Jonathan Richman totally just asked me for a ride home

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He was the surprise musical guest at the Believer's first-anniversary event in San Francisco tonight.

Afterwards, I interrupted a conversation he was having with Dave Eggers (haha) to tell him I enjoyed his performance. (He played six fairly amusing acoustic songs; I admit I'm not that familiar with his solo work.)

He was gracious in that kooky way of his, signed an autograph (I don't really care about autographs usually, but figured a friend of mine would enjoy it), and then asked, "Do you have a car?"

For some reason, I said yes, even though I obviously don't while I'm on vacation here. I think I thought he just meant, Do you have a way to get home? Which I did. I was going to take the BART back to my hotel.

Then he said, "Which direction are ya headed?"

So then I had to say, "Oh, wait, no I totally don't have a car at all."

Then we sort of awkwardly said goodbye.

WHAT IF I'D HAD A CAR? Would I have gotten to see where he lived? Would he have invited me in and played me a few tunes??

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Bizarre!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

what if he tried to carjack you?

Seriously though, that's a pretty cool story.

― hstencil, Friday, 12 March 2004 06:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe he was trying to...y'know.....pick you up.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll never know!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I think he's above such things

― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

who?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

He just wanted to be important in your life.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Oops, are you asking who Jonathan Richman is?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

This is the best thread ever!

― Allyzay, Friday, 12 March 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha Jonathan Richman was so shy the one time I talked to him. I can only imagine that he took your rejection as a sign that you didn't like him.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

It wasn't a rejection! Still, he did sort of slink away...

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

What was JR doing a) in SF and b> at a Believer party?
italics added for emphasis

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

a)He lives here now, apparently! (News to me.)

b)I dunno. Eggers gave him lots of money?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, I just noticed Ally's e-mail address.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I requested "I'm Straight" at a show of his back in `91 at the Lonestar Roadhouse, and he lapsed into an "aww shucks" sermon about how there was no longer any division between the Straights and the Stoners. "But Jonathan, it's still a good song!" I protested. He wouldn't budge on the issue.

And he didn't ask me to drive him home.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe he thought you were a Stoner.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

He's lived here for like 5 years at least (he shopped at the bookstore I worked at in 1997-8 a bunch and I just assumed he lived here.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

um yeah I am. I mean I just want to know if you know who he is. Uh huh.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe he thought you were a Stoner.

I think "pushy drunken asshole fanboy" was probably his first assumption.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i luv when he plays athens cuz 75% of the time moe tucker shows up and you better believe he plays 'velvet underground'.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Moe Tucker lives in Athens, GA??

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

(Jeez, I'm totally abusing the Internet computer at my hostel. I should go back to my room already.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

for whom would ally NOT steal a car?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 12 March 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i only saw jonathan richman once. he seemed really coked up. is he always like that?

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

He seemed ... weird. But he's always been weird, yeah?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:03 (twenty-one years ago)

He's definitely always a bit um off, yeah.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Not only does he live here, but apparently Matt Gonzalez's motivation for switching to the Green Party was finding out Richman was a Green, apparently.

― anode (anode), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:11 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a bad reason to join a political party.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:13 (twenty-one years ago)

A great reason to leave one, tho

― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)

That last "apparently" was supposed to be "among other reasons", oops. Matt's Green-switching more complex than thought, carry on.

― anode (anode), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)

mo tucker
where does she live

― anthony, Friday, 12 March 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

douglas ga i think still. a couple of her sons live(d?) in athens for awhile. i know one of them used to work at gyro wrap.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 12 March 2004 07:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Jonathan does live with his girlfriend...at least he did a couple of years ago. I followed him around the UK with my friends The Lucksmiths who were supporting, and had the opportunity to hang out with JoJo after shows.
He liked to talk about stonemasonry. His girlfriend wanted him to do a little bit less stonemasonry around the house/garden as he was getting carried away. But he was very proud of his handiwork.
I suspect he wanted a lift home, not a lift home and a coffee, darlin'.

All right this is a one, a two
A one two three four

So far she's taken three red lights
Four wrong turns
She's got the leatherette seat full of cigarette burns
Good-bye in the front
Good-bye all about
Stop this car I'm getting out
This time I'm gonna scream and shout
Stop this car I'm getting out!

I'm not gonna wait until we land in the brook
And have all the little fishies swim by and take a look
Now they're all laughing at us with the brook trout
Stop this car I'm getting out
This time I'm gonna scream and shout
Stop this car I'm getting out!

"Mellow out man, mellow out"
"No, no"
"Yeah, what's he so uptight about?"
"No, no"
"Smoke some of this man"
"And act like an ostrich with his head in the sand?"
This time I'm gonna scream and shout
I say, stop this car I'm getting out!

Suppose that deer runs across the road
Suppose that truck hits a rock in front of us
All you mellow little fellows could be scattered about
Stop this car I'm getting out
This time I'm gonna scream and shout
Stop this car, thanks, I'm getting out!

"Jonathan don't make a scene!"
"O.K., just tell her to wait until the light turns green"
"You're wild man, like your vibes are so uptight"
"Yeah, but not for long pal, I'm saying good night"
She's taken three red lights
Four wrong turns
She's got the leatherette seats filled with cigarette burns
Bye in the front
Bye all about
Stop this car I'm getting out
This time I'm gonna scream and shout
Stop this car I'm getting out!

This time I'm gonna scream and shout
Stop this car I'm getting out!

― Canada Briggs (Canada Briggs), Friday, 12 March 2004 09:08 (twenty-one years ago)

27 days until he plays Glasgow! If he asked me for a lift home I'd carry him on my back if necessary.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 12 March 2004 09:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I have touched Jonathan Richman's bare, sweaty chest! It was after a show many years ago ('77 or '78 I guess) in Bristol and he was in the corridors afterwards with his shirt off, and I patted him on the chest and said something like "Great show!" It doesn't seem like me, but I have a witness. I expect I had been drinking.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 12 March 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

er, um ...nah. good story!

― kephm, Friday, 12 March 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

For some reason I thought he lived in Grass Valley, halfway between Sacramento and Tahoe. Or at least that's what I heard a few years ago. Maybe he moved?

― Kris (aqueduct), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't know he lived here until recently. Apparently, you can see him cycling around Potrero Hill all the time or something.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I gave Bela Fleck a ride to the club once after he had finished an interview on my college radio station. I started the car and swiftly turned the radio down since it was at about 11. Fleck, however, turned it back up since it was his song that the radio was playing.

"Mind if we listen to this?" he asked nicely.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

He was living out in the Sierra Nevada foothills for (I think) the last 8 years. his record label was in Berkeley since the 70s, he's def. no stranger to the bay area.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 12 March 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

i read "gyro wrap" as "gyno wrap"

ugh

― !!!! (amateurist), Friday, 12 March 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I also read something wrong! in this:

I didn't know he lived here until recently. Apparently, you can see him cycling around Potrero Hill all the time or something.

I read "cycling" as "crying"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 12 March 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Martin, what are you talking about, that doesn't seem like you? I fully expect you to be stroking Jonathan Richman's sweaty chest!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 March 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

About ten years ago my friend went to see Jonathan in Iowa City, and after the show he got to talking to him, and Jonathan asked him if he could get a ride with him to Des Moines, where J. was playing the next night. My friend took him home, put him up and went to see him the next night. So I guess J. was on tour with no car... Maybe he doesn't even drive?

― donwaldo, Saturday, 13 March 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know about whether he can drive or not, but Roadrunner is a hymn to the open road and the joys of the car radio. And, of course, he defended his love of road travel in You're Crazy For Taking The Bus.

Well, a welfare gal and her drunk galoot
And no one wearing a three piece suit
You meet folks this way you just don't see while flyin
So you take the plane but I'll take the bus this time

Well, welfare gal and her drunkin cuss
And Pepsi cans rolling around the bus
That newspaper's a Grit and you've got slime
So you take the plane but I'll take the bus this time

Where it's Salt Lake City everybody off
Salt Lake City everybody off
With Elko Welles and Reno down the line
So you take the plane but I'll take the bus this time
But Jonathan...

You're crazy for taking the bus
Well, I'm crazy, so what's the fuss
Two whole days on that stinking bus
Yes and I sleep fine
So you take the plane, I'll take the bus this time.
Go Donnie, tell 'em.

Look at it this way...
They don't want my name, and I don't want their baggage claim
My guitar is seated right where I am
So you take the plane but I'll take the bus this time

Well you got the old fat guy in his old tank top
The Wendover casino stop
And then of course Winnemucca and Welles and Anaheim
So you take the plane and I'll take the bus this time.

And it's Salt Lake City everybody off
Salt Lake City everybody off
With Elko Welles and Reno down the line
So you take the plane, I'll take the bus this time
But Jonathan...

You're crazy for taking the bus
Well, I'm crazy, so what's the fuss
Two whole days on that stinking bus
Yeah and I sleep fine
So you take the plane but I'll take the bus this time

― Canada Briggs (Canada Briggs), Saturday, 13 March 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"canada briggs" is the best clint eastwood sidekick name ever

― !!!! (amateurist), Saturday, 13 March 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"cool it, canada!"

― !!!! (amateurist), Saturday, 13 March 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

Richman should write a song about Eggers called "The Staggering Penis."

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 2 August 2004 23:33 (twenty years ago)

um, well, i just posted this to the wrong thread but anyhow, here it is again...

I was just walking by the Make Out Room in SF and JoJo was playing... in fact, he probably still is. he's doing 4 nights in a row there...

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 05:53 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

weird, i went to the first of those 4 shows^^^

so uh, does he really live in SF? i have heard: SF, Berkeley, Chico, Grass Valley, Sacramento.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 28 October 2011 17:58 (thirteen years ago)

he's sure around here a lot

― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 28 October 2011 18:00 (thirteen years ago)

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