![]() Even though I knew he wouldn’t, I had hoped he would plug in and tear through “Pablo Picasso” and “She Cracked.” He didn’t. He wore a striped shirt that made him look like a young pirate’s mate. And I really wanted to understand Jonathan Richman.Ī couple years later, though, when I was finally old enough to fake my way into a bar, I saw Jonathan Richman live in concert. On the other hand, there was something in that nasal voice and the barely amplified Epiphone and the occasional Flamenco guitar and the handclaps and hip shakes that sounded so true that they just had to be. And, just a moment later, he was singing Country songs about riding the bus. First as a whimsical troubadour, crooning about Harpo Marx and Walter Johnson and other historical curiosities. I grew less sure of where I stood on the matter, which was probably a good thing, because, soon enough, he was reborn again. Perhaps his heart was just too big and open and it had broken and he had broken. Maybe he really was the most earnest man in Rock and Roll. But I was less sure whether he was in on the joke or if I was in on the joke or if there was no joke at all. I figured I could live without drums and electric guitars. Why not? I could sing along with The Abominable Snowman in the Supermarket, The Martian Martians and The Ice Cream Man in the spirit of art. It was still The Modern Lovers, just without any irony. But then, in an instant, he was more like 70s Brian Wilson, regressed and completely wide-eyed. Those first Modern Lovers’ songs were noisy and high on life. Ok thanks.Was it performance art? Had he broken down? Was he imitating Pee Wee Herman if he’d swallowed Lou Reed? I wanted to dig it. You gotta admit it's catchy So that's what I mean when I say how stiff I was Ok, now we're getting, now you can get back to your song Jonathan. Started buyin Calypso records and things You see? It's catchy. Cause I started getting way into that kind of stuff you know. That was really the beginning of the end for us. Here's what I'm thinking: 'oh' After that trip to Bermuda, you know, that band never got along as well after that. These guys really are looser than us' I'm thinking to myself. ![]() You know he's up there And I'm watchin this and goin 'Oh, we really are stiff. And he's great and he's just not movin, he's just kinda like chewin gum or somethin, just kinda like you know He was like the Bill Wyman of the Caribbean. and he was just goin you know like when the lead guitar guy - their only guitar guy - was goin The bass man's just goin And makin it sound way bad, it's boomin. He was this old guy - old guy? sure! he was almost forty years old! Hell! - and he was in a windbreaker and everthin like that. Bang Bang Lulu Lulu ran away Lulu had to go bang bang That's why she ran away Lulu had a boyfriend Name was 'Tommy Tukker' Took him out to his house To see if he couldīang Bang Lulu Lulu ran away (see it still works! It was good then and it still works) Lulu had to go bang bang That's why she ran away And the guitar had this great fat sound. And they were playin more stuff like this type of material you know. Bermuda Strollers had big guitars like this and everything like that. So, in other words there were people there as old as me! So, and they were the Bermuda Strollers and they all had sunglasses so you couldn't tell when one guy was lazy and just wanted to lay off that day, would call up someone else, you know and they'd be the Bermuda Strollers that day so they all had sunglasses and you couldn't tell who they were But anyway so we were doin like a some. Well I'm gonna have to change it to 'fifty' year old. Back then that was older - 'Hey they're forty year old guys!'. Back then I never knew that I would someday be forty. You know this is pretty important, that everyday we're out there Well! Yeah we're knockin ’em dead Well, the trouble was the people who were really knockin them dead were these forty year old guys. You know we had a fair amount of equipment for a group back then and everything and we're just going. You know we were kinda serious and everything. ![]() And the audience was goin ’Oh that's very nice’ and stuff. But, like, we had, you know, all kinds of fender stuff, and we were goin like, and we were like playin all kinda like all trip hammers and we were goin You know like that. Nothing snotty about that song is there? No And she cracked I'm there I won’t Well! So we were doin stuff like that.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |