The Enigma of Jonathan Richmond
Rock Musics Most Unique Artists
by Pete Holly
Of all the unique artists in the field of Rock Music,Jonathan Richmand is per-
haps the most unique of all.I remember seeing a quote a few years ago that came
from John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten where he said "I think Jonathan Richmond
is great-that is if he is kidding-he is kidding isn't he?".That's the enigma of Jonathan
Richmond.That he is both kidding and totally serious at the same time.If you don't
understand that about him then you probably won't get his music{What it's About}.
How did the Bostonian Rocker come to be an artist who is both serious and kidding.
Well you have to go back to his bands first album where they were billed only as
"The Modern Lovers".They were an underground band who very quickly attracted
a pretty large cult following.The album they recorded sounded more like Lou
Reed's band "The Velvet Underground" than anything else and back in those
day's very few people knew who "The Velvet Undergroud" was.Even with
Andy Warhol as thier manager and the designer of thier first album cover
"The Velvet Underground",from a commercial point of view, failed miserably.
But Jonathon Richmond obviously saw something and heard something that
really inspired him and so "The Modern Lovers" were formed and recorded
one album which wasn't commercially successful-But a large cult following
began to form that knew just what Richmond and his band were going for.
A band that played very well written songs and that recorded them in a very
spontanious way.That's was what was most important to Jonathan-Great
Songs and spontanaity.I don't know what happened to the other Modern
Lovers but one of the songs on the album ,"Roadrunner" became especially popular with all the leading hipsters of that time,many of whom were music critics,
Radio station Dj's and people in other area's of the Music Business.So "The
Modern Lovers" for a while at least were the underground or alternative
Band of the moment.
Success however,didn't seem to be Jonathans main goal.He broke up the
band and started releasing Albums with other musicians that were billed as
"Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers".The albums sounded very differant
than the kind of music the original Modern Lovers had played and recorded.
Richmand basically recorded a bare bones line up of new modern lovers live.
Sometime's he would record in the bathroom of Beserkley Records,the bands
label and his new material had a very comical and satirical bent.Some of the
songs Sounded like they were recorded for young children-in that that they
were stripped down to just acoustic guitar,Stand up Bass and very minamalistic
Drumming and funny lyrics like "Abombable Snowman in the Market" and
"Dodge Vegamatic" where Jonathan chimes in that even though the car is a
piece of junk he exclaims "Hey,I really like this car alot".There's also a
very funny spoken part where Jonathan twists the words around in a
pretty amazing way-essentially chastising his band for not being able to see
the beauty,simplicity and great value of the car not for it's being a
reliable car but simply because he believes the cars beauty,at least in
his eye's,Makes the car something of Great Value.It's a hilarious song,
But Richmond is also making serious statement that we only value things that
can help us-and anything that doesn't is not of any worth to us.It's a
sly commentary about our selfish modern values that Richmond sneaks
into what other wise seems to just a funny song.
Writing songs like this and ocassionally sliping something more serious,
beautiful and touching in the mix like "The Lonely Financial Zone"
became the template for all the records he recorded for the rest of his
Career.He developed a large cult audience and played innumerable concerts.
His fans,it seemed,couldn't get enough of him.He even appeared in the Ben
Stiller comedy film "There's Something About Mary" and David Bowie recorded
his very intersting song "Pablo Piccaso".So allthough Richmond is at times
richly funny he alway's seems to slip in a very serious philosophical thought
about the strange values of our modern world which we cling to-and if you
are not paying close attention you will miss all of them and they are the
best part of his artistry.
Written by Pete Holly-2010-Copyright-All Rights Reserved
by Pete Holly
Of all the unique artists in the field of Rock Music,Jonathan Richmand is per-
haps the most unique of all.I remember seeing a quote a few years ago that came
from John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten where he said "I think Jonathan Richmond
is great-that is if he is kidding-he is kidding isn't he?".That's the enigma of Jonathan
Richmond.That he is both kidding and totally serious at the same time.If you don't
understand that about him then you probably won't get his music{What it's About}.
How did the Bostonian Rocker come to be an artist who is both serious and kidding.
Well you have to go back to his bands first album where they were billed only as
"The Modern Lovers".They were an underground band who very quickly attracted
a pretty large cult following.The album they recorded sounded more like Lou
Reed's band "The Velvet Underground" than anything else and back in those
day's very few people knew who "The Velvet Undergroud" was.Even with
Andy Warhol as thier manager and the designer of thier first album cover
"The Velvet Underground",from a commercial point of view, failed miserably.
But Jonathon Richmond obviously saw something and heard something that
really inspired him and so "The Modern Lovers" were formed and recorded
one album which wasn't commercially successful-But a large cult following
began to form that knew just what Richmond and his band were going for.
A band that played very well written songs and that recorded them in a very
spontanious way.That's was what was most important to Jonathan-Great
Songs and spontanaity.I don't know what happened to the other Modern
Lovers but one of the songs on the album ,"Roadrunner" became especially popular with all the leading hipsters of that time,many of whom were music critics,
Radio station Dj's and people in other area's of the Music Business.So "The
Modern Lovers" for a while at least were the underground or alternative
Band of the moment.
Success however,didn't seem to be Jonathans main goal.He broke up the
band and started releasing Albums with other musicians that were billed as
"Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers".The albums sounded very differant
than the kind of music the original Modern Lovers had played and recorded.
Richmand basically recorded a bare bones line up of new modern lovers live.
Sometime's he would record in the bathroom of Beserkley Records,the bands
label and his new material had a very comical and satirical bent.Some of the
songs Sounded like they were recorded for young children-in that that they
were stripped down to just acoustic guitar,Stand up Bass and very minamalistic
Drumming and funny lyrics like "Abombable Snowman in the Market" and
"Dodge Vegamatic" where Jonathan chimes in that even though the car is a
piece of junk he exclaims "Hey,I really like this car alot".There's also a
very funny spoken part where Jonathan twists the words around in a
pretty amazing way-essentially chastising his band for not being able to see
the beauty,simplicity and great value of the car not for it's being a
reliable car but simply because he believes the cars beauty,at least in
his eye's,Makes the car something of Great Value.It's a hilarious song,
But Richmond is also making serious statement that we only value things that
can help us-and anything that doesn't is not of any worth to us.It's a
sly commentary about our selfish modern values that Richmond sneaks
into what other wise seems to just a funny song.
Writing songs like this and ocassionally sliping something more serious,
beautiful and touching in the mix like "The Lonely Financial Zone"
became the template for all the records he recorded for the rest of his
Career.He developed a large cult audience and played innumerable concerts.
His fans,it seemed,couldn't get enough of him.He even appeared in the Ben
Stiller comedy film "There's Something About Mary" and David Bowie recorded
his very intersting song "Pablo Piccaso".So allthough Richmond is at times
richly funny he alway's seems to slip in a very serious philosophical thought
about the strange values of our modern world which we cling to-and if you
are not paying close attention you will miss all of them and they are the
best part of his artistry.
Written by Pete Holly-2010-Copyright-All Rights Reserved
Labels: Roller coaster by the Sea
posted by P. Holly at 9:31 PM
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