Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

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Matt Wilson
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Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Matt Wilson » 20 May 2022, 19:01

Okay, so in researching this song, it appears there's some differing opinions as to what the definitive version is. There was the original 1972 demo recorded by John Cale which was released on the 1976 Modern Lovers album, and then there was the later Beserkley Chartbusters Volume 1 version released on that album in 1975. The latter version was the hit in the UK in '77. Both were released on the same 45. The Beserkley version was called "Roadrunner Once" and the Cale demo was called "Roadrunner Twice."

Roadrunner Once

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnmHgnPPkkQ

Roadrunner twice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZWoJ8_75Mo

What do you think?

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robertff
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby robertff » 20 May 2022, 19:16

The second one.




.

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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Mike Boom » 20 May 2022, 19:22

By a mile the second one, the one on the Modern Lovers album, I didn't even know there was another one.

That whole Modern Lovers album with She Cracked , Girlfriend Pablo Picasso and Astral Plane is greatness, I played it into the ground at the time

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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Matt Wilson » 20 May 2022, 19:23

I like the second one better too, I just figured we'd get some UK support for the first one since it was the A side of the 45.

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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Charlie O. » 21 May 2022, 02:35

I was sure the first one was a shoo-in (it's early yet, of course) - but I prefer the second one myself.

There's also "Roadrunner (Thrice)" - an "outtake" from the Modern Lovers Live album, released as the super-long b-side of "The Morning Of Our Lives", and later re-released on an atrociously packaged but useful Castle CD comp called Roadrunner (not to be confused with the later Roadrunner Roadrunner). It's fantastic in its own right - possibly even the best of the three.




Then there are two further versions from the 1973 Kim Fowley-produced sessions. They're decidedly less essential than the other three, but interesting: Jonathan sounds like he's bored with this song he wrote when he was a teenager, but struggling to find a way back into it - as he successfully did on the subsequent Beserkeley recordings.

At a show I caught in 1988 or '89, a couple of guys in the audience kept yelling for the song. Jonathan hadn't played it in years and wasn't about to now (as I think everyone else in the mostly-adoring audience understood), but he did eventually take the time to explain why: "I wrote that song when I was eighteen, at a time in my life when I didn't have a lot going for me. I was this scrawny, lonely kid who didn't have a girlfriend - and that's what the song is about, it's about me driving around to take my mind off how lonely I was. And... I'm just not that guy any more! I'm thirty-six, I've got a loving wife and family, I'm in WAY better shape than I was then [strikes body-builder pose, to audience laughter]... so, you know, it just feels somehow dishonest for me to sing that song now. It's not that I don't like the song - I love it, it means a lot to me. It means too much to me to do a half-assed version of it, is what it is, basically. Okay?"

"Oh, c'mon, just do the song, dammit!" one of the jerks literally whined in response.
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby GoogaMooga » 21 May 2022, 06:09

:lol:
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby The Slider » 21 May 2022, 11:09

I could have sworn that Once and Twice were actually named the other way around.
I like the one without the prominent organ best because that was the way I heard it first and most, so it sounds 'right' to me.
But frankly either will do me
I don't like the 'thrice' version very much
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Charlie O. » 21 May 2022, 15:48

The Slider wrote:I could have sworn that Once and Twice were actually named the other way around.

I think you're right. The Cale demo was the b-side.
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Matt Wilson » 21 May 2022, 16:32

The Cale version is the B-side in my first post, just like it was on the UK 45, which made #11 on their charts.

Wiki: "Recordings by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Richman's band the Modern Lovers first recorded "Roadrunner" with producer John Cale (previously of the Velvet Underground) in 1972. This version was first released as a single and in 1976 on the Modern Lovers' long-delayed but highly acclaimed self-titled debut album (originally Home of the Hits HH019). Being a rock and roll standard, the song is also regarded as a garage band classic and proto-punk anthem.

Later in 1972, the group recorded two more versions with Kim Fowley, which were released in 1981 on the album, The Original Modern Lovers (Bomp BLP 4021). A live version from 1973 was also later officially released on the album Live At Longbranch Saloon.

The most commercially successful version of the song, credited to Richman as a solo artist, was recorded for Beserkley Records in late 1974, produced by label boss Matthew King Kaufman, featured Jonathan backed by The Greg Kihn Band and released at the time on a single (Beserkley B-34701) with a B-side by the band Earth Quake. Kaufman stated: "To record "Roadrunner" took the 3 minutes 35 seconds for the performance, about another 30 minutes to dump the background vocals on, and another 90 minutes to mix it". Actually Kaufman was mistaken - this version is listed on the UK release of the single as being 4:40.

This version was reissued in 1975 on the album Beserkley Chartbusters Vol. 1 (Beserkley JBZ-0044). In the UK, where Richman had received substantial and very positive publicity in the music press, it was released in 1977 as a single (Beserkley BZZ 1), known as “Roadrunner (Once)” and credited to Jonathan Richman, with the Cale-produced “Roadrunner (Twice)” on the B-side, credited to the Modern Lovers, and lasting approximately 4:06. This single reached number 11 in the UK singles chart in August 1977. Also in 1977, a live version titled “Roadrunner (Thrice)” lasting 8:24 was released as the B-side of the UK single "The Morning Of Our Lives" (Beserkley BZZ 7).

The differences among all these versions are in the lyrics, the duration, the instrumentation (electric garage rock vs. acoustic rock) and the way Richman sings them."

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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Matt Wilson » 21 May 2022, 16:52

There's a similar conundrum with Richard Hell's "Blank Generation." The original 1976 UK 45:

Go to 6:11 to hear it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOJjhxEwKqY

The 1977 LP version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9FkQLjOSZ8

Again, I know the one on the album best.

And for the hell of it, here's Hell with Television doing it live in 1974. Sounds almost the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqsDXmmaEAk

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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby The Slider » 22 May 2022, 18:37

Well I went forensic - the organ version is 4.05ish while the more leisurely version is 4.40
The UK single label indicates Once as 4.40 - it gives no time for twice
Maybe it was a typo or a mispress but it seems that wiki is correct after all
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Re: Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

Postby Tom Waits For No One » 22 May 2022, 18:43

Once on the A-Side is the 'polite version'

Twice on the B-Side is the Modern Lovers 'mighty swelling organ' version

https://www.discogs.com/release/476145- ... unner-Once
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