Jonathan Richman - "Living Room Demos" aka "Solo Acetate" EARLY DEMOS (1973/1974)

This recording surfaced as an acetate which are generally produced in very low quantity and often had hand written labels. It may have been made possibly for a promo or Jonathan was using this format much like recording to a cassette tape recorder. The intimacy of this recording makes it very charming and his loose performance is reminiscent to a practice in a bedroom or living room, hence these recordings became known as the Living Room Demos. There's an audience of two or three friends tops, Jonathan wanders from guitar to tambourine to acapella, repeating songs, extolling the virtues of playing solo and, at one point, asking someone take a telephone message for him. The music fills the gap between Richman's break-up from the Modern Lovers and post-76, the new version of the Modern Lovers. While some of the songs are fragments and some are repeated, this recording has some great songs still on it and offers an early look at Jonathan's unaffected child-like approach to performing that he started to embrace at this time and continued with throughout his career.
LYRICS (& Chords): www.jojochords.com/cds/earlyde...
TRACKLIST:
1. I Feel Alright (0:00)
2. Veil Of Cold (0:56)
3. Crazy Little Mama [The El Dorados cover] (3:15)
4. I See Your Light (4:49)
5. Falling In Love Must Be Two Way (6:27)
6. Awkward Love (10:55)
7. Song Of Remembrance For Old Girlfriends (13:22)
8. Hey There Little Insect (16:27)
9. Goin' Home (20:29)
10. Guitar Doodle No.1 (24:02)
11. Touch Me If You Want (25:23)
12. Do You Believe In Magic [The Lovin' Spoonful cover] (26:52)
13. It Will Stand [The Showmen cover] (29:47)
14. Dialogue And Guitar Doodle No. 2 (32:16)
15. Let's Take The Long Way Home (33:54)
16. Young And In Love (38:13)
17. Just Wanna' Be Young (40:30)
18. Government Center (42:44)
19. Do de do do [Scat Melody] (45:11)
20. Little Latin Lupe Lu [The Righteous Brothers cover] (46:43)
21. Winters Get Hard In New England (47:50)
22. Song Of Remembrance For Old Girlfriends [LA Version] (50:38)
23. Twist And Shout [*The Isley Brothers cover] (54:48)
24. Willie And The Hand Jive [Johnny Otis cover] (55:25)
25. Trip To The Sea (58:13)

[@jimrader5299]

Jonathan played an acoustic gig at NYC 's The Kitchen in 5/75 or so, w/ two femme b/u singers, Andy Paley on drums, and another guy who acted out JR's lyrics now & then. Very fun show, attended by Allen Ginsberg, Gerard Malanga & Kathy Acker, who worked the door. At the time, I was under JR's mystical spell and praised him to Kathy who said: "I don't know, I've met other people who are on his trip and I just don't know."/ Then there was his appearance at Town Hall 10/76. Did no less than four encores of "Ice Cream Man"; a friend walked out on this madcap display, later explaining: "He's evil, man. He's not upfront about his [mental sadism]." Whatever. A strange dude.

[@jonathandavidbrink]

There is a link to a recording of that 1975 show in the comments section of this blog post: jojofiles.blogspot.com/2020/06/comment-poached.html

[@flanissimo]

oh shit this is a goldmine. thank you for posting this.

[@dosvcr]

thank you for posting this! it is the best thing that ever happened!

[@danmoynihancartoons]

Amazing! Thank you!!!

[@Zepster77]

awesome, thank you very very much

[@johnmitchelljr]

Thank you for sharing.

[@MagicSwordFilms]

What a great find!

[@danthefan5378]

Thank You!

[@loubank]

Wow! Thank you!

[@staceyfriedrich2273]

I love this solo much!

[@weirdpaulp]

Too cool, daddy-O

[@sammieconcilio5642]

54:48 i love him!!!

[@proserpine714]

danke danke, dear.

[@tomholihan4850]

If this was in Athens, GA?, then surely I was in attendance :]

[@HenriPaulTortosa1959]

Great cos you can be in the middle of the creation .

[@lawrencescott2824]

Bo Diddley Bop

[@straycatsean]

"Booby Fuller Four" lol

[@elpresidenty]

love Jonathan's music - but a lot of this toxic, sex-jealous nice-guy stuff hasn't aged well. in time, i think he figured out as much, i.e. with "affection.". Echoes remain in "hospital," of course.

[@atlasking6110]

Are you "triggered" by "toxic" Jonathan Richman? Do you melt like a snowflake? Oh well, virtue duly signaled, I guess.

[@LunchsackTheWise]

What about affection feels toxic to you? I'm asking genuinely. I haven't picked up on it.

[@carson5804]

@@LunchsackTheWise I think he was saying that Affection shows the more mature views he came to have on unrequited love. I agree that some of the songs here reflect some questionable entitled nice-guy views (e.g., Awkward Love), but there are also some examples of his growth in this area, even at this point in his career (e.g. Falling In Love Must Be Two Way, Song of Remembrance for Our Old Girlfriends)

[@Wulf425]

@@nieknellen7663 I remember this letter, had this issue of Creem and had been reading about the Modern Lovers in their issues and my interest was piqued for when the first album came out.

[@kelechi_77]

Richman says he disavows some of the songs he wrote during this time, but accepts that was where he was back then. He talks about "Plea for Tenderness" which captures most of this mindset