For my first blog post I want to share an essay I wrote for a blog I had years ago. I want to share because, ever since I discovered them while researching proto-punk for an essay in college, the Modern Lovers have been one of my favorite bands. And they absolutely showcase what Girl and Guitar is all about: heart 🙂
Enjoy!
and Meet the Modern Lovers…
It is 1971. Hippies and punks and co-eds and feminists walk by your study spot at the bench by the college library. You sit in your green cardigan sipping coffee and writing a paper about wombats for freshman comp as the three chord progression of a guitar and the strange sound of synths blows to you on the brisk Boston breeze. You are hearing the fresh sounds of the Modern Lovers, one of the more influential but lesser known bands to come out of the 1970’s. What do you do?
- Keep on working on your paper; you are determined to get brilliant grades this semester. (see 1.)
- Follow the music and see if the Modern Lovers will let you join their band. You knew those cowbell lessons would pay off sometime. You’ve been carrying your cowbell in your book bag, just waiting for that time. (see 2.)
- Follow the music and become a roadie. You never practiced the cowbell, so your parents cancelled your lessons and sold your instrument to the farmer down the street. (see 3.)
- Find a new study spot out of hearing range. The Modern Lovers sound like a rat with teeth of finger nails gnawing on a blackboard in a roomful of yodelers slowly letting the air out of helium balloons. (see 4.)
- False. (turn to pg. 81)
1. Good for you. You get all A’s this semester– in fact, you get A’s throughout all of college. You graduate summa cum laude with a degree in etymology and go on to fulfill your childhood dream of discovering a new species of insect… only to discover you meant to become an entomologist. Oops.
2. The Modern Lover’s embraced your youthful enthusiasm and let you join their band. However, the cowbell pretty much ruined their aural aesthetic. So, while you had fun hanging out together jamming and going out for ice cream cones, you were not able to get any gigs as a band. Thus, the Modern Lover’s never gained the influence they should’ve had and, consequently, punk music never really developed, a giant meteor wiped out the dinosaurs, and the Soviet hockey team won the gold medal in the 1981 Olympics. It’s okay, how could you have known a cowbell could wreak so much havoc?
3. The Modern Lover’s are happy to have you as a roadie. You carry heavy amps and coil cords. You get ripped. It’s fun.
4. It’s perfectly fine not to like the Modern Lovers. Their raw compositions can be a little harsh on the ears of some. However and unfortunately, on your way to find a new study spot a troll jumped out of the bushes and ate you. Sorry.
Originally formed in 1970 Massachusetts by Jonathon Richman, the classic line-up of the Modern Lovers came together in 1971. This line-up included Jonathon Richman as guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Harrison on keyboards, David Robinson on drums, and Ernie Brooks on bass. The band was alive and well from 1971-1974, touring and cutting multiple demos and recording a studio album in 1972. But their studio album was not released until four years later in 1976, posthumously as far as the band was concerned because in 1974, as was the case with too many bands, the Modern Lovers fell victim to creative differences and the band members parted ways.
Though the Modern Lovers were short-lived1 and recorded only one studio album, they still managed to be one of the major proto-punk2 bands which influenced the development of punk and indie music (which consequently led to emo, new-wave punk, pop-punk, etc….). They themselves were greatly influenced by the seminal proto-punk band, the Velvet Underground3.
Hippies, Cats, and Cultural Reflection
If you want to get a taste of what college in New England was like in the 1970’s (and you do, don’t you?) the Modern Lovers season their albums with songs evocative of this oddly specific experience like “A Plea for Tenderness”, “Dance with Me” and “I’m Straight”.
“A Plea for Tenderness” opens with the question, “Girls, do you hate men?” and makes me think of a guy addressing a girl who was a member of the feminist movement of the 70’s. It also mentions cats. “Dance With Me” is presented by the band as being, in part, about the Boston college scene and makes you feel the cold of a late fall New England night and makes me think of ugly wool sweaters (of which I am a big fan.).
“I’m Straight” highlights the cultural tension between subcultures such as hippies and the punks-to-be of the time (Though compared to these punksters, hippies were mainstream.). “Straight” in this instance meant not using drugs. Being “straight” is supposedly something that set apart early punks and pre-punks from other subcultures, but I can’t find much evidence to back this up.4 Anyway, in the song the singer is trying to get this girl to date him instead of dating a hippy. It makes me laugh.
Red Plastic Hats, Naivety, and Musical Influence
The Modern Lovers not only represented a sub-culture which ran counter to the already counter hippie culture of the 70’s, but their music also promoted an aesthetic of simplicity and authentic rawness which likewise ran counter to other musical movements of the time, especially those of glam rock5 and progressive rock.6 Many of their songs featured simple 3-chord progressions.7 This musical revolt against the times is one of the major ways they influenced the punk music to come after them.
With the garage sound quality of their stripped down sensibility, the Modern Lovers were clear precursors to punk music. However, they definitely lacked in “punk attitude”. Punk is generally marked by its realism and often nihilistic leanings, but these aspects are notably missing from the Modern Lovers. Yet this is one of my favorite things about the band: they infuse so much of their music with a fresh, childlike outlook– influence of Jonathon Richman I am sure, given his solo work which features a near perfection composition for lulling a small child to sleep entitled “I’m a Little Dinosaur”.
I’m no music expert, but I believe The Modern Lovers in particular had an influence on the New Wave Punk movement.8 And I consider the Modern Lover’s quirkiness to be big part of this influence, such quirkiness displayed in their song content, instrumentation, and stage antics. New Wave Punk bands are among the quirkiest musicians of music history, showcasing this in both their visual style (think Devo’s red plastic hats, Talking Head’s front man’s zoot suit, Flock of Seagull’s hair), lyrical content (Talking Heads being another prime example, as well as the B-52’s), and instrumental innovation (Soft Cells use of synths, B-52’s odd vocalizations, tuning, and instrumentation).
The Modern Lovers were also innovative in their use of synthesizers, which factored heavily into ‘80’s music, especially New Wave. Further, after leaving the Modern Lovers, Jerry Harrison played keyboard and guitars as a member of The Talking Heads and David Robinson became the drummer and one of the founding members for the Cars (who are probably my favorite ‘80’s band… though, those Police… crazy good. Especially listening in stereo. Oh and Men at Work? Ok… I’ve got a lot of thinking to do…).
—
If the Modern Lovers were a kitchen utensil: They would be a wooden spoon.
One word to best describe them: Endearing? Concision is not my gift by any means.
Best listening situation: Up very late, working on college homework and imagining that you and Jonathon Richman are great friends and jam together and write songs about dinosaurs and talk about the wonder of life. (What? No… I don’t do this…)
Best album: “Live at Longbranch”. Haha, trick question. For whatever reason, I like their live recordings better than their one studio album. More rawness, authenticity, and energy, I guess. Authenticity.
Best song to play on a road trip: “Roadrunner”. Duh 🙂
Best Lyrics: “I go to bakeries all day long/There’s a lack of sweetness in my life” from “Hospital”—Alright, they have lots of good lines. I admit I randomly picked the first ones which came into my head because I knew I couldn’t go wrong.
GIRL
1 Richman continued on with the band name into the ‘80’s, but take note: “Jonathon Richman and the Modern Lovers” is not the same band as just “the Modern Lovers”
2 Please forgive the confusing labels; by “proto-punk” I just mean to point out that they belong to a general set of recognized influences on punk music. Here’s a link if you care to know more about this debatable label: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protopunk. It is pretty confusing because the Ramones, who are undoubtedly punk, were active near the same time…and yet supposedly influence by this pre-punk band…the label is just a convention to make any sense of “music history”…
3 Other band names which it is appropriate to shout out at this time are the Stooges, MC5, and The New York Dolls…
4 Indeed, the evidence seems to contradict this claim. While it seems likely that the Modern Lovers weren’t big into the drug scene, one of the Velvet Undergrounds most famous songs is entitled “Heroin”. And while it is somewhat popular to claim early punks preferred strong drinks to drugs (I’m not sure why this is a claim, maybe just because it would be another way to set punk apart from other subcultures?), the highly publicized tragedy of Sid Vicious’ (of the Sex Pistols) life and death makes one think this isn’t true either. Indeed, the influence of drugs nearly brought the punk music movement to a standstill—but this post isn’t about that, as interesting as that story is.
5 Glam Rock is a fascinating musical movement: David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. And it’s great for talking about the “philosophy” and corresponding aesthetics behind the various musical movements–which I love to do, so maybe you’ll hear more about this. How bout that androgyny of glam rock, eh? Neat…
6 Yes. Genesis. Pink Floyd. Those bands. You probably know that. I just like listing band names.
7 Though their most popular song, “Roadrunner” featured a 2-chord progression: D and A —you could take the next three seconds to learn it! Though you’ll have to throw in an E. This song placed #5 on the UK Billboard and was covered by the Sex Pistols, who were of course THE punk band of the early punk scene.
8 of the ‘80’s and late ‘70’s. I think New Wave Punk was some of the best and most innovative music to come out of that time and I know it included bands such as the Cars, the Talking Heads, Blondie, the B-52’s(I never really liked them until I saw them live. Which was a fun and ridiculous show.), Flock of Seagulls, Madness, A-ha, Softcell, Elvis Costello, the Cure, and, of course, Devo. Awesome stuff, right?