Here is the story of my brief, but powerful infatuation with Jonathan Richman
1. All those Beserkley songs from the 1970s.
2. David Bowie’s cover of “Pablo Picasso”
And while, sure, he did tons of other stuff and when I got round to listening to him from time to time they were all really really good, still I didn’t really get round to listening to them very often.
So lets do this in decades:
1970s
2000s
On your bike, buddy.
I guess that explains why I have never actually seen him live, I was never quite excited enough by him. But the news he was playing another coupla nights at Bowery Ballroom and for once I wasn’t doing anything? Ok This I gotta do.
So I bought at tix at Bowery ballroom, Friday, November 22nd, and then took a look at his setlist in Indiana in June this year and… er, didn’t know anything but “Egyptian Reggae”.
Yes, folks, don’t look for
Roadrunner
New England
Hey There Little Insect
I’m An Aeroplane
Hey There Little Insect…
Or that dead artist who was not called an asshole in New York.
Instead we got 21st century Jonathan who, no you silly rabbit, is not gonna teach the Wiggles a thing or two, but instead will lead on his last four albums , some Tex Mex, some flamingo, some folkie stuff. And it isn’t bad at all, it’ll do the job. “O Moon, Queen of Earth” only seems like it should be crap. It is Richman so it isn’t crap because it lacks artifice.
So, OK, finally, I will stop shouting for “New England” and settle into whatever Jonathan deems to feed me.