MOG

Sitting here listening to the Bomp 1981 release of the 73 Modern Lovers sessions that Kim Fowley oversaw. Primitive, haphazard...in a way like a kinder, gentler sound than the the VU album White Light/White Heat...but damn if it does not rock the socks off. Roadrunner (both versions) are fantastic.

The never-officially released WALK UP THE STREET might be the true gem here. And it is no wonder that the once Boston-walkers THE CHEATERSLICKS found the wanting to cover the song years and years later (their version is sensational, as are they). A driving monosyllabic riff about the empowerment of acknowledged idleness. The back of the album has a letter from Jonathan himself discussing how the liner notes to the record are wrong in most every sense (mostly that they say that the claim that it was the ORIGINAL Modern Lovers, since the band had very early on gone through a member change, and that the declaring that these recordings are from the 72 sessions is wrong, and that the tracks were recorded a year later). He ends with saying while he is embarrassed of some of what is heard, he admits that the band rocks and that some of the versions have great banter that makes him laugh.

I got this record in a lucky way back over a decade ago when Geoffrey Weiss helped me get entrance to the Bomp warehouse where I walked around like a detective, picking out amazing punk and psych singles that were still around from the time they were originally distributed. Then I espied the treasure I was after. And that treasure sounds fantastic right now.

RIP Greg Shaw, a true visionary...Greg, sorry I never let you explain to me my future that you saw in a dream.

Listening to the record incited an on-line crawl about the band. I had no idea a teenage Jonathan opened up for the Velvets. No idea that they played with a young Arrowsmith, NY Dolls, and Wayne County. No idea that Danny Fields and the jerky Marty Thou were as close to him as they were (Danny Fields being one of the biggest heroes this industry has ever seen). No idea that the original Modern Lovers (okay, the close-to-the-original Modern Lovers) broke up the month that VU did, and a month before the Ramones began. Amazing story.

Ah, the second side just finished for the second time. I think I am going to have to start going through all the Modern Lovers records now. It is going to be a rocking rcking night here in the outer Richmond.