the of mirror eye

* Jonathan Richman: I’m Young (3.5 mb) | Jonathan_Richman_MP3 (94.0 mb) | Jonathan_Richman_Flac (306.5 mb)
From The Living Room Demos

As I wrote earlier (look here), my first introduction to this fine fellow, Jonathan Richman, was less than favorable. But, years later, I learned to love his quirky vocal stylings and his timeless songs. He started his first band, The Modern Lovers back in the early ’70’s, but decided to move to California and go solo after only a couple of years. The Modern Lovers name lived on though, and there were later incarnations of the band, with completely different people and basically functioning as a backing band for Jonathan Richman.

What we have here is a fascinating look at Jonathan Richman, post band break-up. This performance was probably in his living room, in front of a couple of his friends and has loose song sketches and snippets of a number of songs.

After the Lovers broke up Jonathan resumed playing solo. This recording brings us probably as close as we’ll get to hearing what those shows sounded like. Don’t be misled by the long list of song titles; while there are a number of great fully-formed songs, many of these are loose song sketches and snippets. The music helps fill in the gaps between 1973 Jonathan and post-1976 Jonathan; there are a number of songs (I’m Young in particular) that would’ve sounded great with the original Lovers, but the vintage cover selections and the more ambitious melodies of some of the originals help point the way to new musical adventures. On the advice of the better-informed, I’ve given up trying to guess why this recording was made. It surfaced as an acetate, which is a kind of LP produced in very small quantities. The looseness of the performances and the production lend this a wonderfully intimate atmosphere (hence the “Living Room Demos” nickname). There’s an audience of two or three friends tops, Jonathan wanders from guitar to tambourine to acapella, repeating songs, extolling the virtues of playing solo and, at one point, asking someone take a telephone message for him. (from the text file)

This is a seriously fun recording and I wish I had been there to see/hear it.

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