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

That previous post is such an amazing clip. Bless all these UK/Euro shows that had amazing quality footage of these 60s/70s performances.

Also, I'm not sure I've ever seen Jojo with a Jazzmaster...?

Full set, apparently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm4bd7gYCRI

I guess he played a Jazzmaster right when he started.

Jonathan had a band with David Robinson, who was the drummer, and another guy named Rolf, who was playing bass, and they played these free shows on the Cambridge Commons. Jonathan had this blue Jazzmaster guitar with like two strings and had decorated it with the Howard Johnson’s decals. He had painted it light blue and orange like the Howard Johnson's colors—and almost all the songs he played were in E minor—it was very minimalist. "I see the restaurant. It is my friend" was a line from one of the songs.

Human race is justified in existing just for that performance of "I'm A Little Airplane" imo

otm

He was the last show I saw in early March before the shutdowns, w/ Bonnie Prince Billy opening.

wow jealous, cant think of a better last show to have seen before quarantine.

Love how that video of the full set starts with them bickering over how to start egyptian reggae

He has had a million guitars!

Right, his Wikipedia page has a long discussion about that.

Yeah, the opening bickering is priceless

I remember seeing him once, I think around the early years when he had started playing with Tommy, and he was still playing electric and had a fuzzbox for leads. It was one of those moments where you see him changing - I don't think that late '70s group would have used fuzzboxes!

Happy 70th birthday to the one who seems to habe found the secret to happiness.

Was supposed to see him (and Will Oldham) the day everyrhing shut down here in Rhode Island. Some day, again!

Wow, that means he was around my current age when I saw him play in college (and he seemed like an “old dude,” ha ha).

"Sa" is really great and worth a listen, that's all I got here

Is he still living in San Francisco?

Radio on!.

love seeing a couple songs from "jonathan goes country" on your list, alfred. "you're crazy for taking the bus" is stone cold classic for me.

Somewhat bizarrely, someone booked a festival slot claiming to be JR; the scam was exposed when a radio station reached out for an interview.

Ha, I was thinking that it might be fun, but challenging, to try to imitate Richman's voice. Then this, from the article:

"I just heard of your wonderful festival, and (it) sounds like an ideal place for me to play someday," the musician wrote. "Did the guy who called you up manage to imitate my voice pretty good? If he did, you’ve got to hand it to him. Most people can’t do it."

Heh, I’d like to think I can imitate him pretty well but it wasn’t me this time.

Customers at Green Apple Books on Clement Street didn’t expect to find a man with a guitar wandering among the fiction and cooking sections as they shopped.
It was Independent Bookstore Day, which occurs annually on the last Saturday of April, so they assumed he may have been part of the festive ambiance. But once they got a closer look at him, they couldn’t believe who it really was — and why the legendary musician was playing an otherwise unadvertised gig in San Francisco.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Jonathan-Richman-plays-surprise-SF-show-17140442.php

Visualizing Jonathan walking down the book store aisles with guitar in hand serenading customers . Yep would be great to see that.

https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/30/25/1694698770-jonathan-richman3.jpg

https://dependableletterpress.com/jonathan-richman/

https://jojofiles.blogspot.com/2015/11/work-in-silence-jonathan-richman.html

DAMN I need a mason who does old-style, wish he lived around here (I couldn't afford to live around Frisco, wonder how he does, must be a helluva old-style stoneworker-mason, DAMN)

he lives in Chico!

Beginning in the fall of 2022, Onmivore Recordings began reissuing Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers’ original Beserkley catalog on both CD and LP, exactly as they were originally issued. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Rock ’n’ Roll With The Modern Lovers, Modern Lovers ‘Live’, and Back In Your Life rolled back into the marketplace followed by the Sire Records release, Jonathan Sings!

Because that was a lot to grab in a short span of time, we’d like to help you get these releases, er, back in your life. Starting Wednesday, May 3 through Friday, May 5, we’re offering these five titles on both CD and LP for 50% off!

This is the perfect opportunity to pick up the titles you may have missed, or to surprise a friend who may not know you’re introducing them to what may become one of their all-time favorite artists at a super discount. (Plus, there are even a handful of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers on limited edition orange vinyl!)

Here’s the catch: Titles are limited to stock on hand, so there are no back orders, but you can order as many copies per title as you’d like. Please don’t include pre-orders in your cart during the sale, as that will delay your shipment, and you’ll lose out on the 50% off deal!

So, don’t hesitate, as these titles will go fast. Faster than a Dodge Veg-O-Matic, faster than the Roller Coaster By The Sea or The Wheels On The Bus! Get That Summer Feeling a few months early, and complete your Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers collection Wednesday, May 3 through Friday, May 5!

That’s an absolute steal

what's the best one out of those?

all great, but Jonathan Sings might be my favorite out of all his records ...

yeah they all have their charms and at least 1-2 classics on each

Sorry to fanfic, but if this was a Rydodisk project circa green jewel case era 1991 there would undoubtedly be a compainion compilation of the best songs from all of these (which would rule). Sings! is by far the best, but "Back In My Life" is my favorite song from all of these.

Coincidentally, I've been listening to these records for the first time over the past several days. Just gave Jonathan Sings! my first listen this afternoon. "The Neighbors" cracked me up. "Important In Your Life" from the s/t and "Afternoon" from Rock 'n' Roll have been my other favorites so far.

Sings > Live > Rock n Roll > Back In Your Life > JR & TML

They’re all good, but Sings & Live are the classics out of this run. Live is seriously underrated and sometimes it’s my favorite thing he’s done. The never ending Ice Cream Man is sooooo good!

Rock n’ Roll has a really nice set of instrumentals.

Back In Your Life has my least favorite JR song, "Nature's Mosquito." I normally have a high tolerance for his cutesy stuff but the cloying quality to his singing on this one pushes it over the edge. "I Like Gumby" from a Gumby tribute album is also rough going.

Favorite tucked away song: "Our Dog Is Getting Older" from a various artists thing called Colours Are Brighter.

I'm a JR super fan and I've got just about everything there is to get, without collecting different cover variations and whatnot. One thing that has eluded me for a long time is an Academy Awards "for your consideration" promo CD. It contains instrumental music from How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Dr. Doolittle, and There's Something About Mary. The Jonathan Richman section contains:

There's Something About Mary
11. Mary Walks Down The Stairs 1:50
12. Theme... Tucker... Crutches 1:00
13. Ambulence 2:01
14. Herpes Sweet 0:56
15. Mary Sweet 1:49
16. Excellent News 0:22
17. Brett Faru 0:16
18. Jam - A Minor 2:19

I even wrote to the one person on Discogs that has this but they never wrote me back. I check periodically on Ebay but it's pretty hard to search for. You wind up with the individual soundtracks or a glut of For Your Consideration discs.

Yeah, from when he was produced by Ric Ocasek,right? "Let her go into the darkness..."

xp do you have that damn Penthouse live LP? it's eluded me twice on Discogs...

(if you do, plz YSI)

I didn't even know about that one! The only bootleg LP I have is Songs for Laura, which is pretty good.

Live is seriously underrated and sometimes it’s my favorite thing he’s done. The never ending Ice Cream Man is sooooo good!
Tell them, Cow_Art.

^Yep Live is the best, "The Morning of Our Lives" one of the most uplifting songs I know

I love Sings and the followup quit a bit because of the backing vocals. Jonathan paired with a female voice is really nice. "That Summer Feeling" is dreamy.

"Monologue About Bermuda" from Having A Party is very good, and has a great explanation for why his music shifted after recording The Modern Lovers. He plays a bit of "She Cracked" in it in a very self-mocking way.

People always mention moving to SF softened him, but I also wonder how much fatherhood fostered Jojo's stylistic shift.

I love Sings and the followup quit a bit because of the backing vocals. Jonathan paired with a female voice is really nice. "That Summer Feeling" is dreamy.

100%... this is the album I tend to favor, for the same reasons (not that I've heard 'em all, by any means)

(Sings, that is... will have to look up which is the follow-up)

The songs on Jonathan Sings! also have a certain degree of, I guess, "sophistication" that a lot of his other stuff is lacking for me... and I don't even mean that as a criticism, I'm just not into the really simple/silly songs as much.

If you mean shifting gears from The Modern Lovers VU style rock to what came immediately afterwards, that was way before he was a dad. Listen to Bermuda Monologue on youtube, he explains it better than I can. But the short of it is: OG Modern Lovers wound up at a miserable gig playing at a resort in Bermuda. It was not a good fit. But Jonathan heard some of the local guys music and realized how much more there was in terms of rhythm and tone; he realized that his band was stiff and rigid and he wanted to get away from that.

I love that first (not really an) album, but I’m happy he moved on.

This is one of those discussions that I'll be looking for two years from now and have no idea what thread it was in.

― Lily Dale, Sunday, February 25, 2024 8:32 PM

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Oh well, some prefer other genres to nasal voiced rocker gone acoustic singing alone .

Ya think?

And that's . . . OK.