
I think I read it on Facebook. Someone commented about it. I thought, “Well, I don’t really believe that. Why would Bob cover one of mine?” When it sank in, I thought, “Well, that’s fantastic. I’ve covered 75 of his; he’s covered one of mine.” I think that that’s the right ratio.
What did you think when you finally heard a recording of it?
It wasn’t apparent that there was a recording for a long time. But, as we know, these things surface sooner or later.
I thought it was great. I would not expect to have a verbatim version from Dylan. I like the fact that he plays around with things and he doesn’t do stuff the same way twice. That’s a wonderful thing when you get to 80 or whatever he was then. It shows that you are still experimenting musically, and you’re still alive musically. You’re not going through the motions. I liked it and I treasure it.
You just joked that you covered 75 of his songs, which is probably a slight exaggeration, but on setlist.fm I counted and there were 29 Dylan songs — and I’m sure that’s missing some. What about his catalog works well for you to play?
I think he really understands tradition. He understands the American music tradition and he understands the European music tradition, where American music largely came from. Some of his earlier songs are based on traditional ballads. “Masters of War,” for example. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” seems to me like a rewriting of a song about Mary, Queen of Scots.
I think in that sense it is easy to access for me, and for Fairport Convention back in the day. It wasn’t a leap. As we were discarding American influences, probably Dylan was one of the last influences that we actually discarded because it was so close. A song like “Percy’s Song,” melodically it’s very close to the British tradition. I could say that about quite a few Dylan songs. He understands the history and I think that’s something that Fairport always loved as well. And I still do.
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