wang a dang a dang adoonga dang dang

'I'm Just Beginning to Live' mp3 at Modern Kicks (from Rockin' and Romance)

link

YouTube/ "The Origin of Love (Reprise)"/ Wig in a Box

lots to watch at YouTube:

"New England"



"I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar"



Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, Summer 1981



Makeout Room 2005

these have Modern Lovers music but no Jonathan:

"Egyptian Reggae" (old BBC television footage)

One Big Flipbook (oddly fascinating, set to "Egyptian Reggae")

"She Cracked" (interesting animation)

As posted previously on Jojoblog, you can watch "I'm So Confused" and "I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar" here

The same two videos are offered at Vapor

and "Lesbian Bar" also appears at Yahoo! Music

where you can sample some songs, including "The Origin of Love (Reprise)" from Wig in a Box: Songs From and Inspired by Hedwig & the Angry Inch

more on Wig in a Box the HMI benefit recording

the music from Wig in a Box is used in Follow My Voice, the HMI benefit film documentary with the music of Hedwig

trailer for Follow My Voice



Premiere of Follow My Voice at 2006 Tribeca Film Festival

HMI: Home of The Harvey Milk High School

John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Wikipedia

Hedwig and the Angry Inch at IMDB

which brings us full circle back to "The Origin of Love" at YouTube (from Hedwig, sung by John Cameron Mitchell)



"The Origin of Love (Reprise)" lyrics as sung by Jonathan in Wig in a Box, the CD, and Follow My Voice, the film (Rufus Wainwright performs the first appearance of "The Origin of Love")

Wig in a Box at Amazon

(Thanks to anonymous)

record stores

Over the years it's been obvious to me that the motley fans of Jonathan Richman usually have a few things in common: they're rare, they're devoted (they can't say exactly why and sometimes they may even deny it), they're musicians or know music in some personal way, and they frequent record stores- the endangered 'corner store' varieties being favorite haunts.

Sasha Frere-Jones is the pop music critic at The New Yorker. He's never, to my knowledge, written about Jonathan but this week he has an interesting writeup on Scritti Polliti.

Anyway, lately he's been compiling different people's nostalgic stories of record stores on his blog, S/FJ, good and bad and indifferent, but somehow all familiar.

The original call for tales is here, along with Sasha's musings in response to a story in The New York Times by Alex Williams called "The Graying of the Record Store" that includes this line:

Dave Marsh, the rock critic and author of books on popular music, noted that rockers like Jonathan Richman and Iggy Pop honed their edgy musical tastes working as record store clerks.

more backstage

you might ask yourself

Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime" at Red Black Window

where I've dreamed my dreams

It's been a strange and unaccustomed year without Jonathan touring. We miss following the news of his travels, so, in that spirit, here's a link to an mp3 of "The Fenway" recorded live at the Earl in Atlanta last year by Otherwise Unavailable.

"The Fenway" mp3

"The Fenway" lyrics and chords