Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Jonathan Richman wrote one of the essential rock songs but is most famous for playing the mystery musician in There's Something About Mary, who sings the movie's theme song while waltzing through the scenery. Of course, Jonathan Richman, despite his incredible influence over more than 26 years of playing music, has had only one hit--"Egyptian Reggae," an instrumental dance number that scraped the bottom of the charts in Europe about 22 years ago. Richman's recording career, among the most varied in rock, is what ought to be garnering all the attention; his first songs were highly...
During this period Richman recorded his best known song: "Roadrunner." He takes two chords from the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" and makes "Roadrunner" one of the best rock songs ever recorded. The simple, affecting music is matched by the lyrics, which are both the typical rock song and about the power of that song: "I'm in love with Massachusetts/I'm in love with the radio on/It helps me from being lonely late at night/I don't feel so bad now in the car." Richman's probably sick of playing "Roadrunner," but people aren't sick of hearing...
Richman's early '70s songs weren't relaesed until 1976. But by this time, he was virtually a different person. What pissed off his new fans--the ones who saw the brilliance of "Roadrunner" and wanted more--was that his new songs weren't just happier; they really were directed at infants. He sang songs like "Hey There Little Insect" and "I'm A Little Dinosaur" and "Here Come the Martian Martians." He stopped playing with professional musicians and picked strangers out of the audience at concerts; they'd drum for him using rolled up newspapers. It took...
Richman's new album is good, but it's not great. He pointlessly re-records some of his older songs. Some of the new songs are unexceptional and some are excellent; this is more or less the way it's been since 1972. In "Nineteen in Naples," Richman ruefully examines his youthful anger ("I didn't like this and I didn't like that/I was such a little brat"), but the song is musically unimpressive. The titular "I'm So Confused" makes better use of the irritating synthesizers than most other songs on the album. Producer Ric Ocasek has stuck...
...anniversary production of the American classic Annie, which appeared at the Wang from November 3-8. And while it may seem odd, Struthers takes on this new challenge with abandon, even going as far as ripping the limbs from an innocent doll while belting out the lyrics to the song "Little Girls": "Little cheeks, little teeth/Everything around me is little/If I wring little necks/Surely I will get an acquittal...Some night I'll straighten their curls/ Send a flood, send the flu/Anything that, you can do, to little girls...