The Modern Lovers “Girl Friend”

Last week I was on a bus from Springfield, Mass., to NYC, hand in hand with the little lady, both of us listening to her nano through a handy headphone splitter doohickey from Radio Shack. Somehow, to know we were sharing this, listening to the same songs, was a measure of comfort amidst the general misery that comes with Peter Panning it.

Y’all know how much I make out of little coincidences. Predicatbly, when the Modern Lovers’ “Girl Friend” shuffled into our ears shortly after the little lady nudged me and pointed out the Met, the opening namecheck of “the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston” fairly jumped out at me. Wrong town, but right for the moment.

There are many, many things I love about “Girl Friend” (off the band’s delayed self-titled debut, originally released in 1976). There’s the local color; the beautifully wrong, I mean so right, chorus spell-out of “G-I-R-L, F-R-E-N”; the heavy piano action and all its implied drama; the thrumming, lyrical bass; the moment around 1:20 when the dripping need of the song’s sentiment pushes through into an inarticulate yelp and warble that dies almost as soon as it’s breathed out; and that reverbed guitar solo that searches and swoons, outgrowing its conception as a hat tip to Lou Reed.

And, hey, you gotta hand it to lead Lover Jonathan Richman: by song’s end he leaves no doubt as to what it is he wants.

But I’m gonna talk for just another second about that opening assertion. Forlorn and sadly single young Jonathan is sure that if he found a special lady, at that museum “I could look through the paintings/I could look right through them.”

When I was younger, I thought of women as a mystery to solve. There was some sort of literalization of “carnal knowledge” stuck in my head–each object of interest admittedly a mystery I’d likely never solve; I’ve never been a Lothario, maybe a sometimes slut at best.

Now a girlfriend is something that I understand, and maybe I’m a little closer to a truth young Jonathan, his stuffed nose, his tender heart and his professed affinity for all those foxy college girls were all pointing toward.

It’s not really about the lust–lust is essential too, don’t get me wrong–and I’m gonna have young Jonathan back me up by blowing totally out of proportion a little nothing I only just noticed as I was preparing this post.

“Girlfriend” is a compound word, but the title of the song is “Girl Friend.” OK, we’ve established that Jonathan takes liberties with his spelling of the word. But, really, that space maybe adds some extra innocence, like the “space for the Holy Ghost” enforced between a slow-dancing couple at the Friday night Catholic school dances of my youth. (Is that right? Or am I conflating a joke and a genuine memory?)

We’re getting long-winded here, but basically I wanna believe, as young Jonathan did, in an earthly love that helps make things clear. When yr on a good team, it kinda gets to feel that way, and it’s really not that bad.

The Modern Lovers (2003 import reissue) at Amazon.

Modern Lovers “Dignified And Old”
Sloan “Dignified And Old”

I’m writing this entry from the 15 North fast lane and hoping to actually post it from Vegas. It’s been a pretty busy last couple days, thus the late post. I thought I’d just rattle off a little something about road music.

We’re relying on the little lady’s nano, a Chrismukkah gift from her bro that I helped load up with tunes.

One of the gifts yielded up from this road trip approach was hearing, within an hour, both the original version of “Dignified And Old” by the Modern Lovers and the Sloan cover.

I wish I could remember the exact quote, but there’s something that explains an anomaly like Jonathan Richman. Something about how punks in cities built on a grid, like NYC and L.A., tend to have a very simple us vs. them worldview, while cities with more arcane and circular layouts, like Boston and D.C., breed punkers who can do the rebel thing and be home for dinner with grandma.

Not saying I buy it 100%. I mean, all generalizations are bad, in general. But there’s something attractive about it.

So Jonathan Richman, the frontman for 70s prepunk geek rockers the Modern Lovers, could idolize Lou Reed but channel the art rockismo into his own lovelorn, wonderfully naïve teenage view of the world. He doesn’t buy the rockunroll credo to live fast, die young, etc.—one day he’ll be dignified and old. Pretty damn classic.

The cover by Sloan, Canada’s foremost purveyors of brainy classic pop, is stripped down and faithful. Sorta makes you miss the cool organ line from the Lovers version. It’s taken from their fake live EP, which was packaged, I think, with the 1998 original American pressing of 1996 minor classic One Chord to Another. (Don’t ask.)

Grab a brew and dig it. We’ll see you on the other side of the state line.

[Both the Modern Lovers’ debut album and the 2-CD One Chord to Another are out of print.]