Hello music lovers! 🎵
It's time for #threetunetuesday and a chance to share something I'm listening to.
My last post here was a week ago, New Model Army, and continue with the music, recalling memories from the past with you.
In today's post, I'm revisiting my adolescent memories of the band The Modern Lovers. If you know it, that's fine, if not, you will if you read on.
They were an American rock band that caused quite a stir in alternative music circles in 1970-1974. I was (still) too young at the time, but in the 1980s, when my friends and I were discovering music, we listened to it quite a lot.
The founder and leader was singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman. The band's sound itself was influenced by the Velvet Underground and the early Stooges. The band has been classified by music critics in the so-called proto-punk genre, or 'punk before punk', such as The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevator, MC5, and Television, who were playing remakes of the garage rockabilly bands of the 1950s and early 1960s. This genre was indicative of the direction in which punk, new wave, alternative, and indie music would later evolve.
Well, The Modern Lovers lasted four years and then broke up. The drummer formed The Cars and the keyboard player went on to Talking Heads.
Richman went on, until 1988, as Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, but that wasn't it anymore.
The first (and last) album was not released until 1976 and contained recordings from 1972 and 1973.
For those of you who are not (yet) familiar with #threetunetuesday or #ttt - these are tags you need to set when you post.
It's a music initiative started by @ablaze, and with his words, the jist is as follows:
Every Tuesday I'm going to share 3 songs that I like to listen to and I invite your feedback in the comments below. Better still, why not have a blast of your own Three Tune Tuesday and mention me in the post and I'll come and find the post and upvote it. If you could also use #threetunetuesday tag that would be great, as that is what I use when sifting through all the entries every Wednesday. It'll be a sweet way for us all to discover new music. You'll also be in with a chance of winning the reward.
So, to continue with the music, I've picked out a few clips.
As I mentioned, The Modern Lovers only released one album, and that was in 1976, two years after their break-up. Later, Jonathan Richmond and his band recycled, so to speak, the same songs several more times.
All the videos here were made later, mostly amateur camcorder bits and public domain footage, so maybe some people won't be very happy with the quality of the image.
But the charm is, at least for me, because these video bits show the authenticity of that time and music, some fifty years ago, which was as alive and strong as now, or even better... that's up for debate...
I'm just curious to see what it will all look like when they start retouching such recordings with AI... I'm sure that charm will be lost...
The MODERN LOVERS - She Cracked
She Cracked was the second song they recorded, in 1972 but not released until 1976 on The Modern Lovers album. The producer was John Cale (Velvet Underground) and rumor has it that the first recording sucked, it was the second one that did it.
The MODERN LOVERS - Pablo Picasso
Like all the others on the album, it was recorded in 1972 and released in 1976. I added it because it had the most covers.
It was played by John Cale on Helen of Troy, Burning Sensations for the Repo Man, a sci-fi black comedy soundtrack, then David Bowie on Reality, Talking Heads live 1976, Siuxie Siux with John Cale, among others.
The MODERN LOVERS - Roadrunner
Roadrunner was their biggest hit, written by Richman in 1970, aged 19, influenced by the Vevet Underground song Sister Ray and driving down Massachusetts Route 128. Music critics say it's
rock and roll standard, garage rock classic and proto-punk anthem.
It has been on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time since 2004 at number 77.
It is funny to me that the song only gained recognition, a wider audience and popularity when it was covered by the Sex Pistols on the Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle album.
Another song I kept listening to, for a bonus :)
The MODERN LOVERS - Old World
The song is about the old world in the 1950s, where Jonathan nostalgically recalls his childhood and growing up with his parents living in an alley of apartment blocks in Boston, Massachusetts.
The video footage is from a 16mm camera, inserts from life and the streets of New York, probably because he moved to New York at 18 and became active in music, listening to and watching the Velvet Underground in concert on a regular basis.
And the sound is pure Velvet, also because John Cage was the producer.
That's all for today, thank you for your attention. I hope today's selection was interesting and put you in a relaxed mood like it did me :)
This is my 32nd post for #threetunetuesday, which was started by @ablaze. I hope what I'm sharing is interesting for others too, because then it makes sense.
If you're curious about the latest music, follow me on #newtunes, or take a look at my rare recordings at 3speak channel - video, or Seckorama's Music Podcast - audio.
The front image is mine, created in Night Cafe Studio and edited in Photoshop.
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