Date of birth: May 16th, 1951; near Boston.
The name sounds familiar, but it was all so long ago. Can't possibly be the same guy: Jonathan first broke cover in the early 1970s as what must have been the most effete punk rocker that New England ever produced. A not inconsiderable achievement. After pursuing his heroes Andy Warhol - and the Velvet Underground to New York City and spending a couple of weeks sleeping on the band's manager's sofa, he withdrew to Boston.
To languish in obscurity? No, to form The Modern Lovers. While working with this little garage band he wrote and recorded (at least five times) one of the great pop records of the century: Roadrunner.
It can't have been much good. I mean, I've never heard of it: A famously complicated relationship with various record companies and producers meant that even though Roadrunner and plenty of other Modern Lovers material was produced around 1971, when it would have sounded like an extraterrestrial invasion, it was not released until 1975, when it simply sounded ahead of its time.
That must have been most frustrating for the artists concerned: Yes and no. The delays gave the chance for drummer David Robinson to scramble off to The Cars, and Jerry Harrison to team up with some Rhode Island design students (including David Byrne) in Talking Heads. Another former Modern Lover, Andy Paley, went on to produce and write songs for Madonna, an occupation which is also presumably quite lucrative.
So what did the increasingly ridiculously named Richman do? In the late 1970s by the time the raw, garagey sound in which his band specialised was popular, Jonathan had retreated from noisy electric instruments altogether and began recording children's songs with an acoustic band.
Commercial suicide? Another yes and no, really. It was during this period that he released Egyptian Reggae...
That's it! That's the one I know! His biggest ever hit, a chirpy instrumental built around a corny cymbal crash, which was recently resurrected for a beer commercial, introducing his music to an army of new fans.
So it's back to the 3000 mega watt stadium concert tours then? Not quite. Jonathan is serious about keeping things quiet, having decided that "high volume was not a necessity but a hindrance to communication and intimacy". These days his concerts usually feature only Jonathan and his acoustic guitar. To make sure he doesn't become too popular, he also recently released an album of songs in Spanish.
You mean to say he's satisfied with being a cult? That's not a very nice way to talk about the last great poet of rock and roll. You're obviously a fan, but this guys sounds like a born loser: You say that like it's a bad thing. Some of my best friends are losers. Why, I myself . . . anyway, if you think Jonathan isn't exactly dominant male material, what do you make of the members of Janne Kuution Varamiehet, a band that makes a living doing Finnish cover versions of Richman songs?
