#382 - The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers (1976)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released in August of 1976 on Beserkly Records and produced by John Cale, Robert Appere, and Allan Mason this is the debut album by the American Garage Rock and Proto-Punk Band.

Natick, Massachusetts native Jonathan Richman grew up in the Boston-area suburbs writing and playing songs on guitar and by the ‘60s was obsessed with the New York, Avant-Garde, experimental, Rock group the Velvet Underground. After high school in 1969 when he was 18 he moved to New York to pursue his musical dreams and ended up hanging out with Lou Reed and sleeping on the Velvet Underground’s manager’s couch while working as a Wall Street messenger and a busboy at the famed club Max’s Kansas City before giving up and moving back to Boston.

Although considering himself a singer/songwriter at that point he didn’t have much of a singing voice and either chose to keep his guitar playing simple or only knew a limited amount of chords. But what he had was an almost childlike naiveté and a determined and convincing drive to make it. According to Boston drummer David Robinson who had seen Richman play around the area, when Jonathan came into the record store Robinson worked at in his trademark white, plastic, Harley Davidson, motorcycle jacket to promote his band he ended up recruited him on drums. With Robinson, a bassist named Rolfe Anderson, and Jonathan’s childhood friend Jon Felice on guitar they played free outside shows around Boston.

At one show, Harvard University architecture student Jerry Harrison saw him and ran to get his roommate, English literature student Ernie Brooks. According to Brooks, Harrison said, “You gotta come see this weird guy. He’s really nuts, but he sounds very cool…”. In late ’60s/early ‘70s Richman really stood out with his very short hair, conservative shirt, tie, sport coat, and dress pants, playing his painted and stickered electric guitar that was missing strings, and speak-singing odd songs with an almost childlike demeanor. They saw him play a few more times and later were introduced to him when he was brought to their apartment by legendary early Punk manager and publicist Danny Fields.

Richman excitedly danced around and sang and played them his songs on whatever instruments they had or just clapped along. His obsession grew to include the then new debut Stooges record which he discussed with Brooks but they really bonded when they started talking about their shared appreciation for poetry. The room mates soon agreed to join Richman for their first gig with Brooks on bass and Harrison on keyboards.

The band took the name The Modern Lovers and rehearsed in drummer David Robinson’s parents’ basement as he still lived at home. Jonathan would usually bring in the seeds of his interesting songs which were often based around one chord and the band would arrange them. Soon they were playing Harvard parties and local clubs and building a following in part due to the peculiar onstage antics like Jonathan setting up an easel and displaying his illustrations prior to each corresponding song while reciting the lyrics.

They started getting noticed by the press which alerted the record companies who were eager for the newest thing. Despite their relative inexperience they arrogantly turned down offers in hopes of finding the best manager and company in the business. Guitarist Jon Felice who would periodically quit and rejoin quit for good. In 1972 a couple record companies flew them to Los Angeles to make demos for a potential album and one was Warner Brothers, whose staff producer was John Cale, previously of the Velvet Underground and the producer of The Stooges’ first album. They also recorded a second set of demos for A&M records with producers Robert Appere and Allan Mason.

Needless to say after recording almost an album‘s worth of demos they chose Warner Brothers and John Cale to make their album. They then took a residency at a hotel in Bermuda where Jonathan became entranced by the mellow, laidback, vibe of the local musicians. In 1973 they flew back to L.A. to start the record but Richman started behaving strangely. According to Brooks, Richman thought through the whole corrupt system of Rock-‘n’-Roll-star-making machinery that included burning fossil fuels to generate the electricity and power used for big stadium concerts and the sound systems and amps and he concluded that it wasn’t right to profit from that. He decided the Modern Lovers would change their previous loud and rocking sound to something quieter and easier for the audience to listen to so they could understand the lyrics without hurting their ears.

Producer Cale and the rest of the band tried to persuade Jonathan to pursue a new direction after they made the record of the material they had already been playing but he wouldn’t budge. After only a few songs the recording stalled and the relationship with Cale as well as with the other members started to fracture. While their desperate record company was already pre-promoting them as the newest and greatest artists without a record out they were getting booed and had stuff thrown at them at huge concerts opening for popular bands. At one Jonathan announced, “We know you don’t like us, but we love you anyway.”

The last straw came when he told the band and the record company that he didn’t want to play their popular songs live anymore because they were too dark and negative. He also decided that electricity was unecological and evil and he only wanted to play acoustic guitar on street corners and at retirement homes and have David Robinson play rolled up newspapers instead of drums.

Warner Brothers tried to get them to record with The Runaways’ producer Kim Fowley but they gave up after a couple of songs. The band was dropped and broke up.

In late 1974 Jonathan signed a solo deal for his new softer sound with Beserkly Records and over the next couple years recorded a few singles and then a new record called “Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers” with only David Robinson returning to the new version. Beserkly also remixed their previous harder rocking four-year-old Warner Brothers and A&M demos and confusingly released them a month after the new record. That is today’s record and the only album released of the original band.

Richman and the band influenced countless artists like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Weezer, The Killers, and Frank Black.

Jonathon released several more records with the newer Modern Lovers and many solo albums and continues to play live. Many new fans were Introduced to him through his role as the singing narrator in the 1998 Farrelly brothers’ comedy film “There’s Something About Mary.”

Jerry Harrison joined Talking Heads.

David Robinson was one of the founding members of The Cars.

Ernie Brooks played with several notable artists including David Johansen.

Even early founding member Jon Felice went on to success with the Boston-based, Power-Pop, band The Real Kids.