Jonathan Richman

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Jonathan Richman was born May 15th 1951 to a Jewish family in Natick, Massachusetts. He began playing music and writing his own songs in the mid-1960s. In 1969 he moved to New York City, where he spent time living on the couch of The Velvet Underground’s manager and working odd jobs while trying to break in as a professional musician. Failing at this, he returned to Boston. Having moved back, he formed The Modern Lovers, a proto-punk garage rock band. Other notable members of the group were keyboard player Jerry Harrison and drummer David Robinson, who later joined Talking Heads and The Cars, respectively. In 1972 they recorded a series of songs with John Cale producing, including the seminal “Roadrunner,” which were eventually released on the group’s sole album, Modern Lovers, in 1975.

Shortly after these recordings were made, Richman broke up the band and embarked on his long and eclectic solo career. For a while he continued recording under the “Modern Lovers” name (or rather, the more telling “Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers” appellation), but all the members were different, and in the new incarnation were essentially his backing band. The sound of the new group was considerably different as well, focusing on acoustic instrumentation rather than the prior electric guitars and drums. The album Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers was released in January 1977, Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers followed a month later, and Modern Lovers Live in 1978.

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• I, Jonathan
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• Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild
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• Action Packed: The Best of Jonathan Richman
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1		I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar			195
2		Velvet Underground			98
3		That Summer Feeling			89
4		Parties In The U.S.A.			72
5		Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild			71
6		Egyptian Reggae			64
7		True Love Is Not Nice			59
8		You Can't Talk To The Dude			53
9		No One Was Like Vermeer			51
10		A Higher Power			45
11		Grunion Run			42
12		Vincent Van Gogh			41
13		Vampire Girl			39
13		Let Her Go Into The Darkness			39
15		Tandem Jump			38

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