Post a controversial music opinion

Yeah, tons of the tracks on those Golden Age comps are from that period...

In addition to the Beach Boys, there was Surf Rock in general.

Like just check out the tracklist of the first volume... a sprinkling of these bangers are from '58/'59 (and two are from '56), but the rest are '60-'63: https://acerecords.co.uk/the-golden-age-of-american-rock-n-roll

As for Richman – Jonathan Sings! is the only solo album I really have an ear for... but the Modern Lovers album, man

(xpost) Yes--came back to post about the same thing, the big doo-wop revival. We're all just talking about the really visible stuff so far--there were also incredible one-offs like Donnie Brooks' "Mission Bell," Dick & Dee's "The Mountain's High," Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl," etc. (Not necessarily one-hit wonders, but people strongly identified with one song.) I think those all fall into the '60-63 window.

Dick & Dee's "The Mountain's High,"

fucking love this tune, great secret weapon at my restaurant/bar DJ gig

I also love that track, a pal used to drop it at his soul nights

Jonathan Richman is a class act, a first rate songwriter, a one of a kind human being, a daily inspiration

So yes, I agree that some of the posts itt are v controversial, good job

"The Mountain's High" is epic--always though of that, "Mission Bell," and the Miracles' "Way Over There" (same '60-63 window) as kind of a mini-genre of Apocalyptic Early-'60s Pop.

Wow, I don’t think I’d ever heard “Way Over There”… what a great song

My Motown knowledge is pretty underbaked (other than the big songs everyone knows)

dig in! there is so much goodness. they have cool motown comps of lesser known great stuff that are put together well.

Jonathan Richman is a class act, a first rate songwriter, a one of a kind human being, a daily inspiration

agree

he is also a voice of resistance to change, albeit a very friendly one

boring motherfucker who can’t sing

they have cool motown comps of lesser known great stuff that are put together well.

― scott seward, Friday, February 23, 2024 11:48 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

any you'd recommend? The lesser known Motown stuff is a big blind spot for me, but I always enjoy these songs when they turn up anywhere

Jojo saw the Velvet Underground 157 times, his songs have been covered by Wire (1976!), The Sex Pistols (1979!), Arthur Russell, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, John Cale, Siouxsie & The Banshees...

But one thing I learned recently (I even inquired about it on a thread on ILM but this detail was not mentioned) is that his shift away from proto-punk to more widely-approachable songwriting was due to his volunteering at the Boston Children's Hospital singing and playing for terminally ill children who were often alone and dying and he was haunted by that experience and was challenged to bring them joy.

Another anecdote is he played a show for kids at our local independent bookstore a year ago after working his day job all day. He looked exhausted, face sunburnt and wrinkled ... clothes covered with his dust, dirt and cement... but yet, after he was handed a guitar he transformed into a professional musician out of nowhere and kept the kids in rapt attention, smiling and singing along, it was really supernatural.

I thought Jojo was a man from Tucson, Arizona

Putting this out there re:Motown is the importance of MONO MIXES. If you're still doing the physical media CD thing, make it a priority to find comps from the '90s in the "Anthology" and "Ultimate Collection" lines, plus the Box Sets issued during that period. The Hitsville USA v/a is a terrific label primer. Many of these sets are also on streaming services.

Streaming-wise, those yearly "Complete Singles" boxes are also worth exploring. They've also spun off several single-artist singles sets from those collections as well that are good deep dives.

even as familiar as i am with richman, seeing him in the vu doc was about as heartening and cheering as a musician can be. i know it’s to the choir here, but he is a miraculous figure really. what a fuckin life, apparently done well.

after working his day job all day. He looked exhausted, face sunburnt and wrinkled ... clothes covered with his dust, dirt and cement...

Mr. Richman also appeared as a singing narrator in the 1998 film There's Something About Mary, and has a second career as a stonemason creating garden walls, patios and bread ovens. “Sometimes I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day.

I mean, how many copies do you think his biggest record sold?

Millions in royalties from the Sex Pistols doing "Roadrunner" on Swindle.

Every week for the past 40 years, he’s received a fat royalty check in the mail from San Andreas Records for the cover version of “Pablo Picasso” that appears on the Repo Man soundtrack.

Don't forget those sweet John Cale royalties!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXtBsikiY50

I could have sworn Cale had a co-write on that song. Was that ever mis-printed somewhere?

Not that I ever heard, though it may have been Cale playing piano on the album track.

don't forget all that sweet galaxie 500 money. they sold millions of albums in latvia.

In this 2015 interview, he says he makes his living doing music, and the masonry is a side business:

AM: How much are you still involved with the music industry? Are you backing away from it at all?

JR: I still make my living doing it. It’s what I do.

i can see it being some sort of nod to jesus or something. seems like his vibe. pizza ovens more chill than tables, chairs, and oaken chests.

he is also a voice of resistance to change, albeit a very friendly one

― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse)

would like to hear more about this, i don't know very much about the man beyond those early modern loves recordings

I was actually looking for his "The Fading Of An Old World" but it is not on youtube, as a specific counterpoint to this

it's on his recent album "Sa" and is a rewrite/rejection of "Old World"

I thought Jojo was a man from Tucson, Arizona

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table)

ok galaxy brain take, paul mccartney is actually trying to be an _ally_ when he talks about sweet loretta martin

"sweet loretta martin" is actually transmasculine - he "thought (he) was a woman" but he was actually a man. then mccartney fucks it all up by misgendering him, but HE MEANT WELL

yeah there's no way to read that verse without concluding that mccartney fucked it up. UNLESS. WHAT IF SWEET LORETTA MARTIN IS A MAN BUT CHOOSES TO USE SHE/HER PRONOUNS. Yeah. THERE WE GO. She thought for a while she was a "transsexual", decided she wasn't, now thinks of herself as a man but still presents femme and uses she/her pronouns.

basically i don't personally currently think of the song as being shitty in the same way "lola" is. sweet loretta martin's gender identity is in no way central to the song. ahhh, but then we get to the enoch powell version and god now the beatles fans are going to have all kinds of opinions on how powell's racism relates to the arguable transphobia represented in the song and i don't care, it's really not a very good song as beatles songs go. tina turner did a good version.

"solid gold easy action" is a great fucking song and i'm mostly over the fact that "she's a dude" is part of the lyrics. for all i know t. rex is just saying she wears nudie suits.

xp right, that stuff is fairly unambiguous on the early modern lovers records. he did a wonderful reddit ama where he gets into a lot of this

he doesn't use computers, he doesn't have air conditioning... he also seems to advocate a 'be here now' kind of attitude

he also talks about playing children's hospitals as the point when he realized he's here to play for the people who need it most, or something to that effect- he wants to give something really substantial, what can be of use. and that's an important bias to have for understanding his work imo, it's missing from the standard narrative about how he decided the modern lovers are too loud and electric and he wants to make kiddie songs instead, as though it were some kind of heel turn. he is not somebody who puts art on a pedestal.

i wasn't saying he's a fascist, or sus, or anything tbc. he is more sentimental/romantic obv

i really think, read his interviews because they are wonderful and he says it all better himself.

there's one where he talks about his old neighborhood growing up, how every sunday everyone hung out in their front yards all day and everyone keps their doors open, and like he's pining for this sense of community, it's not necessarily as problematic as i make it sound, but i can't find it easily.

my uncontroversial opinion is that decades are a useless fiction where they're a shorthand for styles that have no clear beginning or end point- imo, just refer directly to the style.
but they might be useful for talking about revivals that average different styles together

he is def a pro
he can just turn it on, right there on the spot, doesn't need anything, he is the whole show

he sings a song about vincent van gogh, the archetypal tortured artist, as famous for cutting his own ear off as for his art, and what does he say about van gogh: "he loved color and he let it show"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYgC_hi1O7c

there's one where he talks about his old neighborhood growing up, how every sunday everyone hung out in their front yards all day and everyone keps their doors open, and like he's pining for this sense of community, it's not necessarily as problematic as i make it sound

this doesn't sound problematic at all, that neighborhood sounds awesome

(xp) Even John Cale enjoyed it.

Yeah I never took his sentiments in “Old World” to be regressive or “conservative” in any negative sense

(Anyway, he says “bye-bye, old world” at the end)

the new version is really stunning and worth a listen if you haven't heard it, I saw him do it live first and was totally blown away

Thanks, I’ll seek it out

ah it's on Bandcamp!

https://jonathanrichman.bandcamp.com/track/the-fading-of-an-old-world

Nice!

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

I think the Modern Lovers LP is great and Richman's solo career is mostly garbage.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, February 23, 2024 4:36 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the modern lovers lp probably reflects some of the most out of fashion character traits one could have. today, not in the 70s.

self-pitying, conservative straight white male, whining about how women like bad boys instead of him and wishing he lived in the 50s. the "friendly" face deflatormouse talks about is the thinnest of veneers. the reason it works as a rock album is because underneath the dorky all american boy surface the record is seething with anger. reactionary anger.

that said, it's a good record. it is emotionally honest. i don't return to it though. morrissey's politics turned out to be uglier than richmann's, but the smiths' lyrics aren't stuck in this same psychological hellhole which is where richmann is writing from. so the smiths' are my problematic fave from the 80s.

yeah if you wanna hear real anger check out "The Mixer" from the live Precise Modern Lovers Order disc

many xps re: mccartney's problematic allyship I give him too much credit for not misgendering desmond's drag persona considering it was a fuckup (a welcome one given the obnoxious levels of cisheteronormativity in the song as written)

I always took being another man to mean being a slut (aka being a paul) but I like the transmasc reading a lot more

this is what we have to do to wring interesting things out of the canon I guess

(has anyone ever commented on the amount of genuine trans content on mariah carey's secret grunge side project? I am endlessly fascinated by it)

i did not know she had a secret grunge side project. it sounds like something i might have dreamt.