Jonathan Richman Live in Tokyo (Detail). Via Wikimedia Commons.

I read a quote by Mark Twain recently. Everyone quotes Mark Twain, but this
is a goodun: The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
In certain moods, this neatly sums up my feelings towards Jonathan Richman.
His music overflows with affection, humility, honesty, romanticism and a total
lack of ego. Theres no frontin here. In a world where self-proclaimed idols
shout over each other, the resulting urge is to stick fingers in ears and wish for
something real, something human. Yes, music can transport you: Tom Waits
sends you to burnt-out whiskey bars, Bowie to outer space. But music can also

bring you back down to earth illuminating the self through the prism of
another perspective.
In the age of anxiety, more and more of us can relate to the experience of
hiding ones soul. Schoolteachers pounce upon our mistakes from
kindergarten. Individual differences are ridiculed. Were flung into the world
scared to death of rejection or judgement. Endless milling through social
media makes the dissonance between public persona and the inner world
painfully clear. Staring at ones Facebook, LinkedIn or whatever it seems
fitting to ask, Is this really me? Do I not amount to something more than Naz,
23, who just ate a crumpet? Unfortunately Facebook has no box for
intangible human spirit. Its neglecting the only real thing about us. And so
we forget it in ourselves.
In an inspiring letter to his son (worth reading in its entirety), Ted Hughes
mused on the inner child an interior vessel for our spirit that longs to be
liberated.
Everybody tries to protect this [child] inside, and to acquire skills and
aptitudes for dealing with the situations that threaten to overwhelm it. So
everybody develops a whole armour of secondary self, the artificially
constructed being that deals with the outer world. Usually, that child is a
wretchedly isolated undeveloped little being. It's been protected by the
efficient armour, it's never participated in life...And it's never properly lived.
That little creature is sitting there, behind the armour, peering through the
slits. That's the carrier of all living qualities. It's the cenre of all the possible
magic and revelation".
The child wants to be heard, but it is quiet. How can we appeal to this tiny
mystic being and break through Hughes second self?

Jonathan Richman, Soft Rock Cafe, Kitsalano, B.C Canada. Circa 1983. Via Wikimedia
Commons

Jonathan Richman was born in Natick, Massachusetts - the kind of humdrum

town that makes you want to run away to New York City. Aged 18, he did just
that, enticed by the Big Apples dark shadow. An obsession with The Velvet
Underground and a dash of luck found young Jonathan crashing on the band
managers couch. Its commonly quoted that the first Velvet Underground

album only sold 30,000 copies, but everyone who bought one started a band.
Jonathan attended over 100 of their shows, turning up with scribbled poems
that he presented to his idols. Music was in his veins. It was only a matter of
time before the stuff started flowing out of him.
The sound of his band on their first and last album, the eponymous The
Modern Lovers, is intrinsically bound to The Velvet Undergrounds abrasive
instrumentation and unconventional song structures. But instead of conjuring
images of black leather and methamphetamines, he went for simple pleasures
and honesty - a model example of transforming influence into originality.
Roadrunner is pinned by a throbbing two-chord Velvet Underground rhythm
straight out of Sister Ray, and turns a story of debauchery into an
impassioned love song to the freedom of driving fast with your favourite music
on. Its rock and roll at its direct relatable best. Theres zero bullshit and the
result is magic. The song has been retrospectively viewed a proto-punk
masterpiece - Sex Pistols vocalist Johnny Rotten once said that although he
hates all music, Roadrunner is his favourite song.
Why the fuss? The lyrics are hardly poetic, and the instrumentation nothing
new. But that vocal performance.

Play video

He sounds like a kid in a world of his own, in verbal freefall, spontaneously

releasing whatever words appear to him. Lines are repeated. Words are
stumbled. Its off key. You can almost hear him dancing as he sings. And you
want to join in.
I think were honing in on what Tolstoy broadly defines as art. Namely, a
transmission of emotional infectiousness:

A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the

separation between himself and the artist.
If youre tapping along, Id hazard to guess that the separation of
consciousness between you and Jonathan is melting away. Let the music
obliterate. Dance. Fuse consciousness with a guy from Minnesota letting it all
hang out nearly half a century ago. Time and place have been transcended
but the feeling is identical. In all sincerity, is it not incredible? No doubt
Tolstoy would have got his freak on.
The rest of the album finds Richman writing about loving his parents, not
having sex and staying away from drugs. Im Straight is a direct attack on
hippies choosing to dumb their senses rather than engage with the world
around them whilst Old World gives a fond account of the 50s he grew up in.
In early 1970s NYC this was as risky and defiant as it got. What could be less
cool? (Incidentally, what could be more punk?) Honesty is what strikes. The
armour is down. We are eavesdropping on the inner child at play.
Unconcerned with the success and influence of The Modern Lovers, Jonathan
embarked on the first of 25 solo albums.

Play video

Its mostly just him and his guitar dancing like a loon, occasionally
accompanied by stripped-down drums. The impression is a shedding of
anything inessential to the feeling of the song, and the result can be
profoundly emotional. That Summer Feeling evokes melancholy nostalgia for
the simplicity of teenage summers with tenderness. That forgotten feeling of
letting the inner child run riot for months on end.

When there's things to do not because you gotta

When you run for love not because you oughta
When you trust your friends with no reason notta
The joy I've named shall not be tamed
And that summer feelings gonna haunt you one day in your life.
His albums are peppered with songs so juvenile as to be laughable. Chewing
Gum Rapper, Double Chocolate Malted and Im a Little Dinosaur could all
be written for primary school sing-a-longs. Live footage shows him getting
down on all fours mid-performance and growling at the crowd. It all seems a
bit ridiculous. But try to let go and smile. Sing to the ding-dings and the shala-las. Childish should not be extended to nave. These songs are not stupid.
They are fun, and if you wont admit it youre probably peering through a suit
of armour.
Ted Hughes completes his fatherly advice by imploring, from an old man to a
young one, to shake off ones inhibitions and be led by the inner child:
The only thing people regret is that they didnt live boldly enough, that they
didnt invest enough heart, didnt love enough. Nothing else really counts at
all.
Now who fancies a boogie?
Essential listening

The Modern Lovers (1976) is widely recognised as a foundational

to punk and new wave.

Jonathan Richman has released 25 solo albums and 3 live albums,

making it slightly overwhelming to find a starting point. Rockin & Romance
(1985) and Jonathan Sings! (1983) are as good a place as any. For individual
tracks, Google is your friend.
Follow Naz on Twitter: @groovehoover

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