The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers

THE REVIEW

I was watching "There's Something About Mary" the last time I came across the friendly face of Jonathan Richman, called upon to narrate the unlikely adventures of Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz with his acoustic guitar, lyrics that narrate a never banal everyday life, and his nasal voice.

Only downside: in the Italian version of the film, Richman's voice was cleverly dubbed. I imagine that this doesn't happen to Bob Dylan, but let's move on.

Jonathan Richman was the leader maximo of the Modern Lovers and this debut is probably the musical pinnacle, or at least the most genuinely rock & roll album of his over-thirty-year career, for the presence of some proto-punk sounds and many wave anticipations.

The gestation of this album was a nightmare: the demos of some songs were recorded in 1972 by John Cale, while other tracks were laid down with the help of producer Kim Fowley, but the results did not satisfy the perfectionist Richman and were released only in 1976 by Beserkley almost against the singer's will.

The Modern Lovers are the perfect cross between the sparse musical vision of the early Velvet Underground, the sound of the Doors stripped of the rawness of blues, and an "X" component, which we might call personality or, more simply, the ability to write timeless songs.

Richman's rhymes have a lopsided pace, built on few guitar riffs repeated incessantly, but the sound is fleshed out with Doors-like keyboards, some tributes to the origins of rock (in "Someone I Care About" you can even hear handclaps) and our singer's voice wavering between a declamatory or spoken approach.

Serious critics consider the opener "Roadrunner" the compositional apex of this LP, but it's like judging a book by its cover. The love for psychedelia also pervades the following "Astral World", while as you progress through the record, Velvetian ghosts start to appear, as in "I'm Straight", in the more free-form "Pablo Picasso", and in the tribal "Someone I Care About".

Some changes in tone can be noticed in the nervous "Dignified And Old" and "Modern World" not far philologically from the "punk" of Richard Hell & The Voidoids, in the almost singer-songwriter tones of "Girl Friend", and in the carefree "Government Center", a sort of Beach Boys visiting hell.

I have saved the absolute masterpiece of the work for last, that "Hospital" given to the group by keyboardist Jerry Harrison, later with the Talking Heads: a slow play start, Richman's spoken word supported by liquid keyboards, creating the pathos before the cathartic explosion of the chorus, as in the best compositions of Patti Smith.

I recommend this masterpiece to those eager to discover the milestones of rock, to tender-hearted punks, to the less alternative alternatives, and especially to the distracted dubbers of American films.