A collection of demos from 1972 that somehow became the template for punk rock. Jonathan Richman's deadpan delivery over three chords and a glee club energy. Raw, innocent, and impossibly influential. If you only know "Roadrunner," you're missing half the story.
The Modern Lovers album didn’t arrive in stores until 1976, but it had already been over for four years. The band had formed in Boston in 1970, played a handful of shows, recorded a trunkful of songs, and splintered. By the time Beserkley Records scraped together the master tapes and released this, Jonathan Richman was already chasing a different sound — softer, more childlike, almost a parody of the ragged electric band he’d left behind.
So this record is a document of a moment. A very specific, very fleeting moment in an old A&R studio on West 48th Street, and later at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles. John Cale sat behind the board for most of the sessions, which explains why the Velvet Underground’s ghost hovers over every track. Not the druggy Velvet, but the one that played tight, two-chord rippers with a cello sawing away in the corner.
Cale pushed the band to strip things down further. He wanted the rhythm guitar to be almost painful in its repetition. He wanted Richman’s voice dry and flat — no reverb, no rescue. The engineer, Geoffrey Haslam, later remembered the session as “controlled chaos.” Jerry Harrison, who would go on to play guitar in Talking Heads, was on second guitar. Ernie Brooks held down the bass. David Robinson — later of the Cars — hit the drums like he was trying to start a lawnmower. And Richman stood in front of them all, singing about car rides and girls and ice cream with the earnestness of a nine-year-old.
The Songs
“Roadrunner” is the one you know. That two-chord mantra, the organ that sounds like a cheap Farfisa bought at a pawn shop, the lyrics that are just a list of places in Massachusetts. It goes on for over four minutes, and it never gets old. But the real magic is in the deep cuts. “Pablo Picasso” — a two-and-a-half-minute sneer about a painter who could get any girl. Richman sings it like he’s both jealous and amused. The line “Well, some people try to pick up girls and get called assholes” might be the most honest opening in rock history.
“Someone I Care About” is the heart of the album. A slow one. Richman shows his vulnerability, his desire for a girl who doesn’t exist yet. The guitar line is almost gentle. It sounds like a different band.
“She Cracked” is a fuzz-guitar freakout that could be about a girl losing her mind or Richman losing his grip on reality. It’s hard to tell, and it doesn’t matter. The rhythm section chugs along like a freight train with a broken brake line.
The recording quality is what it is. Tapes from 1972, mixed for a 1976 release. The bass is woolly. The vocals sometimes clip. But that’s part of the charm. This isn’t an audiophile record. It’s a record that sounds like a punk album before punk had a name. It’s the sound of teenagers in a room trying to figure out how to be honest without being cute.
Richman’s influences were odd for the time. He loved the Velvets, of course, but also the Stooges and the Shangri-Las. He wanted to write songs that were as direct as bubblegum but as weird as a coffeehouse open mic. The result is something that still sounds alien forty years later.
Most of the Modern Lovers never reunited. Richman went on to make children’s music. Jerry Harrison produced and played. David Robinson drummed for the Cars until he quit. John Felice — the original guitarist — left before the sessions and later formed the Real Kids. The album itself sat in a vault until Beserkley’s Matthew King Kaufman convinced the Warner Bros. brass to let it out.
It sold modestly. But it never died. Every garage band that picks up a guitar and writes a three-chord anthem owes a little to this record. It’s messy, it’s awkward, it’s brilliant. And it’s still the only album that sounds like a bunch of kids from Newton, Massachusetts, trying to outrun the future.
🎵 Key Takeaways
- Recorded in 1972 but not released until 1976.
- John Cale produced with stripped down Velvet Underground sound.
- Cale demanded painful repetition and dry, flat vocals.
- Jerry Harrison and David Robinson later joined famous bands.
- Roadrunner's two-chord mantra lists Massachusetts places for four minutes.
- Pablo Picasso includes the honest open line about being assholes.
Why did The Modern Lovers album take four years to be released?
The band recorded the sessions in 1972 for A&M Records, but the label passed on releasing them. The band dissolved soon after. In 1976, the independent label Beserkley Records acquired the master tapes and assembled the album from the 1972 recordings, along with a few tracks from other sessions.
Who played on The Modern Lovers album?
The core band was Jonathan Richman (vocals, guitar), John Felice (guitar, later replaced by Jerry Harrison during sessions), Ernie Brooks (bass), and David Robinson (drums). Jerry Harrison played guitar on several tracks; he later joined Talking Heads. David Robinson later founded the Cars.
What is the best song on The Modern Lovers?
'Roadrunner' is the undeniable classic — a two-chord anthem about driving around Massachusetts that defined the sound of punk. 'Pablo Picasso' and 'She Cracked' are also essential, and 'Someone I Care About' shows Richman's tender side. The entire album is remarkably consistent for a collection of outtakes.