jonathan richman - not so much as to be loved as to love

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d/ling as we speak. rockin' romance has been in my cd player all summer. anyone know if he's jammin' out like the older stuff on this?

― brock (brock), Monday, 16 August 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

More of the Aznavour-style croonerism he's been up to for the last 10 yrs.

― Huck, Monday, 16 August 2004 04:18 (twenty-one years ago)

He's become quite a relaxed chap really - songs about drinking wine in the Mediterranean and stuff. Pleasant enough but not classic classic.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 August 2004 09:21 (twenty-one years ago)

was he used to be really tensed? like when he wanted to buy ice cream?

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 16 August 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeh man - he used to kill people for even daring to suggest that the bus didn't go "all through the town" but might have made the odd diversion in order to save travelling time.

No, by relaxed I meant he just seems really at peace with himself compared to songs like "I'm Straight" or "Dignified and Old".

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 August 2004 09:33 (twenty-one years ago)

mmm not so sure, richman's songs have always been optimistic, wistful, romantic, relaxed, humorous etc

― metalmickey, Monday, 16 August 2004 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, true - but by comparison to his 70s stuff, this is music to be played at a christening in Tuscany. In a good way.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 August 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, sounds a bit too twee even for me.

Someone I know reckons David Byrne has based his whole "kooky" style on Jonathan but I can't quite see it myself. I DO think that Talking Heads based their entire career on a song by King Crimson (I think) called something like "Elephant Talk" or "It's all just talk".

― metalmickey, Monday, 16 August 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant he just seems really at peace with himself compared to songs like "I'm Straight" or "Dignified and Old".

Uh, yr talking aboot 30 year old songs and a style he'd dropped by 1976, you know.

― Vic Funk, Monday, 16 August 2004 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, i'm not too up with anything outside of this album and the Beserkley stuff. What are his post-70s things like?

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 August 2004 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like his guitar playing on the new one. There are a few moments of near-abandon that I only seem to hear when I'm only half-listening to the album. When I listen intently, trying to pin them down, these moments elude me.

I think this is probably his best album since leaving Rounder.

― Huck, Monday, 16 August 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The "Beserkley Collection" is a thing of wonder though. I'm writing about it at the moment so I won't say too much, but it's a crying shame that Richman is still seen as this hipster/muso obscurity when really he's the people's man. I couldn't think of a greater performer to have mass world appeal. As it happens his name is more often dropped than played.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 16 August 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

FWIW, I play him all the time.

"My Jeans" off Rockin' & Romance is probably the greatest thing ever. Or the Spanish versions of "Chewing Gum Wrapper" and "UFO Man".

― Huck, Monday, 16 August 2004 13:51 (twenty-one years ago)

How weird is it that there's a song about Mumia Abu-Jamal? When did JoJo get this political in his music??

― mike a, Monday, 16 August 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I think probably the closest thing to a protest song from Jojo previously was "Corner Store".

― Huck, Monday, 16 August 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The weekend before last I wandered into Fingerprints and Richman was there playing. All the songs were new and he was switcing off between singing in English, Italian, and French. Really wonderful set and put me in a good mood afterward.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 16 August 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I DO think that Talking Heads based their entire career on a song by King Crimson (I think) called something like "Elephant Talk" or "It's all just talk".

the only problem with that theory is that "elephant talk" came out in 1981, after talking heads had released most of their great work.

more likely the influence travels the other way, with remain in light-era talking heads guitarist adrian belew joining king crimson just in time for the recording of discipline, which included "elephant talk."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 16 August 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

on the other hand, while i wouldn't call either one of them "kooky," i can definitely see how david byrne learned a lot from jonathan richman, in addition to recruiting one of his modern lovers bandmates into talking heads.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 16 August 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

a friend of mine who works at a public radio/college station in detroit had to take legal action against a student at the school for impersonating him in promo request letters to a bunch of record labels. thing was, the labels already knew my friend so all they had to do was make a call to him to check the legitimacy of the letters and within a couple of days cops were on the case. (the impersonator, of course, left his home address on the letters so that the promos would be sent to his house out in the suburbs)

anyhow, about turntables... at CJAM at the grand ol University of Windsor (Ontario) we had to bring in our own needles cuz thieves kept taking the station's ones.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 16 August 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

aw shit... totally just posted to the wrong thread. how'd that happen?

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 16 August 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

wrong thread, dude.

xpost

― Huck, Monday, 16 August 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

eight months pass...

More of the Aznavour-style croonerism he's been up to for the last 10 yrs.
-- Huck (handsomishbo...), August 16th, 2004.

Aznavour-style croonerism?

You say that like its a bad thing?

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I don't. Not at all. I went on to say that I thought it was his best album since leaving Rounder. Since I, Jonathan probably.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

I still haven't heard that one. Now Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild is out, and is supposedly even better.

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 25 June 2008 21:05 (seventeen years ago)

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