Richard Thompson Electric Trio-The Best Rock Concert You'll See This Year

On Wednesday, November 29th I drove out to Charlottesville, Virginia's delightfully charming Jefferson Theatre to see the first concert of the most recent leg of the Richard Thompson Electric Trio's U.S. tour.  It was the first time I'd seen Thompson in person since 1999, and my amazing wife had bought me a front row "VIP" ticket guaranteeing that I would have an unobstructed view of the proceedings (as well as a cool autographed concert poster, a tote bag, and a laminated pass).  It's not an exaggeration when I say that this concert was the best rock concert I've ever attended, and I strongly urge you to try to catch the show if it comes through your town.

I've been aware of RT since the early '80's, (usually in the context of comparisons with Mark Knopfler, or discussions of his album "Shoot Out The Lights", considered by many to be the best breakup album of all time) but only became a fan of his in 1991 with the release of Rumor and Sigh. I was in my final year at Hampshire College that year, and remember songs from the album being played on my favorite radio station, WRSI all the time. When I went to Purdue University for graduate school a friend of mine was a huge Thompson fan (I remember listening to live tracks with him, and was super impressed when he did an RT song live at a local pizza parlor in West Lafayette, Indiana). In fact, this review is for you, Bill Bettler!

Since those early days I have acquired virtually every recording Thompson has issued and while I do not ever like to participate in "who's your favorite musician?/what's your favorite song?" discussions (music isn't a competition) there is no doubt that if I could only ever listen to one musician's output for the rest of my life RT would be on the short list of people I would consider--his versatility as a world class guitarist (electric and acoustic), a magnificent songwriter with mastery of humor, sorrow and traditional forms of songs (though often with modern topics) is nearly unmatched and his 50+ years of recordings means I won't have a shortage of material to listen to.

At multiple points during the show Richard Thompson mentioned the "50 years" topic; whether it was to point out how old he was, or that he "only had a few more weeks of relevance left for the 1968 songs" ("but then I can start playing the '69 batch!"). But it really is remarkable, first, how many significant musicians were born in 1949, and how few have continued to make relevant, exciting, new music on the here on the cusp of their 70th birthdays. A list of musicians born in 1949 who are still living contains (among others):

• Adrian Belew--one of my all-time favorites, an endlessly inventive guitarist, talented songwriter and good singer. Belew is equally good at challenging soundscapes where his guitar mimics animal sounds and Beatles-esque pastiches ( a concept I learned about from Bettler back at Purdue). His output has slowed over the years, and is not what one would call "accessible". 

• Lindsay Buckingham--recently fired from Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has a new solo record out, and put out an album with Christine McVie last year. He still makes good music, but overwhelmingly his focus is on his "classic" output. 

• Billy Joel--Joel still does regular sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York, and tours occasionally, but has said that he does not expect to put out any more new music.

• Mark Knopfler--a Scots-English fingerstyle guitarist and songwriter is perhaps the closest to RT (comparisons to whom dogged him throughout Dire Straits' rise to fame in the '80s), though he has achieved much more fame and record sales. Knopfler continues to tour and puts out new albums on a regular basis (he'll be in Virginia around my birthday and I might try to go).

• Nick Lowe--a talented songwriter and producer, he hasn't had a new record for quite some time.

• Bonnie Raitt-- a great guitarist, singer and interpreter of songs (who has recorded more than one song by RT), Raitt's last album was quite good, but it's a couple years old now. 

• Lionel Ritchie-- a singer and songwriter of many classics, he hasn't put out anything new for many years. 

• Paul Shaffer-- member of the Blues Brothers, Artie Fufkin in This is Spinal Tap, bandleader for David Letterman and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Paul is an interpreter and sideman, not a truly creative artist.

• Rick Springfield--a surprisingly prolific songwriter and energetic, talented performer with a great life's story (moving from Australia to California to become a rock star, who then became a soap opera star, only to return to music). He continues to record, and his latest album is quite good. 

• Bruce Springsteen--one of America's greatest songwriters, an unparalleled showman and bandleader now completing a year-long one-man show on Broadway. Rumors abound that he is ready to take the E Street Band back into the studio for something new, but I don't think that even his most devout fans can find more than a couple of songs in his output over the past 10-12 years that match what he wrote when he was younger. 

• Rick Wakeman-- still traveling the world playing his music with Yes (or Anderson Rabin Wakeman). He's recorded scores of albums, but is known more for his capes than his songs, I think.  

• Hank Williams Jr.--the scion of legendary songwriter Hank Sr. still records and tours, but his retrograde politics hardly make him what one would call "universally popular"

Honestly, I think that of this list, Thompson holds his own with Springsteen and Knopfler, and at some level I applaud his hard work even more--it feels like he keeps writing and performing because he has to, rather than out of choice, or to buy a new horse or recording studio, which perhaps help him maintain his high standards. Regardless, I think it is remarkable that his latest album, 13 Rivers is one of the best he's made; to still be so creative at such a high level so long into a career is definitely uncommon and should be appreciated.

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The Richard Thompson Electric Trio consists of RT on guitar and lead vocals, Taras Prodaniuk on bass and harmony vocals, Michael Jerome on drums and harmony vocals, and Bobby Eichorn on rhythm guitar. That's right, it is a "Trio and a Half"; Eichorn is Thompson's longtime road manager and guitar tech who chips in on a few songs. For the gearheads out there, Thompson played the coral pink Strat that Eichorn assembled for him, a Telecaster shaped electric 12 string and his Lowden acoustic, while Prodaniuk played a couple of Fender Precision basses. Eichorn played the sonic blue Strat he built for RT or Thompson's Lowden. For what it's worth, the sound of Thompson's Strat through his Divided by 13 amplifier (nearly always on the bridge/middle position, with occasional forays to bridge or neck) was the quintessential Strat tone that people buy those guitars for. Very inspirational!

The band has been together for quite a long time--well over a decade, and the on-stage chemistry and communication was something to see. I mentioned above that this was the best rock concert I've been to, and a big reason for that was how purely rock it was--just guitar, bass and drums (I've been to a lot of great concerts, but often these bands have horns, or keyboards, or multiple guitarists to flesh out the sound). This band was so tight! Prodaniuk's basslines were simple, but endlessly varied and always mellow and soulful; that said, when needed he took over and drove the band with a solid rock sound. Michael Jerome's drumming was outstanding--he seemed to have so much fun, and was locked in to the other two with seemingly telepathic connections. He also provided very nice background vocals.

Of course, the star is Thompson, who stood in black jeans, a black WNRN (the local independent radio station) shirt covered by a denim vest and his trademark black beret striking a classic, guitar-god power stance at the microphone, singing powerful vocals and delivering blistering solo after blistering solo that showed no end of creativity and expressiveness.  I've been playing guitar seriously for over 32 years and if I play for another 32 I doubt I'll ever be able to do half of what RT did on Wednesday night. I've read musicians talking about how they hope once or twice per show to "get in the zone" where they become one with their instrument--it seemed like Richard Thompson got there a dozen times and it was amazing. Several times I just found myself laughing out loud in joy and amazement at what his fingers were doing on his guitar.

The show lasted for just about two hours (following a short opening solo set from folk singer Joan Shelley. The setlist was a mix of new songs and classics; it was heavily weighted to tunes from records he's put out in the 21st century and it shows how devoted his fans are that these songs were received as enthusiastically as classics from the '60s and '70s. Also impressive was how the songs were stretched out--I noted the start and stop times for every one, and most of the songs were much longer than the album versions to make room for guitar solos, bass solos, and other improvisation.

Here's the set list--all songs were full-band, with Thompson on Stratocaster unless otherwise noted; an asterisk indicates a song from the latest album:

New?	Title		Time
*	Bones of Gilead		4 minutes
*	Her Love Was Meant For Me		5 minutes
	Take Care The Road You Choose		7 minutes
	Tale in Hard Time		4 minutes
	Guitar Heroes		7 minutes
*	The Storm Won't Come		7 minutes
	They Tore The Hippodrome Down	acoustic	6 minutes
	Drown My Tears And Move On	acoustic	4 minutes
	1952 Vincent Black Lightning	solo acoustic	5 minutes
*	The Rattle Within		4 minutes
	Can't Win		9 minutes
	Meet on the Ledge		3 minutes
	Never Give It Up		3 minutes
	Wall of Death	electric 12	3 minutes
	Put it There, Pal		9 minutes
	Tear Stained Letter		6 minutes
Encore
	Beeswing	solo acoustic	6 minutes
	Dimming of the Day	solo acoustic	3 minutes
•	Trying		5 minutes
	Take a Heart (cover of 60's tune by the Sorrows)		4 minutes

Richard Thompson shows are known for, among other things, fans shouting out requests and places where he encourages them to sing along. I usually don't like either of these things, and Thompson was caustic in response to some of the shouts from the audience; when a woman repeatedly screamed "I love you!", he sneered "what do you know of love?" (but then collapsed in giggles), and when a fan called out for the song "Calvary Cross", RT said, "well, maybe if we have time. But I'd have to teach it to the band first." That seemed to put a stop to that aspect of the show. But I have to say, when he encouraged us to sing along to "Meet on the Ledge", I couldn't help myself and sang like I do when I'm driving alone in the car--loud, uninhibited, and desperately flat!

In case you are new to Richard Thompson, I've attached a playlist of all of the songs he played on Wednesday for you to check out. And seriously, if the Richard Thompson Electric Trio is in your town (or 70 miles away, like they were for me), do yourself a favor and go check them out. I don't think you will be disappointed in the least. 

My Back Pages: Thirty Years Ago in Guitar Player (September 1988)

Welcome back to "30 Years Ago", where I take a close look at the issue of Guitar Player magazine from exactly thirty years prior to discuss what I gleaned from the issue at the time and what I learned from re-reading it so many decades later. I also provide a Spotify playlist that includes music that was mentioned in the month's issue. Click here to see all of the previous posts!

September 1988 was the most consequential month of my life: I moved away from home to attend Hampshire College, where I met my future wife and (importantly for this blog) tons of guitar players who expanded my musical horizons and opportunities.

The September, 1988 Guitar Player had a lot of content that was focused on fusion, jazz-blues and other advanced topics. Besides good stories that introduced me to Robben Ford and Jeff Healey and an equally good one about NYC studio cat Hiram Bullock (who I had often seen on the David Letterman show) the issue had part three of Howard Morgen's advanced chord harmony lessons, an article about psychoacoustics and how we hear what we hear, and a very interesting article about tendinitis and a nascent movement to train therapists to treat musicians with repetitive-stress injuries. 

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I can't remember if I was already aware of Jeff Healey before reading this issue, but I'm sure that Jas Obrecht's short feature "Jeff Healey-Canada's Guitar Wizard" definitely made me a huge fan of the blind, lap-playing blues rock titan. Obrecht described his playing in vivid terms:

Watching Jeff Healey climax a concert with his searing "See The Light" is an experience few will ever forget. After sitting through most of the set with his guitar held flat on his lap, the 22-year-old leaps to his feat, cranks up the volume knob on his Marshall amp, and launches into a blistering blues-rock solo. Prowling the stage, he frets with his left hand over the fingerboard, using his thumb and index finger to create the fastest licks and most wicked vibrato this side of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He's unerringly accurate, even as he picks with his teeth or plays with his Squier Strat swung upside-down or held behind his head. The song concludes with a resplendent display of feedback as he lays his axe upon the ground and pumps the whammy with his foot. The frenzied roar of the crowd threatens to collapse the hall as Jeff reaches for his white cane and taps his way backstage.

Even though the article is only 2/3 of a page, Obrecht discusses Healey's band, his sudden rise to fame (thanks to the movie Roadhouse, the script for which called especially for Healey), his amazing collection of early jazz records ("I have about 10,000 78 RPM records") and, of course, his blindness ("I was blind at age one, and I got a guitar when I was three") It also goes into the details of his unique style:

 "I tuned the guitar to a chord and just used a slide to alter chords. This was the only logical way I could think of at that point. Someone taught me a standard tuning a few years later. I had been comfortable with holding the guitar on my lap, so I decided to work out all my chords that way. I can use all five fingers on my left hand for different types of vibrato; usually the index is best for a wide vibrato. I do a lot of bending with my thumb, and it also comes in handy when you're in a sitting position and want to hit notes above and beyond where you could normally reach. I've tried playing guitar the normal way, but I just wasn't very comfortable.

Cruelly, cancer didn't just take Healey's eyes, it killed him ten years ago. But he left a rich legacy of recordings that I never get tired of listening to. 

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I remember seeing Hiram Bullock play on the original David Letterman show (after Johnny Carson on NBC). The article about the then 33-year old Bullock, by Tad Lathrop, is another of the kind that regularly used to appear in GP, but so rarely does now: a profile of a working jazz/studio musician with a relatively low national profile.  The article is an interview that touches on Bullock's time as a student of Pat Metheny's at the University of Miami, his views on "fusion" music and his studio work. Here are some excerpts:

"I started out as a rock and roll, straight ahead, Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, Steve Miller, blues-rock guitar player...When I was just a school band sax player, I listened to jazz--to John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly and Gerry Mulligan. And then I saw--as did a lot of young guitarists around this period in the early '70s--the Mahavishnu Orchestra. That's what I now consider to be true fusion...."

" So I eventually went to the University of Miami and went into a bebop submersion period where I put the Fender Stratocaster away and only played a big, fat, Gibson L-5 with a wound G string, no effects, no bent notes--the whole bit. I studied with Pat Metheny....He had a very different sound in those days. He was a guy who had a real clear idea of what he wanted to do at an early age. To me, it was almost intimidating how mature he was. At the age of 18 he was just like he is now. He played that way, he thought that way. He was just real self-assured, knew the style, and kew that he would do well, at least as far as I could tell. He was supposed to be a student, but no one could teach him, so they just gave him tuition credit and made him a teacher."

"I'm not a big one for fusion, you know, so I may not be the most qualified to talk about it. To me, fusion always implied more power rock elements, like Chick Corea's electric bands. That's the closest thing I've heard to what I think of as fusion: odd time signatures and real powerful, loud, virtuosic playing. In my semantics, what I do is 'crossover' rather than fusion. It's sort of funky pop music without vocals. It's not necessarily designed to show off any virtuosity on the part of the players. Fusion was designed to show how well the people could play. Crossover music, and that includes Bob James, George Benson and Dave Sanborn, is much easier. It's just music without vocals."

"The burgeoning yuppie population has embraced what they call jazz, which includes a lot of so-called 'new age' music, as well as people like Metheny and Sanborn. It's sort of become a status symbol, that you are somehow hipper than your average radio listener. The audience is all 20-to 35-year olds, relatively successful young people who, at their worst, have a little bit of elitism and feel sort of superior to the average listener. As for the hard core fusion people who used to watch Mahavishnu, I see a bit of that audience at my shows. They turn out to be mostly young men who are into energy, and they just want to see you power out."

"I did some stuff on the Gaucho album. I'm a fan of Steely Dan, so I was thrilled and flattered that they called me. They are as meticulous as everyone says. I think we worked a week on one song. At one point we worked nine hours on one four-bar insert. You know, you just do it. They wanted perfection, and I could understand what they were doing....With Steely Dan and Donald Fagen's solo stuff, they have these sort of crystalline compositions, like little jewels. They don't want you to imprint your personality over their music, they want you to get inside their music and use your talent to bring their stuff to life."

Good stuff! And I really like Bullock's description of playing with Steely Dan; I think it's true that the best musicians inhabited the Dan's music, rather than using it as a vehicle for individualistic expression. Know-it-all musos like me love to know who played what guitar solo, but there's a reason it's hard to tell sometimes, and I think Bullock hit the nail on the head.  Sadly Hiram Bullock also succumbed to cancer ten years ago. 

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I remember very clearly not appreciating the Robben Ford article, to the point where one of my new college friends, Devin, who was a year older and a hot blues guitarist kept urging me to listen to "Talk To Your Daughter" and I refused. That was obviously a mistake on my part. Looking back 30 years, that album was a launching point for the Robben Ford guitar fans now revere, but the article by Dan Forte "The Guitar Odyssey of Robben Ford" was understandably looking back at his surprisingly long and varied career up to that point, and so it was a little confusing to me. 

Forte introduces the piece and the player by writing "Robben Ford may be the only musician to tour with ex-Beatle George Harrison and jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis. He is also probably the only guitarist to record with Barry Manilow and Kiss. He is without a doubt the only person to play with all four. Still, his appearance on the cover of Guitar Player is likely to be met with equal parts "Robben who?" and "It's about time."

Forte begins by summarizing the then 36-year old's career, beginning in a band with his father and brothers, then with Charlie Musselwhite, on to backing Jimmy Witherspoon, which led to work with L.A. Express as Joni Mitchell's touring band, which resulted in a chance to work in the studio and on the road with Harrison and then to membership in the Yellowjackets. Shortly before this article went to print, Ford had spent five months playing in Miles' band (where he had replaced Mike Stern). Wow. 

If you've watched any of his interviews or lesson videos, you know that Ford is an intelligent, expressive speaker with a lot to say. Rereading the article now shows that he has always had these capabilities. What really comes through (and is no surprise to anyone who has followed him since 1988) is that he seems to have realized that the blues is his base. I feel that way myself (though I am galaxies away from as talented as Robben Ford) so it's neat to read this and see how Ford has come to recognize where his musical heart is. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

To get to the point of doing this type of album, were you encouraged or influenced by the blues resurgence of the past few years? People such as Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds?

Not at all. I never listened to them; I never related to them. Making the record was just a matter of 'why try to please a record company at the expense of doing what you do best?'

Would you say that what you do best is play blues?

 Yes. That's taken a while to come around to, because I am such a lover of great jazz music--jazz in the traditional sense. I've never really loved or been very influenced by the modern electric jazz-fusion thing. I've never really liked it that much. The Yellowjackets, I enjoyed playing with that group, and I always enjoyed working with Russell Ferrante. I've listened to Weather Report and I have a lot of respect for those guys, but I always go back to traditional music.

You once stated that Weather Report was your favorite group, and in the Oct. '76 Pro's Reply you said that about the only group you'd consider touring with as a sideman was Steely Dan. That seems so odd in light of your return-to-roots album. [note: Typical Dan Forte. It was 12 years ago, and Ford was in his mid 20's--people change Dan!]

I'm a nut case [laughs]. Well I must say that I really did love Steely Dan for awhile, The Royal Scam record--I loved that. Weather Report was my favorite fusion band. They had Heavy Weather out, which is still their pinnacle record, I'd say. They really hit their peak there. Great songs, great melodies, great playing. Jaco was incredible and fresh and new.....I grew up loving the pop music of my day: the Beatles, the Stones, the Yardbirds, the Animals. The radio was always on. That is a big part of my makeup...

Considering what a huge idol Miles Davis was, your stint with him was extremely brief.  

 ...When I joined him they sent me tapes of two concerts and one rehearsal of the band, and Miles wasn't on the rehearsal tape. Adam Holtzman, one of his keyboard players, lives in L.A. and he came over and gave me some music. Not clear charts, but this was all that was available. So basically I had five days to learn the material. I flew out to Washington, D.C. on the red-eye flight which arrived at 5:00 in the morning-to play that night with Miles, never having met him or rehearsed with his band. I met him a half-hour before I hit the stage. No rehearsal. The charts helped me a little bit, but I learned it much better just by keeping an open ear. When I met Miles, the only thing he asked me was [imitates Miles' rasp], "Robben, what you gonna wear onstage?" I thought I was going to throw up. I met him at the gig you know! All the band piled into the van to drive over to the gig from the hotel, and I was sick to my stomach with nervousness. Then somebody came up and said "Robben, Miles wants to see you." I was dying. And he was like in some other area of the hall, so it was like This Is Spinal Tap when the guys were looking for the stage, right? I was trying to find Miles Davis. I finally found him, and he was standing there with his shades covering half his face, blowing his little red trumpet, dressed so cool. I adore the man. He would call me up on the phone and go "Robben, you gotta listen to this tape." And he'd put a little tape deck up to the phone and play a guitar solo I'd taken on some gig. "Playing your ass off". He took to me, kind of. He'd drag me out to the front of the stage. He'd yell at everyone else in the band, and then say "Robben, get them chords".

Who were your early blues guitar influences? And what had you been listening to before that?

 The guys who I would say I played their shit--not too much straight-out, but whom I got a definite influence from--are Albert Collins, Albert King, and BB King. And beyond that, there's a little bit of Clapton in there, but Mike Bloomfield is definitely the roots of my playing....Before that, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. You know, the Animals were always my favorite band. I thought they had great songs, and I dug the shit out of Eric Burdon's singing. I thought he could damn sing the blues. Not the guitar at all. The guy [Hilton Valentine] could not play guitar, although I liked it.... 

Recently there was a cable TV special on Eric Clapton, and Pete Townshend said "You can't really play the blues unless you're in internal agony and frustration and desperation." Now, you grew up in a white, middle-class, suburban, almost rural environment, with a very supportive family, yet you obviously tapped into blues like very few people can. Do you see any truth at all in the old you've-got-to-suffer-to-play-the-blues attitude?

I really don't know how to answer that. I don't think that's what turned me on to it. I wasn't in pain, like I needed to play the blues. It's an interesting question--because there is definitely pain in the blues. But I don't know--maybe this will apply: I read a quote by Bob Dylan, which I think he got from Woody Guthrie, and he said, "Man, all these young kids, they think they've got to get into the blues to play the blues, you know, but it's the opposite. People play the blues to get out of the blues, to get out of their pain." So it's to have a good time; that's why you play the blues. Free yourself, express yourself. 

Lots of good stuff here, but I really like the last question and answer I included above; I sometimes wondered how a sheltered suburbanite like myself could feel the blues so heavily. I did have more than my share of "internal agony and frustration", but I also just loved everything about the blues. To this day, I can play lots of different styles, but the blues just feels like home to me. 

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Finally, this month's Spotlight featured three players who have made careers as musicians. You can check out Stephen Ross, Bill Berends, and Joey Goldstein (who also played with Metheny in the early '70's) to see what they've been up to for the last three decades. But way to go, guys!

That's it for this month. I'll be back to discuss the September issue, with cover artist Vernon Reid in a few weeks. Until then, keep on picking!

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Lester Mazor, 1936-2011

On March 6, 2011, Lester J. Mazor died after a short illness.  Lester was a major figure in my life from the first time I was a student in his class (January 1989) until his death.  He and I corresponded regularly, especially during the fall of 2010, as he and I rooted for the Philadelphia Phillies in the baseball playoffs (Lester would watch the games in Berlin, and email me at 5:00 AM his time to analyze what had happened).  During the 21 years that I knew Lester (more than half my life) he served as a mentor, role model and father figure.  Many people are sharing their reminiscences about Lester lately, from Hampshire's press release, to the wonderfully elegaic effort by my friend Sascha Freudenheim, which really captures a lot of Lester's essence.  Having made certain to share with Lester over the years just how important he was to me, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some memories of my time with Lester, and give a sense of what he has taught me.

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When I arrived at Hampshire in the fall of 1988, many of the "original" professors were still there, and most were still energetic in their early 50's.  I frequently played (rather cutthroat) softball against Ray Coppinger and Lynn Miller, and while I never took the court myself, my friends had lots of stories to tell of Lynn and Lester Mazor's rough play in basketball games.  My friend Chris Glawe, F'85 did a killer Lester impression, and would frequently have me in stitches with his stories of the exploits of "Lester the molester".  

To that end, I was a little nervous to take my first class with Lester in my second semester.  The course was called "Law and Labor in U.S. History", and it is not going too far to say that it changed my life.  I had always been interested in labor history, and the "hidden history" of America, but this class showed me that in many cases, the most overtly anti-labor actions in the country were carried out in judicial opinions and statute books; which are not as obvious as army troops shooting strikers, but in many cases are more far-reaching.  To this day, I have never worked harder for a class than I did in this one.  As I wrote in my Div. II self-evaluation, "even though I left every afternoon at 3:00 feeling like a two year old" I was proud of how much I learned.  What was most inspiring is that Lester (and co-teacher Flavio Risech) expected us to do the kind of work that law school students did.  Trying to live up to these expectations was a lot of pressure, but also very gratifying.

In the last two years I have taught a high school class called "The American Century: Constitutional Issues", in which students read over 20 Supreme Court decisions from the period 1954-2000.  Students read the full decisions, including concurrences and dissents, which is pretty rare for 11th and 12th graders.  I have been pleased by the effort the kids have put out, and by the number who have thanked me for challenging them.  Lester's influence on this class stretched back to that class in 1989, but also went on up through this past December, as he would frequently debrief me about issues coming up in the class via email.  I will really miss being able to discuss next year's version of the course with him.

In 1990 I also took a class with Lester and Jim Wald called "From Potsdam to Perestroika: East Central Europe since 1945".  I thought this course would just add balance to the heavily American tilt to my studies, but it did much more than that.  Lester would frequently give me articles or books to copy, but knowing that he would want to talk about it, I read the things first myself. Lester also made sure that we understood that popular culture was an important way of understanding these societies.  We read novels by Kundera, Kozinski and others (inspiring my early desire to write a mash-up of the works of Oscar Wilde in the style of Milan Kundera-- "The Unbearable Lightness of Being Earnest").  Throughout the course, Lester promised that he would eventually reveal to us the reason why communism fell.  We all expected  a long, wordy answer.  On the final day of the class Lester came in (10 minutes late, as usual) with a boom box.  He walked to the front of the room, pushed Play and the first notes of the Beatles' Revolution rang out through the class.  Lester just gave us one of his "hmm" sounds and walked out.  I have actually stolen this (with slight adaptations) for classes of my own.

In 2006 I returned to Hampshire to attend the final in a series of law lectures organized by Lester.  Before it took place I sat in on a class in that year's version of the East Central Europe class.  It was very odd to be in the same place, listening to Lester's Socratic method again.  And he still took the time to teach me! In the class he discussed how "signals" sent by Gorbachev's USSR gave Poles, East Germans and Hungarians the freedom to start the rebellions that wound up bringing down the Iron Curtain.  Afterwards I asked him what these "signals" were like, and said that I didn't think we had them in our society.  Lester chided me, referring to a story in that morning's paper about the report of the Iraq Study Group.  He said all I have to do is keep my eyes open to see the signals.

During the Spring of 1991 I took an independent study with Lester.  Over the course of 14 weeks I read 12 major works of political philosophy, writing 10 papers.  Each week I would sit across from Lester's desk while he grilled me on what I had read, from Hobbes to Locke, to Marx to Foucault.  During these sessions I was always awed with Lester's grip on history.  He would always ask "what was going on" during the time we were discussing. Sadly, I often didn't know, which would send me back to my books so I could come in the next morning and give a better answer.  Now, at the age of 40, after teaching history for so many years, I can do what Lester demonstrated in those independent study sessions.  And whenever I ask a student "what was going on then?" I think of Lester.

In the Fall of 1992 I did part two of this independent study, along with Sascha Freudenheim and a few others.  Sascha has described this in his eulogy, but the "D.W.E.M. Sem" (Dead White European Male Seminar) was a very rewarding experience.  Sascha and I were basically the leaders, and Lester supervised.  Sascha was (and is) much smarter than I, and more attuned to philosophy, but I am proud of having had the chance to do my bit.  Around this time Lester assigned us to drive his Ford Focus to Amherst for some reason (flowers?  dry cleaning? pastry?), and since neither of us drove manual transmissions, it was very exhilirating (and dangerous).  Lester's trust for us was only matched by his impatience at how long it took us to complete the errand. 

In my Div. III year I had few classes, and nothing before 1pm.  I would usually stay up working until my favorite radio station went off the air at 2AM.  But it was around then that I changed my daily habits, so that I would wake up at 7, have breakfast with Lester, clip articles until 9, and then go to sleep again until the afternoon.  I always enjoyed watching Lester chat with the dining hall staff.  Lester often impressed upon me that success at a school was much more likely if one was friendly with mail room, dining hall and maintenance workers.  I have tried to heed these words at the schools I've worked at, and I am sure that Lester was right, as usual.

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During that pivotal Spring '89 semester, Lester hired me as his assistant.  This work-study job entailed my making numerous photocopies for his classes, clipping and filing countless newspaper articles (pre-WWW), and trying to clean and organize Lester's office.  For those of you who went to Lester's end of Franklin Patterson Hall back in the day, you will recall that books, papers and other detritus covered every surface in the room.  And he had over 20 cartons of "Hampshiriana" in the storage room downstairs. I do not exaggerate when I say that one day, while cleaning up, I came across Lester's first grade report card!  While I was boggling, Lester and Stan Warner came in.  I waved the paper accusingly before Lester, and Stan said "only Lester could figure out how to get a document older than the college buried in this office", perhaps a reference to the courses Lester taught about the philosophy of time.  Lester seemed to appreciate my nagging that he clean his office, but no progress was made.  Imagine my surprise when I came back to visit him in 1995 and found the room clean as a whistle!  He just shrugged and gave one of his trademark "hmm" noises.  He was full of surprises.

Working for Lester was deeply rewarding.  Basically, every morning I got a private session with Lester.  He would have NPR on the radio and would expound about the stories, or the newspaper articles, or about an upcoming speaker he was hosting in a Law Lunch.  The Law Lunches were afternoon sessions in the Merrill House living room, and they were very informative.  Lester particularly tried to bring in speakers who could talk about issues in Europe, which was very eye-opening to a provincial naïf like me.  

One of Lester's favorite activities then was the "Divided City" trip, when he would take students to both sides of the Berlin Wall during Jan. Term.  I was able to go on this trip in 1991 (by then it was called "Divided City Reunited"--ultimately Lester set up a Hampshire campus at the Free University of Berlin).  It was my first (and only) time traveling abroad, and the trip was another instance where Lester helped change my life.  In the first place, he managed to finagle funding from the school to pay for my trip--all my parents had to come up with was spending money for my two weeks in Berlin.  In the second place, he was confident enough in me to let me have more freedom than I'd ever had before.  I spoke no German, had never been on my own in a city, and yet I had to travel from my hostesses home to all kinds of places all over the city.  I was embarrassingly provincial (years later, Lester tried to lure me back to visit Berlin, saying "they sell Cheerios here now") but I learned a lifetime's worth of lessons.

All my life, I had been taught to dislike (and fear) Germans.  In fact, my discomfort was so high that I never planned to go--I only put my name on the list for the trip because Lester kept asking me too (all the time I knew that I couldn't afford it).  When Lester came up with the $1400 to pay for the trip I was chagrined, to say the least.  On my first day in Berlin, I went to dinner with Lester and Professor Hermann Klenner, who had been in the Wehrmacht in WWII.  As I wrote in my self evaluation, "I was confronted with my bogey-man.  And I liked him!"  During the visit, the U.S. Congress was debating whether to give the first President Bush permission to launch the first Gulf War.  On the night before I left, the allied bombing campaign began.  When I returned to my hostess' home, she was crying before the TV.  I asked what had happened and she said "you're bombing Iraq".  I blustered a demurral (after all, I was opposed to the war!) but it was too late.  Birgit had done to me what I had been doing to Germans my whole life, and the lesson I learned that moment about the dangers of stereotyping, generalizing, and rushing to judgement is one I think about all the time.

****** 

The last time I saw Lester was in the end of September, 2008.  He had written me out of the blue, saying that he would be at a conference in Villanova, PA (about 100 miles away) and that he'd like to see me.  I immediately made plans to visit him for breakfast at his hotel, where I was surprised to learn that Lester also expected that the visit would entail my driving him to the airport.   Lester was physicaly diminished (gout, arthritis, and weight gain made it impossible for him to bend his legs., and heart trouble limited his movements.  He regretted not being able to play basketball anymore) but mentally as sharp as ever.  I have to confess to having been nervous during the drive down--after all those years, I didn't want to sound silly or not smart!  We discussed the upcoming election.  Lester, of course, was famous for advocating ballots with a "none of the above" option.  I shared with him my wary distrust of Barack Obama, and was impressed when he analyzed the Senator's character, career and campaign, concluding with an admission that he was planning to vote for Obama.  Lester acknowledged that politicians will always disappoint, and that they rarely live up to their stated principles, but concluded that it was important to have hope.  I found this very thought provoking and inspiring.

I have 75 saved emails between Lester and me, dating back to 1997.  Early ones vacillate between complaints about this new technology (Lester had always done all of his typing on a typewriter) and fascination about what he could do with it.  In the late 1990s he began spending half of the year in Berlin with his wife Anne (Sascha and I attended their wedding, which was a great honor--Sascha has some pictures of the event) and Lester would write to tell me how helpful the internet was to follow NBA and NCAA basketball. Lester was a gracious, empathetic friend as I wrote to him about my job changes, the death of my father, and the lengthy, chronic illness of my wife.  Lester shared with me the stories of his own declining health, including multiple heart attacks and a serious stroke.  

While I am sure that he corresponded with other former students on more intellectually meaningful topics, it always made me feel good to get another missive from Lester, (even when he was chiding me for not taking care of my injured back "after all", he said, "you're not getting any younger") with his usual closing "All my love, Lester".  I regret that I won't have the chance to get another of these messages, but I hope that wherever he is now, he knows that he has "all my love".