Jonathan Richman

About Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman started making music in the early 1970s when everyone else was trying to sound important and cerebral. He went the opposite direction. His band, the Modern Lovers, recorded some demos in 1972 that wouldn't get released as an album until 1976, by which point Richman had already moved on from that sound entirely.

Those demos are what most people think of when they think of proto-punk. "Roadrunner" is six minutes of driving around Massachusetts at night with the radio on, which shouldn't work but does. "Pablo Picasso" is three chords and a theory about why the painter never got called an asshole. The whole thing was produced by John Cale, which tells you how the Velvet Underground's influence was working its way through Boston at the time. The band included Jerry Harrison, who'd later join Talking Heads, and David Robinson, who'd end up in the Cars.

But Richman didn't want to be a punk pioneer. By the time that first album came out, he'd already disbanded the original group and started over with a gentler, weirder approach. He kept the band name but dropped the edge. The music got quieter, more playful, sometimes sung in Spanish. He started writing songs about insects, aliens, abominable snowmen, ice cream trucks. "Egyptian Reggae" was an instrumental that somehow became a hit in Europe.

Throughout the late seventies and eighties, he just kept doing his own thing. Albums like "Rock 'n' Roll with the Modern Lovers" and "Back in Your Life" sound like children's music made by someone who's read a lot of existentialist philosophy. He'd play with minimal backing, sometimes just a drummer and upright bass. The songs were simple but not stupid, sweet but not saccharine.

He's one of those artists who influenced more people than actually bought his records. When the Modern Lovers' debut finally got a proper release, it became a blueprint for punk and new wave bands who wanted three-chord urgency without the blues-rock baggage. But Richman himself was already elsewhere, writing songs about mosquitoes and morning coffee.

He spent decades touring constantly, playing small venues, never really chasing trends or trying to recapture whatever moment people thought he'd had. His 1990s albums were just as odd and sincere as his seventies work. He contributed to the "There's Something About Mary" soundtrack with "I'm a Little Airplane," which is exactly what it sounds like.

He's still performing, still doing the same thing he's been doing for fifty years. No backing tracks, minimal arrangements, songs about whatever he finds interesting. Some shows are in English, some in Spanish, some in Italian. He never sounds like he's trying to prove anything. The music is what it is, which is maybe why it's lasted.

Richman performs like he's thinking through the song in real time. The crowd quiets down to listen. He might joke between numbers or explain a song's premise in unnecessary detail. No grandstanding. Just a guy with a guitar or ukulele, occasionally joined by a band, genuinely present.

Known for Roadrunner, Pablo Picasso, I'm Straight, Government Center, It's You

See Jonathan Richman Live