Most famous for his 70′s proto-punk garage band The Modern lovers, Jonathan Richman has been for the longest while doing his solo stuff, most often acoustic and most often to much approval from loving audiences.
Wikipedia this time round says it more succinctly than we can…
Richman’s work with the first incarnation of Modern Lovers is a major influence on punk rock. One critic called him the “Godfather of Punk”.[9] Artists as diverse as the Sex Pistols and Joan Jetthave covered ”Roadrunner”. Boston ska-punk band, Big D and the Kids Table, have covered “New England” live and on their Gypsy HillEP. A version of “Pablo Picasso” performed by Burning Sensations was included in the 1984 cult film, Repo Man. David Bowie covered “Pablo Picasso” on his album Reality. Velvet Underground founding member John Cale has a version of the song on his 1975 album, Helen of Troy, and continues to include the song in his live shows. Iggy Pop has performed “Pablo Picasso” live and wrote an extra verse for it. Echo and the Bunnymen covered “She Cracked” in concert in 1984 and 1985 and Siouxsie and the Banshees have a version of the song on Downside Up.
Richman’s music has set the tone for many alternative rock bands, such as Violent Femmes, Galaxie 500, They Might Be Giants (“Roadrunner” reportedly inspired John Flansburgh to become a musician), Weezer, Tullycraft, Jens Lekman, singer Frank Black (who composed the tribute song “The Man Who Was Too Loud”), Brandon Flowers, Art Brut, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady &Lifter Puller and Nerf Herder who composed a song about him, titled “Jonathan”, which appeared on the band’s second album How To Meet Girls. British country rock band The Rockingbirds released the single “Jonathan, Jonathan” in tribute to Richman in 1992.
An amazing artefact of music history who’s sounds and ideas still resonate today. Not a show to be missed.
