Few musicians have left their mark on proto-punk quite like The Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman. With a pretty hefty discography of great works, it’s hard to pick this rocker’s very best songs. However, we’re pretty fond of the following four tunes. If you’re getting into the onset of punk music from back in the day, we’d say these four tracks are essential listening.
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1. “The Morning Of Our Lives”
This non-album single from 1978 is one of the most memorable songs from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. It’s an incredibly honest and relatable song, with heartfelt lyrics you wouldn’t exactly expect to come from such a lo-fi track. That’s part of Richman’s appeal, after all. He was never trying to impress and wasn’t afraid to be direct.
The original version of “The Morning Of Our Lives” has an indie feel to it, and its sincerity and simplicity are what make it so dang good.
2. “Hospital”
“Hospital” is another Modern Lovers track from the mid-1970s that you might be familiar with, even if you’re not a diehard Jonathan Richman fan. You can hear the classical influence in the composition of this song. It’s a brooding, tonally excellent piece of work that beautifully depicts, in a sonic fashion, how it feels to have your emotions bottled up inside you are ready to explode at a moment’s notice.
“I go to bakeries all day long / There’s a lack of sweetness in my life” brings to mind the cheesiness of early punk rock music.
3. “Roadrunner”
This song is a unique take on “Sister Ray” by The Velvet Underground, and it’s an archetypal song from Richman. According to his own bandmates, Richman knew how to find beauty in the mundane. And that much is clear on this particular track.
“We’d come up over a hill and he’d see the radio towers, the beacons flashing, and he would get almost teary-eyed,” said former Modern Lovers member John Felice of a time when he was driving with Richman. “He’d see all this beauty in things where other people just wouldn’t see it.”
4. “I Love Hot Nights”
A later-years hit from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, “I Love Hot Nights” was released in 1987. This is among one of his best pieces of work, and the image he paints of summertime is produced without really being specific. That’s a true songwriter, in our book.
Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images
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