Customer Reviews

Action Packed: The Best Of Jonathan Richman

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I, at one point, owned all of Jonathan's Rounder material. "I, Jonathan" is a great album; "Jonathan Goes Country" is better than you would ever imagine. But on all of Jonathan's Rounder albums there are some songs I really feel are not needed. "I, Jonathan" and "Jonathan Goes Country" both contain remakes of some of his better late seventies and early eighties cuts for Beserkly and Sire--"Corner Store" and "That Summer Feeling" for example--which pale in comparison to the originals. What this best of collection does, contrary to some of the other reviewers' opinions here, is give you a very good representation of his best material for Rounder. If you really want a good collection of Jonathan, buy this cd, pick up "Jonathan Sings," and "The Beserkley Years: The Best of." I would hope to God that you would already own "The Modern Lovers."

Jonathan writes rock and roll songs. They could have been written in the 1950s or 1960s, but there's also a sense of timelessness about them. Like Ray Davies, Jonathan doesn't write about Big Subjects. He writes about everyday clothes, cappucino bars, love, and occasionally Bermuda or Vampire Girls for fun. And like Ray Davies, his focus on the everyday, combined with his big heart, makes him one of the best rock songwriters ever.

This is a grand collection of the music he did for Rounder Records. Jonathan sharpened his focus and honed his craft during his time on Rounder, and this terrific selection of songs shows that. Most of the music here is Jonathan as a solo artist ("believe me, it's better that way") putting his heart out there, as open as the sky and beautiful as the moon. The material ranges from the rockin' (Parties in the USA, Dancing In The Lesbian Bar, Fender Stratocaster) to 50s-style country (Reno, The Neighbors) to wistful balladry (The Girl Stands Up To Me Now, You Must Ask The Heart). Every song on here is a gem waiting to be discovered.

There's not much any reviewer can say that can match the songs themselves. Jonathan's interviewers and attempted biographers all find a guy who hasn't got much to say about his life or his music. That's because his life is his music, and his music tells you all you need to know about Jonathan. His music is clear and honest and speaks from the heart, and in the final analysis, that's exactly what music is supposed to do. To Jonathan's credit, that's what he's done since the Modern Lovers days, and that's what he says he'll do "until it stops being fun." Let's hope it stays fun for a long, long time.

As the liner notes state (which by the way are a great addition to the package) favorite songs are going to be left off.

It seems they went heavier on the Richman albums that aren't as popular and rather skim on the classic discs. Why do we get four cuts from the mediocre "Having A Party" and only two from the his much agreed upon masterpiece "I,Jonathan"? Why four from the OK "You Must Ask the Heart" and only two from the great "Modern Lover's 88".

It's a good disc because simply it's Jonathan and it's a good sampling of a phase of Jonathan's life. Keep in my mind this isn't an introduction to Jonathan's music, just a snapshot of a particular time. This is a good album to have if you can't afford the albums the songs individually came off of. You are missing out on some classics by doing that however (When Harpo played his Harp,That Summer Feeling). I suppose you are getting treated to some classics too (New Kind of Neighborhood,Parties in the USA). My only complaint with this is the complaint I have with all "best of.." collections is that it never is the best of and often times it can be the worst if. (I really think Reno is a terrible song).

Four Stars for the music, Three for the idea.

This 22-track collection could have featured some of Jonathan's forays into instrumentals ("Blue Moon," "Grunion Run") or spoken-word pieces ("1963," "Twilight in Boston"). There, I'm done quibbling... What this disc lacks in variety, it compensates by showcasing Richman's strengths as a songwriter. His songs from this period (1988-95, on the folk-based indie label Rounder) generally revolve around relationships ("You Must Ask the Heart"), music ("Fender Stratocaster"), dancing/partying ("I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar," "Parties in the U.S.A."), rural joys ("Circle I"), urban delights ("Reno"), and the minutiae of daily life ("Everyday Clothes"). The simple rock 'n' roll arrangements place Jonathan's often humorous lyrics front and center. Action Packed is a solid introduction to Richman's post-Modern Lovers career. Fringe Benefit: The liner notes include Jonathan's charming third-person account of his "First Twenty Years in Show Business."

I've followed Johnathan Richman's career sporadically over the years, and I'm usually fairly impressed by his albums. In fact, his 2001 "Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eyeshadow" was one of the best releases of the year. But, listening to "Action Packed", hearing many of Johnathan's best songs together on one disc has really made a case for him as one of the most astute cartographers of the human heart. These, like the best love songs, are less about the objects of the singers affection than about the singer *himself*, and the very nature of love *itself*. Whether he's singing about women, guitars, or both, Richman captures like few other songwriters, the intricacies of the human experience.

Sure, many will never forgive him for abandoning the thin, dark, minimalist punk he invented with The Modern Lovers LP. Still others will dismiss him as a cheerier Lou Reed, but listen to this disc, and I think you'll find Richman to be very much an original and gifted songwriter and a dazzlingly expressive singer. My only real gripe is the bizarre inclusion of "Monolouge about Bermuda", which is tolerable once, but needs to be skipped thereafter. And how could they leave out the great "Our Swingin' Pad"???

Still, good stuff!

If you're one of those people who thinks that music, even rock music, ought to be Serious Business, this is not the CD for you. But if you think that even rock music can have a sense of humor, then you really ought to give Jonathan Richman a listen. This Rounder anthology features more than 70 minutes of fun, with Jonathan taking off on everything from organic farming to human relationships to Reno to bus rides to Fender guitars and so on and so forth, all done not only with a smile but with a good beat so that you can dance to it. Except for the several country cuts, which feature a full country band (and are a hoot!), most of the music sounds pretty stripped down, but is still--as the title of this anthology suggests--action packed. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but you won't hurl.

Jonathan Richman does much to de-mystify his formative years (but really, were they honestly all that mystic?) in the liner notes to this collection. In a disarmingly straightforward narrative, Jonathan addresses his decision to move away from the edgier, angrier rock of the early Modern Lovers songs towards a form of expression where his statements could more effectively be conveyed at a lower volume level. While the Modern Lovers sessions led to the creation of some of the greatest music I have heard committed to tape, the decision to abandon that sound makes sense in the context of Jonathan's personal growth into a less awkward (but still highly unique) adult. Not surprisingly, the lower volume level and happier mood did/does suit him very well indeed.

The liner notes display Jonathan as really just a man, one who enjoys making music because it's fun. His songs carry that same sense of true enjoyment and almost childlike wonder and excitement with his own creations. It's that simple. He is very true to his unique vision and his body of work is unmistakably his own.

I can't evaluate this collection on the basis of whether it truly is a "best-of" beacuse I only have one solo album of Jonathan's, "I, Jonathan." I just know that each and every song is fun and insightful, with a fresh perspective on the little things in life. Like "Everyday Clothes," where Jonathan makes a simple point: he thinks his woman looks just fine in her ordinary outfits, in fact he likes it best when she doesn't dress up because she doesn't need to in order to look good to him. Many of the songs play out like elaborate jokes with little punch lines here and there. Others are wide-eyed tributes to something or another, often bursting with enthusiasm. No longer does Jonathan point fingers (as he points out in his liner notes, he lost his desire to do that when his life took a turn for the better), he just makes clever observations. Ultimately he comes off like a brainy rock n roll purist with the soul of a jokester and a large heart.

Jonathan, by the way, is also a very nice guy. I had the opportunity to meet him once and he took time to introduce himself and have a conversation with me (we talked about a cover he did, "Stop Your Sobbing" by the Kinks, my favorite cover ever). He was the same person off stage as on stage - a guy with a deep passion for music making and life. That is a huge testament to the honesty of his body of work.

When I was a teenager in the mid 70's living in NJ, there was a NY FM station (WNEW) that was just the only one I listened to - one dee jay, the morning man, Dave Herman, used to occasionally play an artist that was out of the mainstream, simple yet with something going on. He turned me onto many of my favorite groups at the time, The Roches, Jonathon Richman, Ramones, T.Heads. In later years he did the "something old, some thing new, borrowed & blue" allowing listeners to program thematically a small 4 song set - I entered several times; in fact, he was invited and read our wedding invitation (1980) on the air...I digress. That was where I first heard one of the tracks off Beserkley Chartbusters, either Government Center or The New Teller (still love that one). Anyway, I went nuts to buy it, instead found original The Modern Lover's album, and it was very different; had JoJo's love of the Velvet Underground all over it, with several added layers of snottiness - when Beserkley Chartbuster's had come out, JoJo must've had already visited Bermuda and was off in his own direction apparently...(listen to THIS album, being reviewed, to better understand). I loved Roadrunner, bought the next JP & ML album (with alternative version of the world famous Roadrunner on it) and started following the band around the tri-state whenever they played. Only thing is that JoJo never played anything from the albums I loved - he was taking off his shirt and crawling around the stage singing that he was "a little dinosaur", or running around like "a little airplane". It was great. Over the years I purchased the vinyl albums, but somewhere around the Egyptian Reggae era, I stalled.
I listen to Yahoo Launch radio and they played (on my station) some JoJo a few weeks ago, the song where he explains his trip to Bermuda's impact on his musical values and leanings, and I was back - back in my old room, headphones plugged in, listening to a stack of albums. So I ordered up several JoJo albums. And now my 8 & 9 year old kids can't get enough either - I cracked out the old vinyl and played them 'Pablo Picasso' (who was so jealous, he "turned the color of an avocado") on their own record player, and they didn't believe it was from the same dude - "that guy who has fun singing but not like a regular singer".
Anyway, my 5 stars are obviously based not just on content, eh? But you owe it to yourself to get to know JoJo, listen with your heart and pretend that life isn't slathered with reality, and come on a fantasy trip, where there are parties somewhere right next door, with potato chips and guys playing guitars, and that you can walk right in and start dancing...and perhaps hopefully end up dancing in a lesbian bar.