JONATHAN RICHMAN, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, LP

Interesting to see the value of this CD new and used climb; guess it’s become a real rarity. I consider it a monumental day in my life when I returned to college (Wesleyan) in April of 1978 (I graduated in 1977) and visited a friend in his dorm room and he played me this record, along with Rock ‘n’ Roll with the Modern Lovers. I was familiar with the earlier Modern Lovers via my sister, and was interested in but not really excited by or happy about their proto-punk sound. Recorded in 1976, this is the first album put out by what you might call the born-again Jonathan, playful, child-like. Defiantly lo-fi, it returns rock ‘n’ roll to its roots. The sound is not as stripped-down as on 1977’s Rock ‘n’ Roll with the Modern Lovers, but both albums are classics. I consider the lead-off track “Rockin Shoppin Center”, to be one of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time.