Category: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

Album: Jonathan Sings – Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Review: Sounds  (unknown date)1984
Author: Bill Black

IT’S BEEN a long time since Jonathan Richman‘s last album, Back In Your Life, and apart from the release of some interesting Kim Fowley produced demos featuring the original Modern Lovers line-up (boasting future members of Talking Heads and The Cars), there’s been little for fans of this Boston boy with the asthmatic’s voice and the frail rock ‘n’ roll tunes to get their teeth into.

All the more frustrating then, that his first album in four years, Jonathan Sings, should take nearly nine months finding a home and release date in Britain. But trusty old Rough Trade do the business yet again and I suggest they have an out ‘n’ out winner on their hands.

Those of you who remember who enjoyed a brief flowering in the British charts towards the end of the Seventies with songs like ‘Egyptian Reggae’ are going to be surprised by Jonathan Sings, for whilst the debate over whether he is childlike or just plain childish – the Yanks’ answer to the puerile punkiness of John Otway – continues, Richman has got on with the job of refining his own interpretations of his first love, Fifties doo-wop and early rock ‘n’ roll music.

He is helped by a new-look Modern Lovers featuring two female backing vocalists. Admittedly more like the Roches than the Ronettes, their warm, answering (“tell us Jonathan…”) tones work wonderfully with Richman’s naturally nervous voice.

Better still is the sparse instrumentation. Upright bass, minimal drumming and Richman’s racey rhythm guitar connect in a thoroughly authentic way, giving songs like ‘This Kind Of Music’, ‘Stop this Car’ and ‘Those Conga Drums’ (a dead ringer for the Coasters) an unforced folky feel.

But most impressive is the tenor of Richman’s lyrics. “The Neighbors’, Not Yet Three’ (written from a baby’s perspective with the priceless line “I’m stronger than you/You’re simply bigger than me”) and even the seemingly serene ‘That Summer Feeling’ reveal partially concealed moods of anxiety and fear that have previously languished in the shadows of his, er, “wackier” work.

But there’s plenty of the old Richman too – the ‘let me out, I’d rather walk’ hilarity of ‘Stop This Car’ and the jokey jingle ‘Give Paris One More Chance’ – so you can safely say that this is the most satisfying Modern Lovers album of them all.

JC adds…….

I was too busy back in 1984 throwing shapes to indie music in student unions to pay any attention to Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. There was also the fact with so much good music was coming out of Glasgow and the wider environs, it was easy enough not to pay any attention to stuff that was coming out of America.

It was a few years later, thanks primarily to Jacques the Kipper including a few songs on mix tapes that I really paid some attention.  But even then, it didn’t lead me to buying much in the way of the back catalogue, preferring instead to pick up compilation efforts such as 23 Great Recordings By Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers (Castle Communications, 1993), and A Plea For Tenderness (Nectar Masters, 1995) both of which were cheaply acquired.

I’ve since picked up a couple of actual albums but not, as yet, Jonathan Sings, and given the prices being asked on-line for even a poor condition second-hand copy, I’m unlikely to. But, I’ve acquired some tracks from other music blogs in recent(ish) years:

mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – That Summer Feeling
mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – You’re The One For Me
mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – This Kind Of Music
mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Not Yet Three

And I’ve a different take on one of its songs, courtesy of it being re-recorded on as solo album, Jonathan Sings Country, released in 1990:-

mp3: Jonathan Richman – The Neighbors

He’s an acquired taste in many ways, but I like him.

JC

Back in 1977, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers enjoyed a very substantial hit here in the UK with Egyptian Reggae.

By substantial, I mean it reached #5 and spent an astonishing 14 weeks on the chart, entering on 29 October 1977 and leaving on 28 January 1978. Ten of those weeks were spent in the Top 30, and the other four in positions 31-50; if the chart had been a Top 75 as it would expand to a few years later, then there’s every chance it could have spent the best part of six months hanging around.

I’ve no doubt that the UK public saw it as a novelty song above all else. It was an instrumental that sounded vaguely amusing, taking a piece of reggae and giving it something of an Arabic twist. The mid-late 70s were horrendously racist in many parts of the UK and I fear that many folk bought it for the sake of poking fun at one or more cultures rather than appreciating the work of The Modern Lovers.

It came on the back of Roadrunner being a hit in July 1977, but there hasn’t been a sniff of chart success ever since. The parent album from which Egyptian Reggae was lifted, Rock’n’Roll With The Modern Lovers spent three weeks in the charts but none of the subsequent releases have sold enough copies in the UK to crack the Top 100. I would hazard a guess and say that the vast majority of those who bought Egyptian Reggae wouldn’t have given Jonathan a further thought until they came across him in the 1998 film Something About Mary.

Here’s the two sides of the single:-

mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Egyptian Reggae
mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Rollercoaster By The Sea

The b-side is a fun listen. Almost makes for a decent short story!

The a-side came from this:-

mp3: Earl Zero – None Shall Escape The Judgment

Earl Zero (born Earl Anthony Johnson) is a Jamaican reggae singer and while he wrote this track, it remained unknown until another singer from Kingston recorded his version:-

mp3: Johnny Clarke – None Shall Escape The Judgment

Rather cheekily (and that’s me being polite……), the writing credit for Egyptian Reggae was given solely to Jonathan Richman.

JC

A few days back I was flicking through You Tube looking for a vintage Jonathan Richman clip from a Whistle Test appearance when I found this:-

TOTP 2 was a show that used to fill up time on the schedules of BBC2. It was basically clips of old Top of the Pops shows from the 70s and 80s with the occasional new song thrown in. The fact that they showed a clip of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers performing New England in April 1978 baffles me. The song never made the Top 75 and yet seems to have been recorded and aired. Unless of course the recording was made while the band happened to be in London and kept for use in case the song did become a hit. I was an avid viewer of the show in the 70s as it was just about the only music shown on TV in those days of just three channels and I don’t remember seeing the clip before finding it on t’internet. Does anyone recall differently?

Anyways, I love this particular song. There’s something utterly joyful about its sentiments and the tune matches it perfectly. I don’t own a copy of the single but both it and its b-side can be found on the Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers LP from 1977.

mp3 : Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – New England
mp3 : Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Here Come The Martian Martians

Great fun.

Oh and I did also find the clip I was hunting for. It was shown on Whistle Test at some point in the 80s and captures perfectly the sheer enthusiasm of Jonathan as a performer.

JC

This is the story of the song Roadrunner. It’s a bit confusing but stay with me.

Roadrunner was first recorded in April 1972. The producer was John Cale of The Velvet Underground fame. However the song did not see light of day until its release as a single in the USA in 1975. But before its release, it had been re-recorded with Matthew King Kaufman in the producer’s chair, and this new version, which was first made available on a budget compilation album, was released around the same time as the Cale-produced original first saw light of day.

Then in 1976, the Cale-produced version appeared on a much delayed debut LP while the Kaufman produced version was released as a single, first of all in the USA and then later on in the UK, where it’s b-side was……….the Cale version as recorded in 1972!! To confuse things further, the UK single saw the Kaufman version given the title Roadrunner (Once) and attributed to a solo Jonathan Richman while the Cale version was given the title Roadrunner (Twice) and attributed to The Modern Lovers despite the latter being the original by a few tears…..

You following all this??? Good….cos I’m about to confuse things further.

For in 1978, a completely different version saw light of day as a live b-side – and it was given the title Roadrunner (Thrice) …….and attributed to Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers!!

Now for years I had the Thrice version on a cassette tape – it came from me getting a copy of the song from a friend’s older brother who was the first serious muso I ever knew. My copy of ‘thrice’ snapped years ago and I thought my chances of hearing it ever again were minimal given the single was, to the best of my knowledge, only ever released in the USA and didn’t sell in any huge numbers, so I reckoned the chances of anyone owning a copy and then making it available on line were remote. But now thanks to folk putting things up on the likes of youtube and the existence of converter tools, things have changed:-

mp3 : Jonathan Richman – Roadrunner (Once)
mp3 : The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner (Twice)
mp3 : Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner (Thrice) (Live)

Every one of these versions are quite wonderful dontcha think??

Oh and in a 2003 re-issue of the debut LP, yet another version of Roadrunner was made available. This had been recorded later in 1972 with Kim Fowley in the producer’s chair…..seemingly the band weren’t sure at the time whether to go with Cale or Fowley as the producer of the debut…….(I don’t have a copy of this version otherwise I would have included it in this posting).

Enjoy