It was strange to see Jonathan Richman popping up in the not-as-funny-as-it-thought-it-was film There's Something About Mary last year, where he played a sort of a one-man eccentric Greek chorus, punctuating the drama with typically askew comic songs. Maybe not so strange when you consider he had a similar cameo in Kingpin (the unofficial follow-up to Dumb And Dumber) but you just don't expect people like Jonathan Richman to do that sort of thing. Some arty play or well-meaning indie film, maybe - not a Hollywood comic-buster. Then again, Jonathan Richman is as Jonathan Richman does, as anybody with even a cursory knowledge of his peaks and valleys career will testify. A sort of dysfunctional Loudon Wainright, Richman's brand of oblique humour has influenced bands from Papas Fritas to The Presidents Of The United States Of America, and if people only know him for the garage anthem Roadrunner, they should seriously consider a flick through his back catalogue - there's bigger and better stuff than that available.
An ex-music journalist of sorts, Richman, from Boston, formed the Modern Lovers in 1971 as nothing but a good-time bar band. The key-boardist Jerry Harrison would later join Talking Heads and the drummer David Robinson would join The Cars, but back then all they were interested in doing was recreating the same sound as The Velvet Underground (it's perhaps worth repeating that while not many people bought Velvet Underground records when they first came out, all those who did went on to form bands) so you can imagine his excitement when John Cale offered to produce their first album. And his disappointment when his label not only didn't release the album, but subsequently dropped the band.
Not one to take a hint, though, Richman kept going and soon after wrote Roadrunner (still a recognisable world-wide hit). His new label bought the unreleased first album from his old label and it hit the shops in 1976 as The Modern Lovers, the only full album of his which you need to own. Songs include Pablo Picasso (as in "Some people try to pick up girls and get called asshole/This never happened to Pablo Picasso"). Believe it or believe it not, The Modern Lovers turned Richman into something of a mascot for the punk set and his songs were covered by The Sex Pistols and Joan Jett as well as by Alex Chilton (and if there's ever a man who doesn't need to do covers, it's Mr Chilton). Alongside that, though, Richman managed to annoy just about everybody with some remarkably twee tunes like Ice Cream Man and Hey There Little Insect alongside genuinely great songs like The Morning Of Our Lives. He also developed a lounge singer persona (well before it was fashionable) with which he cheesily covered songs like Blue Moon and The Rose.
There was always the constant threat of the completely unexpected, as when he released an instrumental called Egyptian Reggae which was as big a hit as Roadrunner. Disbanding the Modern Lovers in 1978, he has been more or less a solo acoustic performer since, and an advocate of Bob Dylan's "permanent tour" thinking. He spends half the year on the road and has strong fan bases all around Europe - particularly in Spain and Italy, where he has actually learned the languages to help him communicate his songs better. Still releasing albums at the rate of one every two years, he has upped his profile a bit of late, first by signing to Neil Young's Vapor Records label and then from his film cameo roles. He's got a brand new album in the shops next week, I'm So Confused, and is coming over to play Dublin's Vicar Street this Sunday night.
Previously only available by mail order, the massively under-rated Dr Millar has his new album, The Deal, now available in the HMV chain of shops. The man who gives singer-songwriters a good name will be playing live around the country over the next few weeks, culminating in a gig in Whelan's on March 10th . . . The fab Lost In Music people have all manner of things lined up for their regular Sunday night club in Lillie's Bordello. Aoife nic Anna is on the decks this Sunday night, with loads more special guests promised. Admission is three pounds and there's a special no-stress door policy . . .
