Thompson Illuminates Through Others’ Works

It was strange hearing someone perform Britney Spears’ bubble gum hit “Oops . . . I Did It Again” in the setting of the stately, sophisticated Getty Center’s Harold M. Williams Auditorium on Friday. More strange was that it was Richard Thompson, one of rock’s most respected singer-songwriters. Most strange, though, was that his performance of the song, capping off a show billed as “One Thousand Years of Popular Music,” in the end did not seem, well, strange.

While the droll Englishman, accompanied by percussionist Vinx, did have tongue partially in cheek (he’s not that innocent), he offered the song--written by Max Martin and Rami--as an admirable pop construct, enriched by his typically menacing tones. As such, the hit was not out of place in a program that started with 1240’s “Sumer is Icumen In” and ran through medieval folk, Shakespeare, Gilbert & Sullivan, English music hall, Fats Waller, Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Beatles.

The selections were idiosyncratic but not random. Most are rich story-songs full of twists and deceits, be they comic (Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirate King”), topical (“King Henry V’s Conquest of France”) or deadly serious (“The Banks of the Nile,” about a girl disguised as a boy to go to war).

Those are the very hallmarks of Thompson’s own writing. With his influences and antecedents laid out together, complemented by informative and usually humorous introductions, it gave more insights to his art than you’ll get in a VH1 “Storytellers” episode.