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

yeah, that was a little disconcerting too. i was totally expecting the uber-geek to walk on stage, when out came this dapper fellow (if a little "intense" in the blank stare dept.) i'm sure he could have become the makeout king of montana with any girl in the place, and he certainly had the crowd eating out of his hand.

i had forgetten i wrote this little epic when i woke up from my 11pm nap.

As for my pal Andrew L's understandable interest in his chest, can I just mention that I HAVE TOUCHED JR'S BARE CHEST! Mmmm...

I've seen JR about five times, and was only disappointed once. He has nothing to do with punk, except that he occasionally sings a song called "Velvet Underground." He is a troubador. He sets down his guitar and dances, accompanied only by his own singing and clapping. He's charming, and cute like a bunny. But he tackles serious subjects (cf. "My Little Girl's Got a Full Time Daddy Now", "The Neighbors") that most songwriters wouldn't touch. And he's an extremely nice guy.

I've never seen him live but the rumour is he's playing Glastonbury so here's hoping.

By the way, love your prose, wish I could write like that when pissed.

Kris.

So, I guess my answer is "what". *smiles glassily, backs quickly but politely out of the room*

Yes, and you see that people who are great performers, or something else superlative, often blow away your conceptions of liking or disliking the domain in which they work. Your first paragraph indicates your reluctance to buy into received opinion about "greatness", "importance", etc., and it's true these opinions are often the result of stupid canon-happy past-never-experienced pseudo-worship, but sometimes people who are called great really (still) are when you get to see them. So yeah, Jonathan Richman is great, but what you're really writing about is how suprised you were that your contrary-ness was disarmed in spite of yourself. Hope it happens more often.

[sputtering]...he INVENTED punk rock on The Modern Lovers!

(i was referring to the post above yrs actually, m.)

This is something of which I am well aware. I was describing Jonathan circa now, as opposed to what may be fairly described as a bit of an anomaly in his career. He's never done anything like that record since. "Government Center" may be one of the happiest, most compassionate songs ever written, but it's probably the only thing on the record that wouldn't seem out of place if Jonathan busted it out today. I certainly don't see him playing "She Cracked," "Hospital" or "I'm Straight." Maybe "Girlfriend," but "Pablo Picasso"? I don't think he would curse onstage anymore!

I was at this gig too, Chris and I agree that it was brilliant (inc. Sex Machine cover). Was a tad disappointed that he didn't play "That Summer Feeling" which was the first song of his I heard, but with such a long career & large repertoire such things are inevitable I suppose.

(revive!)

In fact, his sheer un-rock n' roll attitude is what makes him so punk rawk.

Plus, he can write a fuckin mean song.

I didn't even know about that one! The only bootleg LP I have is Songs for Laura, which is pretty good.

Live is seriously underrated and sometimes it’s my favorite thing he’s done. The never ending Ice Cream Man is sooooo good!
Tell them, Cow_Art.

^Yep Live is the best, "The Morning of Our Lives" one of the most uplifting songs I know

I love Sings and the followup quit a bit because of the backing vocals. Jonathan paired with a female voice is really nice. "That Summer Feeling" is dreamy.

"Monologue About Bermuda" from Having A Party is very good, and has a great explanation for why his music shifted after recording The Modern Lovers. He plays a bit of "She Cracked" in it in a very self-mocking way.

People always mention moving to SF softened him, but I also wonder how much fatherhood fostered Jojo's stylistic shift.

I love Sings and the followup quit a bit because of the backing vocals. Jonathan paired with a female voice is really nice. "That Summer Feeling" is dreamy.

100%... this is the album I tend to favor, for the same reasons (not that I've heard 'em all, by any means)

(Sings, that is... will have to look up which is the follow-up)

The songs on Jonathan Sings! also have a certain degree of, I guess, "sophistication" that a lot of his other stuff is lacking for me... and I don't even mean that as a criticism, I'm just not into the really simple/silly songs as much.

If you mean shifting gears from The Modern Lovers VU style rock to what came immediately afterwards, that was way before he was a dad. Listen to Bermuda Monologue on youtube, he explains it better than I can. But the short of it is: OG Modern Lovers wound up at a miserable gig playing at a resort in Bermuda. It was not a good fit. But Jonathan heard some of the local guys music and realized how much more there was in terms of rhythm and tone; he realized that his band was stiff and rigid and he wanted to get away from that.

I love that first (not really an) album, but I’m happy he moved on.

This is one of those discussions that I'll be looking for two years from now and have no idea what thread it was in.

― Lily Dale, Sunday, February 25, 2024 8:32 PM

Post a controversial music opinion

Oh well, some prefer other genres to nasal voiced rocker gone acoustic singing alone .

Ya think?

And that's . . . OK.

And here's why

What wait did you say?

This is a brand new shirt!

Didn’t I just take this shirt out of the package, Modern Lovers?

yeah, yeah, yeah

dum de-dum-dum, de-dumma-dum day

Ohhhh, New England.

Little Kookenhagen is so damn sweet.

I didn't realize Bell House had four shows booked for him, and the first and last aren't sold out. Setlist.fm seems a bit incomplete for his recent shows, but is it worth going multiple nights on the same tour or is it pretty much the same show each night?

I would imagine there are significant differences, but have not put that to the test

I dream of flying to the US to see Jonathan some day

He used to play in London quite regularly in the 80s, at least. First time I saw him was the best - supporting JR & Modern Lovers supporting Orange Juice at the Hammersmith Palais. He hadn't actually been to the UK for a while at this point, and it was almost a 'comeback' gig - and he was absolutely full Jonathan, almost glowing with good vibes. He got a rapturous reception, and we were not alone in being there for him rather than the headliners. I rather regret we didn't stay for Orange Juice now, but we just didn't think ANYBODY could follow what we'd just seen.

I saw him on Glasgow years ago. It was the period when he used to have a mike set up at this feet to pick up the sound of him dancing. Don't know if he still does that. I also know people who hung out with him afterwards and said he was almost uncomfortably intense - maybe a post gig thing.

Pre-gig too iirc

I saw him in Brooklyn many, many ages ago. He was great, and I hooked up with someone who was massively out of my league, so technically it was the greatest show I've ever been to.

I was only able to catch tonight's show and it was amazing. He may be in his 70's, but between his voice and his dance moves, he seemed as youthful as ever. His face obviously looks older, but surprisingly as I watched him up close, he reminded me of Henry Fonda around the eyes - he has the same twinkle in them that Fonda carried into his 70's.

Anyway, thanks to the MTA, traveling there kind of sucked, so I made the most of it - loaded up on merch (got the last Modern Lovers T-shirt my size) and stuck around with a few fans who wanted to meet him afterwards. During the show, there was a guy with an eyepatch off to the side that looked like David Johansen - when Richman came out, that guy was with him, and I said out loud "you know, that guy looks like David Johansen," to which someone replied "he IS David Johansen." I didn't know they even socialized together so that was pretty mind-blowing. He went straight home but Richman hung around for a bit and was very sweet. Class act all the way.

Must've forgotten this - they played on the same bill once back in the day:

http://www.furious.com/perfect/newyorkdolls.html

One more detail, when someone asked him to sign a CD of Precise Modern Lovers Order (Live In Berkeley And Boston), he said "THIS album captures how we REALLY sounded," or something like that, and he repeated it with a bit more emphasis, so I'd take that as a very strong recommendation.

Indeed.

Must've forgotten this - they played on the same bill once back in the day:

http://www.furious.com/perfect/newyorkdolls.html🕸

was there last night as well. Jonathan was on fire. have seen him many times over the years, but that was near the top. his affection for the "old world" came up in recent discussion here. Jonathan is very much in the old world needs to go mode these days.

thanks for sharing your experiences

as I think I've stated many times already it's a big dream of mine to see him someday

not so likely to happen

so I enjoy these second hand reviews

I’ve seen him many times but haven’t been paying attention recently so am also appreciating the reviews

I keep forgetting Jonathan was friends with Gram, but I'm sure half the details of this story are new to me!

Most gruesome fact: it takes a LOT of heat, more than a few gallons of gasoline to cremate a body, much to the misfortune of some Joshua Tree campers who didn't expect to see Gram's charred body.

Oh wow. I’ve read about it a few times over the years, originally in Trouser Press maybe, but need to listen to that later.

I like this 2023 Jonathan Richman song “En La Discoteca Reggaeton “ and he did it live last night at the 3rd and final night of his 3 nights in Baltimore’s kinda divey Ottobar. He had the audience do some fast clapping on “Reggaeton..” A good show. His version of “Pablo Picasso” added some new lyrics including the word “predatory” but he also did many verses the same. He changed the arrangement of “That Summer Feeling “ a bit . For one song he did a verse or 2 in Rocky talking to Adrian voice. I wasn’t crazy about 1 of the encores “Cold Pizza” but I liked his story and then the song “Older Girl” about how 14 years old Jonathan wanted to ask out a 15 years old girl who he and others walked to junior high school with every day including cold snowy New England winter days. Jonathan danced a lot onstage ( lots of 1960s and 70s moves ) and played a fair amount of Spanish sorta flamenco style guitar as well as 60s garage. He didn’t allow photos or videos and had the club turn off the ac .

https://jonathanrichman.bandcamp.com/track/en-la-discoteca-reggaeton

Here’s the set list

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jonathan-richman/2025/ottobar-baltimore-md-235da06f.html

fantastic

I wish he would come to Europe

next time he plays Montreal I might try to catch a plane

I'm really not sold on that song that appears to be anti-antidepressants

Which song?

My Spanish is not good enough to get all the verses on “En La Discoteca Reggaeton “ but like "Dancin in the Lesbian Bar" it appears in part be about having fun out late dancing.

Oh, yeah the lyrics on "When We Refuse to Suffer" seems a bit simplistic in not recognizing that some people need anti-depressants

https://genius.com/Jonathan-richman-when-we-refuse-to-suffer-second-version-lyrics

There's a Jonathan Richman group on Facebook and it's pretty wonderful reading all the encounters fans have with him, especially when he's out about town outside of the show he's playing. As the thread title says, class fucking act all the way.

Oh, yeah the lyrics on "When We Refuse to Suffer" seems a bit simplistic in not recognizing that some people need anti-depressants

Some people really need air freshener too

Jonathan will be hosting/performing/DJ-ing for ~1 hour today at 4pm PDT/1pm EDT on Chico community radio:

https://kzfr.org/

Chico looks like an awesome town, mainly because every video I see of it has Jonathan going into a store or restaurant or walking in the street while singing and strumming his guitar. Change Minneapolis to Chico and Prince to Jonathan, and this Onion article could be me someday.

He still has a house here in SF so he splits time between the 2 cities, and he's no stranger to coming in to various bookstores, restaurants, bakeries and bodegas and delivering an impromptu show (scroll up to May 3, 2022 post upthread).

archive up (Jojo shows up at 01h02m):

https://kzfr-media.s3.us-west-000.backblazeb2.com/audio/fun-house/fun-house_2025-04-29_15-00-00.mp3

Playing the Make Out Room here in SF five nights in a row again coming up in a few weeks. Definitely been to this a few times. Hope I can make it to one this time.too.