First of all, you may be wondering what The Egg is. It is the Center for the Performing Arts In Albany, NY. The construction of The Egg began in 1966 and was completed twelve years later in 1978. The Egg was designed by Wallace Harrison for all the people of New York State (that means it was paid for with tax money) and to accommodate many events and performances.
Architecturally, The Egg is without precedent. From a distance it seems as much a sculpture as a building. Though it appears to sit on the main platform, the stem that holds The Egg actually goes down through six stories deep into the Earth. The Egg keeps its shape by wearing a girdle - a heavily reinforced concrete beam that was poured along with the rest of the shell. This beam helps transmit The Egg's weight onto the supporting pedestal and gives the structure an ageless durability that belies its nickname.
Sarah's graduation ceremony from the College of St. Rose was at the Egg.
Now that we've quenched your curiosity about the Egg, on with the show.
Katie and I have seen Richard Thompson a number of times over the years up and down the East Coast from Wolf Trap in Northern Virginia to Town Hall on 43rd Street in NYC To Tarrytown to Peekskill to the Troutbeck Conference Center in Amenia, NY (see if you can find that on a map). We even drove to Harrisburg, PA a few years back and he had to cancel because the tour bus broke down on the way. Needless to say, we enjoy his live performances.
He sometimes tours with an backing electric band and sometimes as a solo playing acoustic guitar. The concert last night was solo acoustic in the Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre, which has a seating capacity of 982.
After a recording career of more than 40 years, Thompson has an extensive catalogue on which to draw and he spanned those 40 years last night. From 1960s Fairport Convention, he dedicated “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” to Sandy Denny. He played songs from his 2007 release "Sweet Warrior" (a great rendition of "Dad's Gonna Kill Me") and he captured a few of his many songs from between those 2 periods--"Down Where the Drunkards Roll" and "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" from his first collaborations with Linda in 1974, as well as "Wall of Death" from the 1982 album "Shoot Out The Lights."
The critic David Wolf wrote of Shoot Out The Lights: "Real life intruded on Richard and Linda Thompson and turned Shoot Out the Lights into a harrowing masterpiece. The collection was difficult to create and became their final record together, lending extra poignance to such grim Richard Thompson titles as "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed" and "Wall of Death." The combination of Richard's inventive guitar work; his ragged vocals; and Linda's fragile, beautiful singing, all suffocatingly emotional, backed for the most part by longtime Thompson associates from Fairport Convention, make Shoot Out the Lights essential listening." In 1989, it was ranked #9 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's and in 2003, the album was ranked number 333 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
One of the songs performed during the encore was "Dimming of the Day," a song originally sung by Linda and later a hit for Bonnie Raitt in 1994 (on the album "Longing in Their Hearts"). David Gilmour does a great rendition that can be viewed on YouTube. It's a great song.
It was another superb performance. I look forward to his next foray into the area. BTW, we live a 3 hour drive from Albany and didn't consider that a problem.
I was late writing down the playlist and it was dark and some of what I wrote was indecipherable, so the first song performed is a mystery. I remember his singing it, just can't put a name to it. If someone who reads this should remember, please let me know. The playlist from the second song went like this:
Playlist:
- ???
- I Misunderstood
- Valerie
- Walking On A Wire
- Dad's Gonna Kill Me
- Down Where the Drunkards Roll
- The Hots for the Smarts
- I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
- Sunset Song
- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
- Persuasion
- Crawl Back (Under My Stone)
- Hope You Like The New Me
- It Feels So Good
- Who Knows Where the Time Goes
- Johnny's Far Away
- Pharaoh
- Keep Your Distance
- Beeswing
Encore
- Wall of Death
- Dimming of the Day
- How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
- Cooksferry Queen
Katie likes the song "The Hots for the Smarts." It's a sort of tongue-in-cheek cabaret song with music that's reminiscent of the 30's and 40's. I've enclosed the lyrics. Listen to the song if you get the opportunity.
Written by Richard Thompson
Appears on Miscellaneous Songs (9999)
I like a girl in satin
Who talks dirty in Latin
A girl who’s flirty
When she quotes Krishnamurti
If she likes to be goosed
While reciting from Proust
I’ll know she’s my kind of creature
Among her delectables
Her intellectables
Must be her sexiest feature
CHORUS
I’ve got The Hots For The Smarts
The Hots For The Smarts
IQ off the charts
Give me brains over hearts
I’ve got The Hots For The Smarts
I like a girl from Mensa
With a furrowed brow
When the tenses get denser
She gets it – and how!
I need a polymath
Called Cindy or Cath
Who likes her Plato not too platonic
An autodidact
Who can add and subtract
While sipping her Tolstoy and tonic
I need a girl with a feel
For Faraday’s wheel
A girl who’ll drool
For Fleming’s Left Hand Rule
Now you may like pin-ups
Of girls who do chin-ups
Like Xena the Warrior Princess
But I’ll take to dinner
My Nobel Prize winner
With plutonium stains down her dress
I like a girl who knows loadsa
Kierkegaard and Spinoza
Who likes to play chess
Humming Porgy and Bess
She must be able
From her logarithmic table
To find all those decimal places
And what do I care
That she’s nothing to wear
And her teeth are imprisoned in braces
I want a girl with a brain
The size of Siberia
With a haughty disdain
Of all things inferior
I don’t want a learner
With a Bunsen burner
She must be the finished article
Who sees our attraction
As chemical reaction
And charm as merely a particle
I want a PHD
Who reads Linear ‘B’
Who applies her lotion
With a Brownian motion
Now some men may favour
A girl who’s a raver
A tease or a saucy young minx
But I’ll get undressed with
The girl I’m impressed with
Who’s tunnelling under the Sphinx
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