I, Jonathan | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1992 | |||
Recorded | 1991 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 38:23 | |||
Label | Rounder ROUND 9036 | |||
Producer | Brennan Totten | |||
Jonathan Richman chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Pitchfork | 8.7/10 [3] |
I, Jonathan is the fourth solo album by Jonathan Richman, released by the Rounder Records label in 1992. As the founder of influential proto-punk band The Modern Lovers, Richman had striven to convey authentic emotions and storytelling with his music. I, Jonathan continued this aesthetic with simple and sparse rock and roll arrangements, and straightforward lyrics about everyday topics, such as music, parties, summer, and dancing. It is widely-regarded as one of his best works, and is considered an influential album in the lo-fi genre.
Songs on the album addressed topics such as backyard parties ("Parties in the U.S.A"), memories of neighborhoods in which Richman had lived ("Rooming House on Venice Beach" and "Twilight in Boston") and his admiration of his primary musical inspiration, the Velvet Underground ("Velvet Underground"). The latter song includes a brief interlude of the Velvet Underground song, "Sister Ray". [4] Also notable is a revisited and somewhat longer version of "That Summer Feeling," which was first recorded on 1983's Jonathan Sings!
The album helped increase Richman's cultural profile, which would include a 1993 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien during which Richman performed one of the album's songs, "I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar." [3]
The album was recorded through the summer of 1991 "in John 'Guitar' Girton's cozy frayed carpet of a basement studio" in the "summer swelter" of Grass Valley, California.
The album was originally released on Cassette and Compact Disc, but was released by Craft Recordings on vinyl for the first time in 2020.
All songs were written by Jonathan Richman unless otherwise noted.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Parties in the U.S.A." | 4:42 |
2. | "Tandem Jump" | 2:10 |
3. | "You Can't Talk to the Dude" | 2:49 |
4. | "Velvet Underground" (Richman, Lou Reed) | 3:23 |
5. | "I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar" | 3:40 |
6. | "Rooming House on Venice Beach" | 5:04 |
7. | "That Summer Feeling" | 6:02 |
8. | "Grunion Run" | 2:31 |
9. | "A Higher Power" | 3:02 |
10. | "Twilight in Boston" | 4:08 |
Total length: | 37:31 |
Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic and electric backing. He is known for his wide-eyed, unaffected, and childlike outlook, and music that, while rooted in rock and roll, is influenced by music from around the world.
The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks with drummer David Robinson and keyboardist Jerry Harrison. The sound of the band owed a great deal to the influence of the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, and is now sometimes classified as "proto-punk". It pointed the way towards much of the punk rock, new wave, alternative and indie rock music of later decades. Their only album, the eponymous The Modern Lovers, contained idiosyncratic songs about dating awkwardness, growing up in Massachusetts, love of life, and the USA.
Peel Slowly and See is a five-disc box set of material by the Velvet Underground. It was released in September 1995 by Polydor.
Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.
"Hitch Hike" is a 1962 song by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label. Another song Gaye co-wrote.
The Very Best of The Velvet Underground is a compilation album by The Velvet Underground. It was released in Europe on March 31, 2003, by Polydor, the record label that oversees the band's Universal Music Group back catalog.
VU is a 1985 album by the American musical group the Velvet Underground, a compilation album of outtakes recorded 1968–69. It was released in February 1985 by Verve Records.
The Best of The Velvet Underground: Words and Music of Lou Reed is a compilation album by The Velvet Underground. It was released in October 1989 by Verve Records.
"Sister Ray" is a song by the Velvet Underground that closes side two of their 1968 album White Light/White Heat. The lyrics are by Lou Reed, with music composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker and Reed.
Sally Can't Dance is the fourth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in September 1974 by RCA Records. Steve Katz and Reed produced the album. It remains Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, having peaked at #10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. It is also the first solo Lou Reed album not to feature any songs originally recorded by Reed's earlier band, the Velvet Underground, as well as the first of Reed's solo studio albums to be recorded in the United States. The album art was designed by noted Fillmore and Broadway poster artist David Edward Byrd and was one of the few album covers he ever designed.
Coney Island Baby is the sixth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in January 1976 by RCA Records.
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Songs from Here & Back is a 2006 live album by The Beach Boys released through Hallmark Gold Crown Stores and only available for two months. The album contains nine never-before-released live recordings, as well as three solo studio recordings, one new recording each by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, and a previously released Al Jardine song. The live tracks were recorded in 1989 except "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Good Vibrations" which are from 1974.
The Real Kids are an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, led by guitarist, singer and songwriter John Felice.
Jonathan Richman is a solo album by Jonathan Richman, released by Rounder Records in 1989. With the exception of "Blue Moon" and "Sleepwalk", the songs were recorded as vocal and guitar solos by Richman, who provided percussion with his feet. "I Eat With Gusto, Damn! You Bet" is spoken-word.
Jonathan Sings! is the fourth album by American rock band Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, released in 1983 by Sire Records.
Jonathan Goes Country is Jonathan Richman's second solo studio album. It contains seven original songs, three of which are reworked from the Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers album Jonathan Sings!, and five covers of songs by Tammy Wynette, Ronee Blakely, Marty Robbins, Skeeter Davis, and Porter Wagoner. Tom Brumley, pedal steel guitarist for The Buckaroos, is featured on the opening track.
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Modern Lovers 88 is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Recorded and released in late 1987, it became Richman's final recording alongside a backing band credited as the Modern Lovers. After a period of frequent switches from one record company to another, he released Modern Lovers 88 through Rounder Records, where he remained until the mid-1990s.