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Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers : Back in Your Life

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In February of 1979 Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers released Back In Your Life, an album that combined hauntingly sad love songs ("Back in Your Life", "Affection")  and tunes that might appeal to very little  children ("Buzz Buzz Buzz", "I'm Nature's Mosquito". Naturally, most critics were confounded. 

Some thought Richman was a musical kind of Benjamin Button, relapsing into kiddie music about mosquitos and dinosaurs and ice cream men and leprechauns because he was too precious for a modern world full of Van Halens and Sex Pistols and disco queens and new wave bands.

 Lester Bangs saw something else : “Only one in 20,000 has the nervy genius of Iggy ( Pop) or Jonathan and is willing to sing about his adolescent hangups in a manner so painfully honest as to embarrass the piss out of half the audience.” 

From Robert Christgau a B+ grade for the album and the following praise :

I'd say this is great kiddie music--lotsa innocence, lotsa animal songs, even a snot joke. But kiddies seem to prefer Donna Summer. So put him down as an original and wonder yet again just how much that counts for.

When the album failed to sell in substantial numbers Jonathan Richman disbanded the Modern Lovers and moved to a small town in Maine for several years. He'd sometimes make appearances at Barbara Doyle's restaurant in Belfast. The lost years are recapped in this well written article on popula.com.

In 1983 Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers would return with Jonathan Sings! Sire Records sent Richman on tour where he would stop at college radio stations like mine in New Orleans. I got my copy of his new album autographed and saw him perform at Jimmy's but perhaps that's a story for another day.

Big Break Ups

Television : Ain't That Nothin' (Run-Through)

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Me and Lloyd and Fred were walking somewhere one day and I just said, 'God, I really just want to do something else.' And Lloyd said something that really surprised me, 'Yeah, maybe we should have a change.' And that was sort of it. Fred was scratching his head and I think he told Billy.
-Tom Verlaine, From the Velvets to the Voidoids

There were three soundtracks in the US Top 10: Grease, Sgt Pepper and Saturday Night Fever in August of 1978. 

No wonder so many bands just gave up. 

With one masterpiece and one near masterpiece in their discography, Television amicably broke up following three sensational nights playing at The Bottom Line. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd would pursue solo careers while drummer Billy Ficca managed to get a job with The Waitresses.

Be Bop Deluxe : Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus

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Failing to find an audience in the country that produced all of his favorite science magazines, Bill Nelson disbanded Be Bop Deluxe, jettisoning all but Andy Clark on keyboards,  to form Bill Nelson's Red Noise.  The new band may not have achieved mass success but Clark would perform on David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and Peter Gabriel's "Big Time".

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers : Ice Cream Man

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Jonathan Richman also broke up the latest incarnation of The Modern Lovers to go solo. He would vanish into obscurity for the next couple of years.

Where She's At-tra

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers : Abdul and Cleopatra

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The first single from the forthcoming Back In Your Life is another precious tune that suggests the new album will be slight. Not true. The title cut alone would be one of Richman's most convincing love songs of his career.  In the video below, Richman says he wrote "Abdul and Cleopatra" with that "special Mediterranean feeling" when he was miserable, but didn't want to share his misery. 

Bang A Gong

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers : Egyptian Reggae

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On October 23, 1977 the Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers instrumental "Egyptian Reggae" entered the U.K. charts at #49. The charming tune, based on Earl Zero's "None Shall Escape the Judgement", would be Richman's biggest hit, peaking at U.K. #5. That's despite the fact the song is neither Egyptian nor reggae. The video is a delight thanks to Richman's short-lived "Vote For Pedro" mustache and the drummer's inability to bang a gong.  The tune has regained some of its notoriety thanks to its inclusion on the Baby Driver soundtrack. 

40 Year Itch : De-doily Doidy Doit Doit Doit Doit Diddle

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers : Important in Your Life

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"The band has to learn volume and how to play softer. At this stage, infants wouldn't like us because we hurt their little ears and I believe any group that would hurt the ears of little infants--and this is no joke--sucks"

Jonathan Richman, 1973

 The original Modern Lovers masterpiece fore-shadowed punk rock, but by the time it was finally released in the Summer of '76, the band's leader, Jonathan Richman, had been having a hate affair with electricity going on for nearly three years. There was no way to convince Richman to regroup with the Modern Lovers to hit the road and help sell the critically acclaimed album. 

   What was Jonathan up to? The answer was released on July 30, 1976 as Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.

Richman had ditched the old garage rock sound for something quiter , almost childlike and naive. There are songs like "Hey There Little Insect" and "Abominable Snowman in the Market" that just annoy the hell out of me ( and don't get me started on "Springtime" or "Amazing Grace"). 

There are some redeeming factors: the cover of Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A.", "New England" ( after all that is the land where I was raised),  and maybe best of all, "Important In Your Life" which is a blueprint for the best love songs he'd be recording for the next ten years. Jonathan Sings is my favorite of the solo albums.

I'm not sure I have anything to add so I'll just leave you with: 

 de-doily doidy doit doit doit doit diddle