Romancing the reprise
The return of Jonathan Richman
By Matthew Singer 12/04/2008
“Once I was young and intense/And the tense can’t listen patiently,” sings Jonathan Richman on “This Romance Will Be Different for Me” from this year’s Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild. We remember that Jonathan Richman, the one who promised to “go insane if you won’t sleep with me,” who said he won’t pretend to like a girl “when she makes me feel appalled,” who emphatically declared “I’m straight!” The new Jonathan Richman — who has actually been around for 30-plus years, far longer than the other was, and who’ll be appearing at the Ventura Theater on Dec. 5 — is a lot more reserved, more apt to compare himself to a little airplane than complain about not getting laid.
But the memory of that younger, brasher, more frustrated artist hangs over Richman’s nevertheless unique discography, if only because it lasted for seemingly a single, spunky burst, with his short-lived group the Modern Lovers. Their eponymous debut is one of the great one-off records of the pre-punk era, where Richman proved himself to be a master of wry humor, unfettered emotional honesty and the ability to make the straightforward sound poetic. His lovesick pleas laid the foundation for three generation’s worth of agitated, hopelessly romantic songwriters — though few have managed to pen anything as hilarious as his “Pablo Picasso,” on which Richman seethes with laconic jealousy over the fact that the titular painter never got called an asshole when he tried to pick up chicks. And even fewer have written a song as immortal as “Roadrunner,” an ode to cruising down a Massachusetts highway “with the radio on.” Spiky, jumpy and propulsive, it took the Velvet Underground’s epic hellstorm “Sister Ray” and condensed it into four thrilling minutes, replacing the references to blowjobs and shooting smack with lyrics that could have come from the Chuck Berry songbook.
Although “Roadrunner” is probably Richman’s most iconic tune, musically it is the direct opposite of what he has been doing ever since. Before the Modern Lovers had even finished its debut, Richman wanted to scrap what they had been recording with producers John Cale and Kim Fowley and try a mellower, island-influenced sound. This led to the premature end of the original Lovers (the demos made with Cale formed the posthumous The Modern Lovers in 1976, the ones with Fowley comprising 1981’s The Original Modern Lovers) and the start of Richman’s more-or-less solo career, defined by bare, mostly acoustic arrangements and lyrics dotted with a childlike naiveté anticipating — if not directly inspiring — twee-pop. He has also explored country (1990’s Jonathan Goes Country) and Spanish music (1994’s Jonathan, Te Vas a Emocionar!), all with his singular Richman touch.
But while he has maintained a consistent album release schedule, releasing 19 since the mid-’70s, and a deep cult following, it’s hard not to imagine what his career would have been like had he kept the core Modern Lovers lineup together.
Not that Richman likely regrets anything about the last three decades. He has always been a bit of a reclusive figure, anyway — an early Rolling Stone profile notes that he prefers to conduct interviews via mail, and he declined a request to speak with the Reporter — so the lack of relative stardom probably doesn’t bother him much. Besides, he has had rendezvous with the mainstream in the last few years, perhaps most significantly as the singing narrator in There’s Something
About Mary. And his work, while certainly less kinetic than that of the Modern Lovers, is consistently smart and affecting.
Still, it’s a bit telling when the best track on Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild is the only one featuring a dirty electric guitar lead. “When We Refuse to Suffer,” an impassioned screed against inauthenticity, gets two plays on the album, but it’s the reprise that blisters — an adjective you don’t get to use that often in reference to Jonathan Richman. It’s proof he can still rock if he wants. He may no longer be young, but he has it in him to be intense. He just needs to realize there’s nothing wrong with that.
E-mail Matthew Singer at matt@vcreporter.com
Friday Dec. 5, Ventura Theater. 26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura. 653-0721, www.venturatheater.net.
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