Following the chart success of the singles "Roadrunner" and "Egyptian Reggae" and the "Rock n' Roll With The Modern Lovers" album making the top 50 of the album charts and getting some critical acclaim, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers toured the UK in 1977, and their record label decided to quickly cash in on their new found fame by releasing an album from their gig at the Hammersmith Odeon. I bought the LP not too long after its release and purchased an ex-jukebox copy of the single "Morning Of Our Lives" after it had left the charts.
I remember "Modern Lovers Live" getting panned by the New Musical Express, which was a little surprising given the positive review they gave to "Rock n' Roll With The Modern Lovers" but it merely emphasized that different critics like different music.
The general critique was along the lines of it might all have made perfect sense on a Saturday evening at the Hammersmith Odeon but made little sense in the comfort of your living room on a Sunday morning, and a comparison was made with William Blake's "Songs of Innocent and Experience".
On this live album Richman continued to give his playground vision of life, thinking he is an airplane, then a dinosaur, talks to insects, sings to his little Kookenhaken and goes on endlessly about the Ice Cream Man. The NME critic was clearly fed up by all of this, but I thought that they were quite nice tunes, as long as you didn't think too deeply about the lyrics.The album also includes several minutes of Richman's repartee with the audience, which again is mildly amusing the first time you hear it but you don't particularly want to listen to it time and time again.
"Modern Lovers Live" included three tracks from "Rock n' Roll With The Modern Lovers", two of the instrumentals, "Egyptian Reggae" ( where the guitar now sounded more akin to that from a spaghetti western ) and "South American Folk Song", plus an 8 minute version of "Ice Cream Man" with plenty of "one more times" leading to increasingly frantic repeats of the chorus, lapped up by the crowd. Just when you think they have finished, they start again..........
Other children's songs were the toe-tappers "I'm A Little Airplane" with a frenzied 1950s guitar solo and " I can fly late at night, it's OK I got my little red light", and the twee "I'm A Little Dinosaur" where everyone is happy when the Dinosaur returns after going away.
"Hey There Little Insect" & "My Little Kookenhaken" are either sweet, or an overdose of saccharine, depending on your disposition to Jonathan Richman.
The final two songs are more mainstream, with "New England" retreading some of the ground of "Roadrunner" in praise of the North-East region of the USA which includes Massachussets. With a chorus of "Dum-de-dum-de-dum-dum-da-dum-day, Oh-oh, New England" its quite catchy, but not to be confused with the Bill Bragg/Kirsty MacColl song !
Side two closes with "The Morning Of Our Lives" which lyrically is a song trying to cheer up someone who is feeling down, along the lines of "You've Got A Friend". It has a strong melody and is the outstanding track on the album.
Although the playing and production is much better than "Rock n' Roll With The Modern Lovers", it isn't nearly as much fun, despite trying really hard to be.
Track Listing :
Side One :
1. I'm A Little Airplane
2. Hey There Little Insect
3. Egyptian Reggae
4. Ice Cream Man
1. I'm A Little Dinosaur
2. My Little Kookenhaken
3. South American Folk Song
4. New England
5. The Morning Of Our Lives
Released 1977
UK Chart Position :-
Singles :
The Morning of Our Lives ( No 29 - 19787 )
New England ( - 1977 )
No comments:
Post a Comment