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

I am seeing him in two days, seriously anticipating.

He is right on about the 4 seasons.

I see he's at the Casbah in San Diego in two weeks. Sounds like a magical night, love him and that place so much. Last thing I heard that moved me: "Time Has Gone By So Fast." All-time favorite: "You Must Ask the Heart."

He is right on about the 4 seasons.

― Band Fag X (u s steel)

i think i know what that letter is in response to... a review of a bryan ferry album by dave marsh, right?

funny--i've been listening to jonathan richman nonstop today.

ok that was great.

anyone heard him do this newer version of "Old World"? probably the most radical rewrite i've ever heard an artist do for a song, the new version is a total rejection/kissoff of the old world with its "secrecy, torture, and keeping women in their place". the line about "I still love my parents" is gone, and it seems like whatever reactionary value the old song had in the early 70's isn't worth including anymore.

also A+ for the closer about how depression is good and you need to sit by the stinky pond instead of going to the plexiglass apartment.

been listening to his latest LP a lot lately. i suppose it seems almost passé to praise a new jonathan richman album (does anyone buy his albums anymore?) but i quite like it.

i mean, it won't make any converts, but if you're willing to indulge him, it's quite moving.

the shambolic arrangements even have an artsy edge, which in a sideways sort of way returns him to his musical roots.

I for one will ALWAYS buy the new Jo Jo record.

I thought the last one was great, stronger than 'Her Mystery and Not of High Heels' and 'Not so much to be Loved as to Love'.

I thought it was great to hear him pick up the electric again, albiet very briefly.

i was just in a nostalgic mood (for the mid nineties, lol) and thought i would photograph this picture and stick it up here. he was sort of an asshole to my friends but was super nice to me and he held my hand a lot. this picture was in market square in knoxville, tn. he had arrived in town early for my friend to interview him and we got to chill for a while...

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs058.snc4/35253_10150214895280076_846520075_13710560_2172710_n.jpg

awwww. when is that from? 1990s?

you must have a disorder that prevents you from reading parantheticals!

This is Steve Shasta btw.

rockin' and romance is, right now, my favourite jr album. the new one is good too.

Not sure if he's a class act, but have you guys heard this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjEtJ0T61SQ

I thought it was someone doing a Modern Lovers-era Jonathan impression at first.

it was a 2008 vinyl only single. as you might expect it's pretty fun live.....going by reports :-( should have been included on Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild tbh. and it's bside is another version of when we refuse to suffer, itself a good song. not sure if it's got the wonderful electric guitar the 2nd version has though. fun live version of when we refuse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds33tuGRE64

elsewhere, 'i have come out to play' is actually the greatest song ever. sorry hey jude.

this is great - Jonathan Richman Reads A Poem For MOJO
http://soundcloud.com/mojomagazine/jonathan-richman-reads-a-poem
"Yes it feels strange. Yes it feels strange."

this guy is a class fucking act.

still got the moves despite his advancing years (either "old, almost forty" or "almost fifty") too.

he played 'old world' and 'girlfriend', has he been doing more of the old stuff lately or did i just get lucky?

i heard him do "girlfriend" a few years back, never heard "old world"... even though the approach of the original modern lovers stuff is different, not like a lot of those songs wouldn't fit into his set...

I haven't seen him in at least a decade but he would occasionally break out Roadrunner, Old World, Pablo Picasso when I saw him several times in the late 90s/00s. Altho he was equally inclined to just play Sex Machine for half an hour.

i have a ticket to see him tomorrow which i had been trying to get rid of because i have other commitments, but now i'm considering just slipping out of those hopefully unnoticed...

new song 'bohemia' is a lot of fun, has a feeling more akin to the 70s and 80s stuff than to the last few albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh0_0XJ7PSM

as is his way, Jonathan re-wrote and re-recorded Old World for the 2008 album (don't remember the album name currently) so that's probably been a bit of a regular lately. He does a fair amount of Modern Lovers stuff really. There always seems to be at least one Modern Lovers song a night. It's the 1976 to about 1986 stuff that gets ignored, unless he's re-wrote and re-recorded it (Vincent Van Gough)

iirc what I just said is pretty much said by him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpuUNqCZQ8 but i'm not in a position to watch that right now

The Modern Lovers had a rhythm section
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, November 17, 2003 11:42 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the entire city of Olympia doesn't
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, November 17, 2003 11:44 PM (8 years ago

yeesh

Other than having a catchy chorus, "Bohemia" doesn't strike me as being that far removed from the stuff on the last couple of albums. He's definitely developed a more abstract style of songwriting.

"heathercroall ‏ @heathercroall
I was standing up front right next to Nick Cave as Jonathan Richman sang about being pretentious and finding the Door to Bohemia. too funny"

So when Nick Cave attends a Jonathan Richman concert, do you think Jonathan recognizes Nick?

i really have no idea how aware or tapped in Richman is to people like that who you might consider his peers or at least familiar to most of his fanbase

Is Nick looking at Jonathan and thinking,"Is this guy a class fucking act or what?"

Can't help but hear the title of this thread being spoken by the voice of Mike Damon from Fast Times at Ridgemont High

went to the Union Chapel gig last night and I can confirm that he is the fucking classest of acts.

saws him last night in berlin in the festsaal kreuzberg. it was packed and i sweated a lot. just him and a drummer. a very short set, only about one hour and three short encores. but i don't remember having smiled as much at any concert before. he finished with the song where the mind gets asked about love, can't handle the question and directs the asker to the heart. somehow he reminds me a lot of neil young, the same kind of innocence, the same kind of realness.

sp: i saw him last night...

it's funny how much of this guy's oeuvre was 20-30 years ahead of its time with the de rigeur hipster-lifestyle topics - organic farming, hating cars, locavore foods etc

i dunno if he was that ahead of the curve on caring about those things, but he was definitely ahead of the curve in thinking "hey i can write a song about this" about lots of things he writes about

Wow, Jess. Your opening post here is fan-fuckin'-tastic! It so perfectly evokes the feeling of being really truly surprisingly into something you "should" dislike, and that's one of my favorite things--and something you can never ever plan for.

i saw richman live for the first time within a year of this thread being started (but don't think i had seen it then) and jess really does sum up really well why he's one of my favorite live acts ever.

he was definitely ahead of the curve in thinking "hey i can write a song about this" about lots of things he writes about

writing a song about how awesome the local falafel stand is, for example, fits right into today's indie landscape - but I can't think of anybody doing that kind of thing besides him back then.

I've been on a "backfill" with the Bezerkley albums, I only had the first one for ages. Now I have up to the live one.

saw him a couple of months ago and he was great, I could just listen to his song introductions by themselves. loved his whole rap about apologizing to the moon for the way all of our artificial light competes w/"her", and the version of "Old World" that he does nowadays is spine-tingling.

Bezerkely albums are all really solid

I'm a bit of a Jonathan obsessive. Own all his albums, mostly on vinyl. Those Rough Trade released 80's LP's that have never really been available on CD are absolute corkers. I'm also a big fan of the 1989 'Jonathan Richman' and 'Having a Party With Jonathan Richman' albums as well; some of his best electric guitar playing.

Have seen him many times, but not in a decade or more. Not in this century in fact. Maybe next month.

Jonathan does not have a computer and does not like to do interviews but he responded via hand-written poems on paper to 2 questions from a writer(musician) who works for the Washington Post. Jonathan is gonna be in DC tonight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/02/21/jonathan-richman-wrote-me-a-poem-no-really/

and the answer comes again: a class fucking act

tbh I never really noticed how much he uses Dr. Seuss cadences before

saw jonathan this weekend! or er, the last half of his show -- i couldn't get down to denver until about 10 and apparently richman starts shows on time. but what i did see was aces, turning one of the diviest colfax bars (really not worthy of the dude) into a perfect setting. the last song was "her mystery not of high heels and eyeshadow" which turned into this beautiful free associating thing...almost van morrison-ish? weird comparison, but that's what it made me think of. a class fucking act!

picked up a copy of "Modern Lovers "Live!"" (1977) on which Jonathon flaunts some kind of puffy shirt and pencil mustache. More than any other record, this seems to be where the childlike/naif persona stuff got cemented. It's something he's toyed with on and off since ("Not Yet 3" etc.) but man nearly every song on here sounds like it was written by a little kid - airplanes, dinosaurs, insects, etc. Not a bad record in all but more one-note than some of his later 80s records, which I like way more.

I used to play that for my my kid

I just found a copy of that record two weeks ago and it made me so happy, "I'm A Little Airplane" is really intense in terms of the rhythm/delivery even with all its goofiness

i like, “I do not accept messages transmitted via cell phones":

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-343832-jonathan-richman-vs-commonwealth-of-massachusetts.html