The Modern Lovers (album)
Encyclopedia
The Modern Lovers is the first album
recorded by the Boston-based band The Modern Lovers
. It was released on Beserkley Records
in 1976, although the original nine tracks had been recorded in 1972 (or 1971 in the case of "Hospital"). Six of the original tracks were produced by John Cale
. In 2003, the album was ranked number 381 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
.
fan Jonathan Richman
. In early 1971, the band's membership was settled as Richman, Jerry Harrison
(keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass) and David Robinson
(drums), with Richman's friend and original band member John Felice joining them occasionally as his school commitments allowed. By the autumn of 1971, through their live performances in Boston and New York, they had begun to attract the attention of several record company A&R
men, including Stuart Love at Warner Brothers
, and Alan Mason and Matthew Kaufman
at A&M
. The band made their first recordings for Warner Brothers at the Intermedia studios in Boston in late 1971; these included the version of "Hospital" which was later to feature on the album.
In April 1972, the Modern Lovers travelled to Los Angeles
where they held two demo sessions; the first was produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale
for Warner Brothers, while the second was produced by Alan Mason and Robert Appere for A&M. Both sets of sessions yielded tracks which, although originally recorded as demos, eventually found their way onto the album. The Cale sessions produced "Roadrunner
", "Astral Plane", "Old World", "Pablo Picasso
", "She Cracked" and "Someone I Care About". The A&M sessions yielded "Girl Friend", "Modern World", and "Dignified and Old" (which, although not included on the original LP, was included on later CD reissues).
However, the band were initially undecided over which record company to sign for, returned to Boston, and also did some recordings organised by Kim Fowley
and produced by Stuart "Dinky" Dawson Eventually, in early 1973, they signed with Warner Brothers and agreed that John Cale should produce their debut album. In the meantime, they undertook a short residency at a hotel in Bermuda
. Returning to California in the summer to work with Cale, it became apparent both that there were personality clashes between some of the band members, and that Richman now wanted to take a different approach to his songs - much more mellow and easy-paced rather than the earlier aggressive hard rock. The sessions with Cale were terminated before any new recordings were completed. Warner Brothers then engaged Kim Fowley to work with the band, but by this time Richman refused to perform some of his most popular earlier songs live. The band were also affected by the death during the sessions of their friend Gram Parsons
; on the day before Parsons' death, he and Richman played miniature golf
and discussed recording together . The sessions with Fowley were aborted, although two tracks, "I'm Straight" and the original recording of "Government Center", and possibly others, were later issued on CD versions of The Modern Lovers. Warner Brothers withdrew support from the band, and, early in 1974, the original Modern Lovers split up.
, and recorded four tracks with backing by the bands Earth Quake
and The Rubinoos
, including new versions of both "Roadrunner" and "Government Center". These tracks were first issued as singles and then on an album Beserkley Chartbusters Vol.1 in 1975. In 1976, with a new version of the Modern Lovers, Richman began recording what he would regard as his debut album, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.
However, in the meantime, Kaufman also put together the album The Modern Lovers from remixed versions of the tracks recorded four or more years previously for Warner Brothers and A&M, and released it in August 1976. "Hospital" was credited as being 'donated by Jerry Harrison' because he had the original 1971 session tapes.
The Modern Lovers was immediately given an enthusiastic critical reception, with critic Ira Robbins hailing it as "one of the truly great art rock albums of all time". It influenced numerous aspiring punk rock musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Sex Pistols
, whose early cover of "Roadrunner" was placed on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
. In the UK, the versions of "Roadrunner" produced by Cale and Kaufman were released as two sides of a single, and became a chart hit in 1977.
reissue on Rhino Records added "Government Center," also from the Fowley session, and "Dignified and Old" from the 1972 A&M demo recordings. "I'm Straight" and "Government Center" were credited to Kaufman as producer, and were originally issued on Warners Troublemakers compilation in 1980.
Further bonus tracks were added on a 2003 remastered reissue on Sanctuary Records
, including "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms," "Dance With Me," and alternative versions of "Roadrunner," "Modern World," and "Someone I Care About." These may have been recorded with Kim Fowley either in 1972 or 1973.
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
recorded by the Boston-based band The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970–74 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks with drummer David Robinson and keyboardist Jerry Harrison...
. It was released on Beserkley Records
Beserkley Records
Beserkley Records was an independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkely is usually regarded as a powerpop & rock and roll label; during the seventies, the band released albums by Earth Quake, Greg Kihn, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Rubinoos, and...
in 1976, although the original nine tracks had been recorded in 1972 (or 1971 in the case of "Hospital"). Six of the original tracks were produced by John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
. In 2003, the album was ranked number 381 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
.
Origins of the album
The Modern Lovers were formed in 1970 by teenage singer, songwriter, guitarist and Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
fan Jonathan Richman
Jonathan Richman
Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...
. In early 1971, the band's membership was settled as Richman, Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
(keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass) and David Robinson
David Robinson (musician)
David Robinson is an American rock drummer. He has performed with many rock bands including The Modern Lovers, DMZ and The Cars.He attended Woburn Memorial High School....
(drums), with Richman's friend and original band member John Felice joining them occasionally as his school commitments allowed. By the autumn of 1971, through their live performances in Boston and New York, they had begun to attract the attention of several record company A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
men, including Stuart Love at Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, and Alan Mason and Matthew Kaufman
Matthew King Kaufman
Matthew "King" Kaufman was owner and chief producer at leading independent label Beserkley Records in Berkeley, California from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, successfully producing records by Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn and others.-Biography:Raised in Baltimore, Kaufman graduated from law...
at A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
. The band made their first recordings for Warner Brothers at the Intermedia studios in Boston in late 1971; these included the version of "Hospital" which was later to feature on the album.
In April 1972, the Modern Lovers travelled to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where they held two demo sessions; the first was produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
for Warner Brothers, while the second was produced by Alan Mason and Robert Appere for A&M. Both sets of sessions yielded tracks which, although originally recorded as demos, eventually found their way onto the album. The Cale sessions produced "Roadrunner
Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman song)
"Roadrunner" is a song written by Jonathan Richman and recorded in various versions by Richman and his band, in most cases credited as The Modern Lovers.Critic Greil Marcus described it as "the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest"...
", "Astral Plane", "Old World", "Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso (song)
"Pablo Picasso" is a song written by Jonathan Richman for the proto punk group The Modern Lovers. The song was recorded in 1972 at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, and produced by John Cale, but was not released until 1976, on the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album...
", "She Cracked" and "Someone I Care About". The A&M sessions yielded "Girl Friend", "Modern World", and "Dignified and Old" (which, although not included on the original LP, was included on later CD reissues).
However, the band were initially undecided over which record company to sign for, returned to Boston, and also did some recordings organised by Kim Fowley
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
and produced by Stuart "Dinky" Dawson Eventually, in early 1973, they signed with Warner Brothers and agreed that John Cale should produce their debut album. In the meantime, they undertook a short residency at a hotel in Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. Returning to California in the summer to work with Cale, it became apparent both that there were personality clashes between some of the band members, and that Richman now wanted to take a different approach to his songs - much more mellow and easy-paced rather than the earlier aggressive hard rock. The sessions with Cale were terminated before any new recordings were completed. Warner Brothers then engaged Kim Fowley to work with the band, but by this time Richman refused to perform some of his most popular earlier songs live. The band were also affected by the death during the sessions of their friend Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
; on the day before Parsons' death, he and Richman played miniature golf
Miniature golf
Miniature golf, or minigolf, is a miniature version of the sport of golf. While the international sports organization World Minigolf Sport Federation prefers to use the name "minigolf", the general public in different countries has also many other names for the game: miniature golf, mini-golf,...
and discussed recording together . The sessions with Fowley were aborted, although two tracks, "I'm Straight" and the original recording of "Government Center", and possibly others, were later issued on CD versions of The Modern Lovers. Warner Brothers withdrew support from the band, and, early in 1974, the original Modern Lovers split up.
Release of the album
In late 1974, Richman signed as a solo artist with Matthew "King" Kaufman's new label, "Home of the Hits", soon to be renamed Beserkley RecordsBeserkley Records
Beserkley Records was an independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkely is usually regarded as a powerpop & rock and roll label; during the seventies, the band released albums by Earth Quake, Greg Kihn, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Rubinoos, and...
, and recorded four tracks with backing by the bands Earth Quake
Earth Quake (band)
Earth Quake was an American rock and power pop band, formed in the San Francisco area in 1966, who released several albums in the 1970s, mostly on Beserkley Records, a company which they were involved in setting up.-Band members:*John Doukas...
and The Rubinoos
The Rubinoos
The Rubinoos are an American power pop band that formed in 1970 in Berkeley, California. They are perhaps best known for their singles "I Think We're Alone Now" , "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" , and for the theme song to the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds...
, including new versions of both "Roadrunner" and "Government Center". These tracks were first issued as singles and then on an album Beserkley Chartbusters Vol.1 in 1975. In 1976, with a new version of the Modern Lovers, Richman began recording what he would regard as his debut album, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.
However, in the meantime, Kaufman also put together the album The Modern Lovers from remixed versions of the tracks recorded four or more years previously for Warner Brothers and A&M, and released it in August 1976. "Hospital" was credited as being 'donated by Jerry Harrison' because he had the original 1971 session tapes.
The Modern Lovers was immediately given an enthusiastic critical reception, with critic Ira Robbins hailing it as "one of the truly great art rock albums of all time". It influenced numerous aspiring punk rock musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, whose early cover of "Roadrunner" was placed on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
. In the UK, the versions of "Roadrunner" produced by Cale and Kaufman were released as two sides of a single, and became a chart hit in 1977.
Bonus tracks
The 1986 Beserkley reissue of the album added "I'm Straight" from the 1973 Fowley sessions. The 1989 compact discCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
reissue on Rhino Records added "Government Center," also from the Fowley session, and "Dignified and Old" from the 1972 A&M demo recordings. "I'm Straight" and "Government Center" were credited to Kaufman as producer, and were originally issued on Warners Troublemakers compilation in 1980.
Further bonus tracks were added on a 2003 remastered reissue on Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
, including "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms," "Dance With Me," and alternative versions of "Roadrunner," "Modern World," and "Someone I Care About." These may have been recorded with Kim Fowley either in 1972 or 1973.
Side one
- "RoadrunnerRoadrunner (Jonathan Richman song)"Roadrunner" is a song written by Jonathan Richman and recorded in various versions by Richman and his band, in most cases credited as The Modern Lovers.Critic Greil Marcus described it as "the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest"...
" — 4:04 - "Astral Plane" — 3:00
- "Old World" — 4:00
- "Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso (song)"Pablo Picasso" is a song written by Jonathan Richman for the proto punk group The Modern Lovers. The song was recorded in 1972 at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, and produced by John Cale, but was not released until 1976, on the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album...
" — 4:15
Side two
- "She Cracked" — 2:53
- "Hospital" — 5:31
- "Someone I Care About" — 3:37
- "Girlfriend" — 3:51
- "Modern World" — 3:40
2003 reissue bonus tracks
- "Dignified & Old" — 2:29
- "I'm Straight" — 4:18
- "Government Center" — 2:03
- "I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms" — 2:32
- "Dance With Me" — 4:26
- "Someone I Care About" (alternate version) — 2:58
- "Modern World" (alternate version) — 3:16
- "Roadrunner" (alternate version) — 4:55
Personnel
- Jonathan RichmanJonathan RichmanJonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...
— vocals, electric guitarsElectric GuitarsElectric Guitars were formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport and Richard Hall who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Saunders , Matt Salt and Dick Truscott , they also later added two backing singers: Sara and Wendy... - Jerry HarrisonJerry HarrisonJerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
— pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Ernie Brooks — bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocals - David Robinson — drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals
Studio production
- John CaleJohn CaleJohn Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
— producer - Alan Mason and Robert Appere — producers on "Girlfriend," "Modern World," "Dignified and Old"
- Kim FowleyKim FowleyKim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
— producer on "I'm Straight," "Government Center," I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms," "Dance With Me," and alternate versions
Album production
- Matthew King KaufmanMatthew King KaufmanMatthew "King" Kaufman was owner and chief producer at leading independent label Beserkley Records in Berkeley, California from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, successfully producing records by Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn and others.-Biography:Raised in Baltimore, Kaufman graduated from law...
— compilation - Jim Blodgett — co-ordination
- T. Lubin — assistance
- G. Horn — mastering