Jonathan Richman
A Jonathan Richman show is a remarkable thing. Though he’s largely been pulling from the same songbag in the decade or so since The Spin first started seeing him, the former Modern Lovers frontman and art-punk-turned-folk-songster always manages to provide an inspirational and predictably unpredictable performance. He’s given to sudden fits of loose-limbed dancing and stream-of-consciousness improvisational banter during and between songs, providing flamenco-style runs on his nylon-stringed acoustic while longtime drummer Tommy Larkins thumps along at his side.
Sunday night at The Basement East, Richman and Larkins once again enchanted The Spin with their organic, shape-shifting song arrangements. Richman once again looked around the room, locking eyes with one individual at a time like some sort of proto-punk Svengali as he shook his maracas or clinked on his cowbell. With songs like the genuinely brilliant “No One Was Like Vermeer,” he reminded The Spin what a singular songwriter he is, an artist prone to honoring other artists in his work, a gentle soul transmitting far-out thoughts from some astral plane the rest of us may never visit.
So rather than once again recounting what Richman’s show was like, note for note, The Spin has decided instead to provide the 10 greatest quotes Richman's set Sunday night.
Jonathan Richman
On Sigmund Freud and the Significance of the Color Carmine
“Let’s call up someone, OK? Sigmund Freud. [In German accent] ‘Hello, can I help?’ Yeah, Dr. Freud, glad to have you with us. ‘Dreams with carmine red, that signifies a young man’s interest in wild sexual adventure.’ That’s what I figured, but I just wanted to check.”
Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins
On Seeing What Tommy’s up to on the Drums
“Let’s see what Tommy’s up to on the drums. [Tommy takes solo while Richman plays cowbell, and later maracas.] Jonathan, that’s one strange way of finding out what Tommy’s up to on the drums. There must be an easier way to do that. Jonathan, is this how you find out everything? [Nods]”
Jonathan Richman
On Trusting Someone
“I trusted her instantly. Let’s say the cops came and said, ‘Jonathan, we’re rounding up old 60-year-old white guys tonight.’ I’d say, ‘OK, wait a minute. Here, hold this a second.’ I would’ve handed her my wallet instantly. That kind of trust. Credit cards instantly. Passport instantly. Cash instantly. All kinds of stuff instantly.”
Jonathan Richman
On Ending a Song
“Well. We’ve gotta end it somewhere. [Tommy stops playing.]”
Jonathan Richman
On Wishing He Had More Time
“Folks, just like a little kid whose parents gotta drag him away from stuff, I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. … Because I will go, ‘Wait, wait, I wanna look at this more. Wait, I wanna look at that.’”
Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins
On Playing a Sad Song
“This is kind of a sad song. Yeah. Let’s see what Tommy is up to on the drums.”
Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins
On Italian Lyrics vs. English Lyrics
“This next party song is in Italian. It’s OK, ’cause it’s just 17 different adjectives. It’s just like another way of saying, ‘It’s a great party.’ So Jonathan, why didn’t you just make up the song in English? ’Cause I tried first in English and it came out like this: ‘It’s a great party. It’s a great party.’ No, that’s no good, man. But Italian, I didn’t exert any more effort, and all of a sudden it came out like [speaks in Italian].”
Jonathan Richman
On Why He Was Looking Up Toward the Ceiling
“Jonathan, why are you looking up? Because the party’s gone cosmic!”
Jonathan Richman
On Something He Saw Written in a Texas Gas Station
“Folks, audience, me and Tommy were driving … through Sealy, Texas, off I-10. [Audience member yells ‘Fuck Sealy!’] No, no. I’m gonna tell you a story about it. There was a gas station. … We found something nice in Sealy that I’m going to tell you and the rest of the audience about. In the gas station was one of those little cafeterias with the little hot-plate things. And above it was a piece of paper, notebook paper someone tore out of a notebook and just taped to the wall with gaffer’s tape. And with Magic Marker wrote this on it. It said: ‘Every person you meet is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Be kind always.’ And I looked at the lady behind the counter and said, ‘That’s true!’ And she goes, ‘I know it’s true. My boss wrote it.’ See? That’s something nice about Sealy.”
On Douglas Fairbanks
“Take a Douglas Fairbanks movie, it wouldn’t even get made today. It would be considered so corny. They just wouldn’t make it, except as an ironic joke. I miss that that wasn’t an ironic joke.”
