Somehow I missed this: May 16 was the 65th birthday of singer Jonathan Richman.
Jonathan Richman is really hard to describe, but he’s sort of a weird blend of children’s singer Raffi and the Ramones. When I lived on Ellsworth Street in Berkeley from 1979 to 1983, he lived quite nearby, and we often saw him performing in Sproul Plaza on the Berkeley campus (where the photo above was taken, in 1981), or the club Berkeley Square on University Avenue. Once I saw him walking down the street, ran up to my apartment, and got one of his albums out for him to autograph, which he gladly did. I even have a picture of Jonathan and me together, but I only show it to close friends.
Here are a few of my favorite Jonathan Richman songs:
- Roadrunner, one of his famous early songs, about Boston
- Egyptian Reggae
- Ice Cream Man
- Back in Your Life
- Abominable Snowman in the Market
- New England
Happy 65th birthday, Jonathan!
I’m afraid we don’t have the same musical taste. Egyptian Reggae was a hit in The Netherlands, my native country. The link shows the video from a famous Dutch TV Show:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TopPop
As a teen I already thought it boring or annoying, depending on my mood.