jonathan richman: is this guy a class fucking act or what?

[sputtering]...he INVENTED punk rock on The Modern Lovers!

(i was referring to the post above yrs actually, m.)

This is something of which I am well aware. I was describing Jonathan circa now, as opposed to what may be fairly described as a bit of an anomaly in his career. He's never done anything like that record since. "Government Center" may be one of the happiest, most compassionate songs ever written, but it's probably the only thing on the record that wouldn't seem out of place if Jonathan busted it out today. I certainly don't see him playing "She Cracked," "Hospital" or "I'm Straight." Maybe "Girlfriend," but "Pablo Picasso"? I don't think he would curse onstage anymore!

I was at this gig too, Chris and I agree that it was brilliant (inc. Sex Machine cover). Was a tad disappointed that he didn't play "That Summer Feeling" which was the first song of his I heard, but with such a long career & large repertoire such things are inevitable I suppose.

(revive!)

In fact, his sheer un-rock n' roll attitude is what makes him so punk rawk.

Plus, he can write a fuckin mean song.

most memorable, about 6 years ago (a little before "there's something about mary) he did 2 back to back 2 hour sets with a 10 minute break. yes, 4 hours of music. like jess alludes upthread, he held the audience in his hand the entire performance. he is a classic charmer: dashing, bravado, swagger, he makes the boys and girls swoon alike.

(and Matos, I wasn't aware of the man ever using the guitar-keys-bass-drums line-up since the Jerry Harrison years, so I thought it would be clear)

Jonathan Richman
American Music Club
Chuck Prophet & Stephanie Finch
Noe Venable

Great American Music Hall, SF, Nov. 30

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

cf. Modern Lovers 88
-- M Matos (michaelangelomato...) (webmail), November 17th, 2003 3:47 PM. (M Matos) (link)

huh? modern lovers 88 rocks!

Revive -- Everyone can stand a little more Jonathan in their lives!

With great hesistation, i've been laboring to assemble a complete vinyl set of his albums for the last 12 years - which will likely approach completion about the same time somebody lays out a proper reissue series or boxset.

i could stand some more jess in my life! i want to hear him talk about "cuddlecore".

thanks for reminding me, Jonathan is playing here next week and I need to buy a ticket.

Thanks for the revive, christoff. Never seen this thread before. Nice to read something so well-written, enthusiastic and smart 1st thing in the morning (helps that I agree w/ everything he says). Kinda puts a shine on the day.

I slept in the office in his house last year.

My favorite Jonathan story: I saw him in Minneapolis at 7th Street Entry (TINY club) where his support act was a local, female-led band called Beangirl. Jonathan seemed to really like them, he was out on the dance floor watching and applauding.

Shortly thereafter I travelled to Seattle, and Jonathan was playing there at the Bumbershoot festival. I found a big piece of cardboard and a marker, lettered BEANGIRL on it, and held it up from many rows back. He interrupted one of his monologues to ask, "Are you from Minneapolis? Wow! Beangirl is a really cool band... but I don't wanna talk about that right now... 1234" and into Roadrunner.

one of the first songs he played was "springtime in new york" (at least i assumed that's what it was called), and i can't really described the mood it called up, comparable with so very few things in the vast morass of art about nyc, maybe the gentlest work of paul auster (cf. moon palace) or the experience of living in the city itself (which, like that ridiculous song suggests, everyone should do once before they become hardened.) it's a love song to a place which so effortlessly trumps any of the post-9/11 blather (neil young, stick your head up your own arse in abject shame, please.) it made me happy to be alive, which few things do these days.

i'm sure i've said this elsewhere on ILM, but "springtime in new york" was the first song i saw ANYONE play live after 9/11 in new york. it was at the knitting factory, which isn't that far from ground zero. the city was still very much in shock. there was still dust downtown. the stage power went out just before jonathan started playing. so in front of a packed knitting factory, which is not too small, and which includes a balcony, he proceeded to play "springtime in new york" with an acoustic guitar and no microphone. singing with that trademark purity and innocence about lovers in the east village and then that throwaway line about how "demolishing a building brings a smell of 1890 through the breeze" (sung that night AS a throwaway line, with no attempt to wink or raise an eyebrow or in any way acknowlege out loud what had just happened) he completely totally utterly melted the joint. one of my favorite concert experiences ever.

(also, i'm pretty sure i met matos at that show, though we don't actually know each other. he was standing next to me on the balcony with a notebook in his hand and i asked who he was and we chatted for probably a minute and that was that.)

this man is a giant of American music

"Jonathan and Tommy Larkins have just completed a brand new album, Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild. The album will be in stores in March!!! Jonathan will of course return to the road in support of the new album."

-from vaporrecords.com

played the 5 Spot in Nashville last nite, he was good, sort of an (even more) minimalist rockin' João Gilberto at times, did "Pablo Picasso" using a funny voice.

a couple weeks back i was driving down 18th Street in San Francisco one afternoon and I saw Jonathan just casually strolling down the street with a Spanish guitar in hand. wish i coulda followed him to see where he ended up.

i'm bummed he's not coming to philly on this tour. saw him for the first time last year. excellent set!

Quick question.. he's in town Saturday, should I go see him for $10?
I don't know much about him but will he make me smile like the "I'm a little dinosaur" song or are his other songs not as entertaining?

he is totally worth seeing for $10, totally one of my favorite live performers even though I barely know any of his non-Modern Lovers recorded output.

<3

FWIW Omnivore Recordings is having a 60% off spring cleaning sale on select CD's and the three Beserkley albums in their inventory are included.

Well, there are four Beserkley albums there, but the first "Modern Lovers" album is not.

Ah, didn't realize they reissued the live album too, so there are indeed four. Do you mean the one with the original line-up? Omnivore didn't license that one. (When I said "their inventory" I mean Omnivore's.)

(Live one isn't on sale though.)

Ah.

the only artist left on my bucket list, I hope to travel to Canada next time he plays there (seems there will never be another Europe tour)

playing this Friday at Siesta Valley Bowl - Orinda, CA

Old news, but Jonathan's actually really good about answering fan letters and he seems to encourage people to write to him because "it's his preferred method of communication." He's had his P.O. Box address published in at least two interviews online and at the last show I attended, he even dictated the same address to the audience in case they had the answer to a question he asked. (I don't remember it anymore but I think it had something to do with dancing and Egypt.)

Anyway, I was talking to someone about Latcho drom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgNWc8Skh8k

It's a great film and it's frustrating that it's been pushed into obscurity due to lack of availability (or at least a good quality transfer of the original film elements). It probably hasn't found much of an audience among anyone under 30 for that reason. We were talking about people who have seen it and loved it from the time it was originally released, and Jonathan's name came up. I had no idea if he had seen it, and I thought "hey, why not ask him and recommend it to him?" So I did just that and about ten days later, I got a response - not only was it a handwritten letter, but he apparently took down a flyer for an upcoming screening of Changing Lanes and wrote it on the back of that so he could recommend that in return. (He also has seen Latcho drom and loved it.) Pretty cool!

Definitely cool. No letter stories to share but was just in Boston and thinking of Jonathan Richman references all the time- At the Government Center station; in the Museum of Fine Arts in the room where they keep the Cézanne, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x7D2VUP62I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGGuAn-NCTM

Yeah, Jonathan made it onto TOTP with "New England". I dashed out to the shop to buy it the next day. Looks like nobody else did.

Latcho Drom is so great

every time this thread is revived, I am reminded of Jonathan Richman totally just asked me for a ride home

There’s a 12” of Egyptian Reggae with a dance or disco mix that’s pretty sweet. JR probably didn’t have anything to do with it.

Noticed it at the beginning of some French movie recently.

Father of My Children, Mia Hansen-Løve

It's the first thing you hear.

The film is supposedly partly based on the life of Humbert Balsan, who very convincingly played Gawain in Robert Bresson's Lancelot of the Lake.

And later became an important film producer.

I remember when Mia Hansen-Løve was married to Olivier Assayas - I know nothing of their marriage, but given the soundtracks of their movies, it wasn't hard to imagine the common interests that might have brought and kept them together (for a while).

Imagine if you were their kid and what it would've been like growing up in their household. Probably really cool or a real-life manifestation of this Onion article.

Heh, I didn't even know they had ever been married. I just remember seeing him with Maggie Cheung, at the Film Forum for an Irma Vep screening and then again outside Noho Star.