Post a controversial music opinion

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.

chick - someone's ugly daughter. she's only on backing vocals so no one would guess it was her

treeship, you said that before (about “Hospital”) and I take your point, but I think you’re wrong about reactionary politics. I don’t see that there. He just doesn’t like hippies

he says quite clearly that he likes hippie johnny

"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."

i don't know how to do that cross out thing where you rewrite it as "the reason rock albums work..."

but it works that way too as a sentence.

xp Haha oh yeah!

also don't see "The Mixer" as an angry song, kind of the opposite in the live context

interesting, I always heard it as actively antagonistic

he says quite clearly that he likes hippie johnny

I guess you could say it was ‘70s drug culture he was rejecting? There’s obviously a self-pitying edge to “I stay alone, eat health food at home,” but yeah that’s also why it’s “interesting” I guess

I don't think there's much doubt he was rejecting that - this despite hanging out with the Velvet Underground and the Warhol scene. Or maybe because? Anyway having short hair, not taking drugs and not dismissing the older generation out of hand singled out Richman as weirder than most of the the weirdoes and freaks in the late 60s. His fellow self-identified outsider Morrissey meanwhile was always a dick.

Jonathan Richman Q&A at Reddit:

My question is : in one of my favourite songs of yours "I'm straight", is Hippie Johnny based off a real guy? Was he a friend of yours that when he heard the song and knew it was about him?

That song was based on all the young guys who used to beg for spare change in Harvard Square at that time. You could see that they were intentionally playing up looking poor and helpless. It was equally clear that they didn't all have to be in that condition. Thirdly, I would watch young women our age being attracted to them, seemingly partly because of their helplessness. I was disgusted and made up the song. It was originally Hippie Ernie, the sound of which, I liked better. Our bass player, Ernie, suggested after awhile that we change it, so that he not be confused in people's minds with the Ernie I had intended. Hence, for that one recording, it became "Hippie Johnny" I was already tired of the song by that point, so I let it go. Control freak that I am, if I let something like that go, it means that I must be over the song.

lol @ the bass player anecdote

I like “Hippie Johnny” better… “Ernie” is too distractingly specific (also makes me think of Sesame Street, but that’s not his fault).

Jonathan and Ernie reunited for Joey's birthday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_1sA0PVArw

Lol at vmic Jonathan asking the soundman for "a little less bass"

Love that this has turned into the Jonathan Richman praise thread

i mean all this slobbering over him is controversial to me, but

see but that's how you know you struck a nerve! <3

Wouldn’t call it slobbering tbh

Guys obvious flaws are baked into his persona as if in a hearty stonemason’s pizza oven. All fans are aware of them and realize they are minor compared the flaws of many or even most others.

Guys obvious flaws are baked into his persona as if in a hearty stonemason’s pizza oven. All fans are aware of them and realize they are minor compared the flaws of many or even most others.

Compared to

Ha, didn’t even notice it was double posted for any reason.

Zing wormhole transmission tribute to the extended live version of “Ice Cream Man.”

You could see that they were intentionally playing up looking poor and helpless. It was equally clear that they didn't all have to be in that condition.

am i bending over backwards to give him the benefit of the doubt here or was Hippy Johnny really Crustie Ernie

ayo. i'm straight! i want to take your place.

*chorus* WE KNOW. FUCK OFF.

viva jojo. (i din't know that was like, his nickname, and am def shockingly old).

Funny, almost went to see Richman last night, but didn't feel like it. Controversial?

no

xp btw sorry, my comment was to be 'funny,' i've never felt "fucked off" at on these hallowed grounds, y'all the best.

Josh – did you stay at home and eat health food alone?

I ate two large servings of tres leches cake.