I didn’t manage to say much nice about the Jonathan Richman show last post, I was so piqued. But his part of the show was swell. I had been about to walk out at the end of Chesutt’s set, and might have if I hadn’t been with others; a few songs into Richman’s show I was feeling pretty happy. That’s what he’s like. And I’m not easy to calm down. Jonathan Richman i’s completely distracting, and knows what he wants a show to be like so clearly that it’s not easy to resist becoming part of that show. At one point Kro told the Info Pusher, “He’s like a monkey!” and we all smiled and nodded. He IS like a monkey. A lovely singing monkey. And that Tommy Larkin, he’s an amazing drummer, a perfect foil.
Richman sang too many songs in French, perhaps under the misapprehension that because we are a bilingual country, we speak two languages. You can see how you’d make that mistake. But he also sang a fair bit in Spanish, so maybe he just doesn’t give a shit if you understand all the words. Aside from that, his set was bitchin.
I’m into one of the new songs – called You can have a cell phone that’s ok but not me. It’s on a 45 that comes with the LP Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild, which record doesn’t blow my mind at all. I think Jonathan Richman’s a bit like Prince: he doesn’t really give a shit if you like it or not, it’s what he’s doing. But this song harkens back to something a little earlier, and is tougher than Her Beauty aurally, and seems like something he might have written for the Modern Lovers, had they been happening now and not back then.
Plus, I like any song that has the courtesy to make it’s point and leave. This clocks in at under 2 minutes.
Singing too many songs in French probably had little do do with your north-of-the-border locale. Jonathan just does what he feels like – ergo, the dancing. Oh, and thanks for the audio – hadn’t heard that one yet. I stopped collecting Jonathan when I hit about 20 albums…