The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner

I've mentioned before that a co-worker got me into a lot of music, mostly by introducing me to bands I'd heard of but not heard. But also some bands I'd never heard of nor heard.

One of the was The Modern Lovers. I'd heard a snippet of the Sex Pistols partial cover of Roadrunner, but not the original.

So I got to borrow the original Modern Lovers album. Here is Roadrunner, the first track:



The whole album is good. Two of the band members went on to much larger bands - Jerry Harrison took his keyboard skills to Talking Heads, and David Robinson co-founded The Cars.

Jonathan Richman went on to learn Spanish and sing quirky but amazing songs about vampires and girls and ice cream and dancing, some in English and some in Spanish. Also, he's the singer that has a very prominent role in There's Something About Mary, alongside his drummer Tommy Larkins. I remember watching that with a friend, hearing his voice and saying, "Hey, that's Jonathan Richman. HEY THERE HE IS!" as the camera pans across him at the opening.

I saw those two - Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins - at The Court Tavern in New Brunswick, NJ, years back. It was a great show, and it's a very small setting. As soon as the show ended, Jonathan was just standing there directly in front of me. So I stuck out my hand and said, "Great show, Jonathan." He shook my hand and said, "Thanks!"

Great venue, great show. And Jonathan Richman is rock-and-roll to his very soul. If you get a chance, go see him live.

I Like The Cover Better: Cars

Are there songs that you love, but you like a cover version better?

For me, one of those songs is "Cars" by Gary Numan.

I love that song. It's a mindworm seared into my life by endless viewings on MTV back in the day, airplay, the song popping up on New Wave compilations, and then later getting way more into Gary Numan.

It's great on the album, and it's great live.

But given a choice between the original and this cover/collaboration, I'll take the collaboration. The Gary Numan / Fear Factory combination really puts some body into this song and it really benefits from that. I've gone as far as to stick this version into my MP3 playlist in place of the original, and it works really well.

Honorable mentions: Gary Numan w/ NIN, live:

And this really unusual take on the song by The Leisure Society:

That's one I won't listen to over and over, but I'm really glad I found it. It's a very different spin on the song without losing its core feeling. Worth seeing if you like the original.

To qualify for one of these posts, I need to love the original, but love the cover better. That eliminates a lot of songs where I only like the cover. It also takes out a bunch of songs where the cover is great, but can't replace the original for me.