Jonathan Richman
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Artist:
This week's artist of the week has been consistently making fun, charming, sentimental albums for over thirty years, often recorded with just acoustic guitar and a percussionist using only a bass drum and snare. Though most believe his first album was his finest, the ones that ensued saw him becoming more idiosyncratic, original and endearing, and resulted in some fans forgetting him, while others remained or joined as part of his dedicated cult following. The artist of the week is...JONATHAN RICHMAN!!!
Richman is best known for his hit song "Roadrunner" from his first album with The Modern Lovers. The song is basically a reworking of The Velvet's "Sister Ray", but what a reworking! With his usual boyish gusto, Richman molds it into a pop song about being "in love with rock and roll and my roadrunner." It reached #11 on the British charts. Richman is also well-known today by most people (though they don't realize it) for being the musical narrator of Something About Mary.
Richman found popularity in the early 70's with The Modern Lovers, but a number of difficulties prevented their first album, recorded in 1973, from being released until 1976. By this point the band had broken up due to musical differences, as Richman wanted to pursue a more lo-key and almost child-like direction. This stylistic change of direction alienated some critics but Richman still found moderate success with songs like "Egyptian Reggae."
Richman's more recent albums such as Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love and Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild find him maturing somewhat, though his songwriting is still quite innocent, charming, concerned with love, famous painters, and the beautiful details of life. Today you can hear Richman's influence in bands and artists like Jens Lekman and The Honey Drips.
Click here to buy The Modern Lovers on Amazon.
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