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

i missed his closest concerts this time out. but i saw him on his last two tours--the last one not even supporting a record IIRC.

he was still great the last time i saw him two or three years ago. but yeah, i think he reallllly does not care about the business side of things. he could easily have the profile of at least someone like robyn hitchcock, but even that tiny level of cult fame must be unappealing to him.

I don't blame him really. He's a great live show, great songwriter, great player, good for him for just focusing on the stuff he likes to do.

yeah, it's totally refreshing really -- I hope he makes enough dough to just keep doing it his way. (though yeah, i wouldn't mind reissues, or a nice box set or something)

Saw him for like the 5th time live last night. It definitely had its great moments but this may have been the first time I was a tad disappointed. A short gig-an hour, and he raced through some cuts--"That Summer Feeling" and started and stopped others quickly.

I liked his delivery though of "When We Refuse to Suffer," "Take Me to the Plaza at 2 am"(not sure of the exact title), and “As My Mother Lay Lying"

No merch for sale at the show. He strolled onstage in a winter coat carrying his acoustic guitar in its case. He threw down the coat on the stage, opened the case and started strumming. I was told he likes to take the train from town to town when he can. He said he doesn't have a tv and doesn't like having one in his hand.

He encouraged the crowd to clap and dance and said "I don't do concerts, Beethoven does concerts (and he does them well)."

Saw him on this tour, too. Wasn't utterly moved the way I have sometimes been in the past, but I was charmed as always, and as always I left feeling like I understood him and his world view a little better. I teared up a little at "As My Mother Lay Dying," too.

Paramahansa Yogananda composition on the new album.

He made a vague yoga mention at the show I saw

huh never noticed this before for some reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVfCOfh_7VE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdZAQwIMx7k

He played near us the night of the San Bernardino shootings. There was just a heaviness in the air and going to see him play in a Costa Mesa strip mall seemed like the right thing to do. 34 years of going to gigs and somehow I'd never seen him before or even made note of the albums after than one with "Velvet Underground" on it.

At first I was freaked out. Jonathan sounded depressed! He moped. I thought of Margaret Keene paintings. He interrupted songs with a routine about not wanting to go back to an earlier time. His eyes bugged out unsettlingly. He sang in French and Arabic about Van Gogh and I was overcome with this feeling that I (as an audience member) really didn't want to disappoint Jonathan Richman. After about twenty minutes of this he broke and in that unmistakable voice, shouted to someone in the back of the room "HEY, IS THAT BAG OF FRIES STILL THERE? LEMME HAVE THOSE FRIES." I think I was so caught in all the odd stories about him that not once did I consider that he's a master showman and works the crowd like a fucking pro. Great show. Definitely go see him if he passes through.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/776/23494874812_c71702f28f_z.jpg

He also came on stage in the big coat and did the same routine with throwing down the coat, opening the case, and go. Couldn't tell you if it's all part of the act, but he definitely seems to have constructed his own space out of things. As noted upthread, he definitely seems indifferent to the business/marketing/hype cycle of the world.

haha that sounds fabulous. I can see how he would take on the local vibe of an evening to some degree, and work with it until he got it right.

how long has he been touring w/ tommy larkin? must be over 20 years now.

No, not as long as that but still TOO LONG! Wish he'd put together a little and and tour. He got really unambitious after There's Something About Mary.

I think he's been playing with him like 23 years, actually, but I don't know if that was all duo?

there's about zero chance that jonathan richman is going to get a band together.

He has grown very complacent it is true.

yeah, but he's retirement age, so it's OK.

he's a master showman and works the crowd like a fucking pro

otm

He got really unambitious after There's Something About Mary

tbf it's probably hard to go more ambitious than Major Role as Singing Narrator in Hollywood Blockbuster. then again he had been doing the stripped down music thing for decades by then.

maybe it's more ambitious to not do the easy thing and just slap together a band that runs through Roadrunner every night.

last saw JR in Athens at the 40 watt club and the experience was a lot like described above. most charming performer i have ever seen.

I've seen him with a band inside the last 20 years, but I couldn't peg a date to it …

August 96, it turns out.

what was it, drums and bass?

wait you're saying richman did a drum'n'bass album in the 1990s??

yeah a collab with µ-Ziq iirc

maybe it's more ambitious to not do the easy thing and just slap together a band that runs through Roadrunner every night.

Ok, forget about the first Modern Lovers album. I'm with Jonathan in that don't rate it that highly. And I don't have a problem with him performing solo, or with Tommy on drums - I've paid money many, many times for just that, but I'm not gonna pretend that I'm seeing the best Jonathan Richman show. He was a much better performer in the 70s and 80s than now, and one of the reasons is because he was writing songs that involved other people in their performance. Yeah he's a charming performer, but even more charming were the harmonies and the call and response thing that formerly featured in so many of his songs. Often his performances sound mawkish and self-indulgent. Every song ends the same way (by softly singing the title) and a big chunk of his repertoire hasn't changed since the 90s. Let's not pretend he's doing anything edgy.

edgy is overrated

ive never looked for edginess in the music of jonathan richman

Keep meaning to pause this summer feeling set, but not yet not yet (from the Burger Boogaloo, or something like that, last year in Oakland; 39 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4TjC20AOds

Now that's a band.

it's true that the early-mid 1980s was the high point for him, viz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta6EnFN48xk

There's so much wisdom, purity and personality in his current live act that I hadn't even considered the idea of him touring with a full band.

But it'd be interesting to see; even on the new record he's got a ton of backing singers all over his songs, and he has a lot of fun playing off of them. I kept hearing them in my head when he played "Let Me Do This Right" live (great song, btw).

xpost. Pretty much any live recordings from the Rockin' Robins period are essential!

absolutely class act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbUYJfbZ-Qc

Nobel Prize one day surely.

last year's album has finally been put on the bandcamp they created for him the other month

https://jonathanrichman.bandcamp.com/

The ancient weird guy in his toga
Staff in hand
The ancient bearded guy doing yoga
On the sand

Really glad to get to hear Ishkode! Ishkode! all the way through and all the other recent material. It's a really good album, I think. I find what he has to say to still be very interesting and I love his musicality. The abstractness in his compositions has obviously gotten even more extreme.

From Bandcamp: JONATHAN RICHMAN DOES NOT USE THE INTERNET. ALL EMAILS WILL BE SENT TO BLUE ARROW RECORDS, HIS LABEL.

I wish I could say more than "I love his musicality." I suppose it's not the simplest thing to discuss. He's obviously exploring the use of very minimal melodic and harmonic materials more and using more dissonance. I live his voice as an improviser, too, in his singing and his playing.

*like*

Jonathan re-wrote and re-recorded Old World for the 2008 album

years late but ty for this, had no idea that new version was on an album. as I mentioned upthread, it floored me

New single:

https://jonathanrichman.bandcamp.com/album/penchant-for-the-stagnant-b-w-not-so-much-to-be-loved-as-to-love

Nice

:)

Old and New at the same time; so divine.

M. White!!! hail fellow well met

this guy is a class fucking act

Jerry Harrison plays on b-side!