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jonathan richman & the modern lovers
The Modern Lovers were formed in 1970 by Jonathan Richman. In
early 1971, the band's membership was settled as Richman, Jerry
Harrison (keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass) and David Robinson
(drums), with Richman's friend and original band member John
Felice joining them occasionally as his school commitments
allowed.
By the autumn of 1971, through their live performances in
Boston and New York, they had begun to attract the attention of
several record company A&R men, including Stuart Love at
Warner Brothers and Alan Mason and Matthew Kaufman at A&M. The
band made their first recordings for Warner Brothers at the
Intermedia studios in Boston in late 1971.
In April 1972, The Modern Lovers travelled to Los Angeles where
they held two demo sessions. The first was produced by the Velvet
Underground's John Cale for Warner Brothers, while the second was
produced by Alan Mason and Robert Appere for A&M. Both sets of
sessions yielded tracks which, although originally recorded as
demos, eventually found their way onto the album.
The Cale
sessions produced Roadrunner, Astral Plane, Old
World, Pablo Picasso, She Cracked and Someone
I Care About. The A&M sessions yielded Girl Friend
and Dignified and Old . The band were initially undecided
over which record company to sign with, returned to Boston, and
also did some recordings organised by Kim Fowley and produced by
Stuart "Dinky" Dawson.
Eventually, in early 1973, they signed with Warner Brothers and
agreed that John Cale should produce their debut album. Returning
to California in the summer to work with Cale, it became apparent
that there were personality clashes between some of the band
members and that Richman now wanted to take a different approach
to his songs - much more mellow and easy-paced rather than the
earlier aggressive hard rock.
The sessions with Cale were terminated before any new
recordings were completed. Warner Brothers then engaged Kim Fowley
to work with the band, but by this time Richman refused to perform
some of his most popular earlier songs live.
The sessions with Fowley were aborted, although two tracks, I'm
Straight and the original recording of Government Center,
were later issued on CD versions of The Modern Lovers.
Warner Brothers withdrew support from the band, and early in 1974,
the original Modern Lovers split up.
After the split in February 1974, Jonathan
Richman continued recording on his own, eventually moving to
California in 1975 to begin working with Beserkley Records. While
Richman never returned to the Velvets-inspired sound of the
original Modern Lovers, the demo recordings made with that group
eventually surfaced in various formats. The first of these
releases came in 1976 when Beserkley Records compiled a posthumous
LP from the first demo two sessions, issued on Beserkley's Home Of
The Hits subsidiary. The album was simply titled The Modern
Lovers and included celebrated tracks such as Roadrunner,
She Cracked and Pablo Picasso.  Richman did not
recognise this compilation as his "first album",
preferring to consider 1976's Jonathan Richman & The Modern
Lovers as his debut, as it pursued the lighter, softer
direction he had in mind with a completely different band.
In
early 1976, Richman put together a new version of The Modern
Lovers, with Leroy Radcliffe (guitar), Greg Keranen (bass) and
Robinson (drums). They recorded the album Jonathan Richman
& The Modern Lovers, but Robinson left after Richman
persisted in reducing the size and volume of his drum kit and was
replaced by D. Sharpe. Keranen also left and was replaced by Asa
Brebner. This band recorded the album Rock 'N' Roll With The
Modern Lovers and toured, but finally split up at the end of a
UK tour in 1978.
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Jonathan Richman
Vocals, guitar
Jerry Harrison
Keyboards, vocals
Ernie Brooks
Bass, vocals
David Robinson
Drums, vocals
Leroy Radcliffe
Guitar
Greg Keranen
Bass
Asa Brebner
Bass
D. Sharpe
Drums
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