Tag Archives: Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman recites poem about playing clubs at 60

Stream: Jonathan Richman – “My Music (For MOJO Magazine)”

This is so good. MOJO magazine shared this fantastic poem and here’s the back story:

“The preposterously youthful 60-year-old is currently touring the UK, and while MOJO’s requests for an interview met with the usual polite refusal, Richman offered to interview himself in the form of a poem.”

It starts out like this:

So Jonathan, does it feel at all strange to be sixty years old,
Singing in clubs now for forty odd years,
Playing for students a third your age?
Yes, it feel strange.
Yes, it feel strange.
My face keeps on changing, but the public stays 20.

I once almost got into a fight with a guy over Jonathan Richman. I was young and earnest and couldn’t believe that any decent human being could have heard but not like Jonathan Richman. It didn’t come to blows, thank goodness, but that’s mostly because it was morning, I was hungover, and I was staying at this guy’s apartment for the weekend. I’ve gotten considerably less rigid regarding my prerequisites for decent humanity, but I still think that if you don’t like Jonathan Richman you’re probably an asshole.

Jonathan Richman’s latest album, O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth, was released in 2010.

Twitter Roundup #10

Tweet tweetBelow are the things we’ve posted to Twitter recently. In reverse chronological order, just like Twitter… We’re reposting 138 tweets this time with a total of 107 links to stuff that (mostly) didn’t end up on GLONO.

Phil tweets another show in Portland, this time featuring Hello Morning and Little Beirut. And I upload a blurry twitpic of Robbie Fulks and Nora O’Connor at the Hideout.

# “Stairway To Heaven” meets “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Could be about 40 seconds shorter, but it’s still better than Zep. http://ow.ly/18g23 about 2 hours ago

# Only a few days left to enter our birthday contest to win a free GLONO t-shirt. Do it. http://ow.ly/18dg5 about 4 hours ago

# RT @MOJOmagazine: Primal Scream will play Screamadelica live, in its entirety, at London’s Olympia in November! http://tinyurl.com/yfn6w7h about 5 hours ago

# “…and warning other whites that they can’t ever presume to know racial disadvantage.” (part 2 of 2) http://ow.ly/185cE about 15 hours ago

# “Take away his use of the ‘N-word,’ and you have a white musician commenting on the privilege of race…” (part 1 of 2) http://ow.ly/185cE about 15 hours ago

# “He is your grandmother’s living room. Don’t cause a ruckus.” RT @slicingeyeballs: Re-Surrender to Jonathan Richman http://bit.ly/aLnuaU about 17 hours ago

Lots more below, and you might consider following us on Twitter if you want to keep up with this stuff as it happens…

Continue reading Twitter Roundup #10

Jonathan Richman on Gram Parsons

Gram ParsonsJonathan Richman

It’s always strange to me when after years of admiring two different artists, I find out that they have a connection with each other. Until today, I never realized that Jonathan Richman had been friends with Gram Parsons.

In an interview in the Parsons biography, Grievous Angel, Richman explains the influence Parsons had on him, even turning him on to the Louvin Brothers.

So I listened and they sure were good. He probably got me to listen to more country-western and bluegrass music, that’s for sure. I became a fan of the Country Gentlemen, the group that did “Fox on the Run.” He got me thinking about different kinds of music than what I had been listening to before. One of the things that I like about Gram, is that he really wanted to play. He wanted to talk music and play. He would be invite me back to his little cabin in the backyard of Phil Kaufman’s house and we took out guitars and started playing. I liked that. He didn’t waste time. He wanted to, you know, play. […]

Continued after the jump…

Continue reading Jonathan Richman on Gram Parsons