''The Original Modern Lovers'' is an album of songs recorded by American rock band the Modern Lovers. The sessions were produced by

Kim Fowley Kim Vincent Fowley (July 21, 1939 – January 15, 2015) was the American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed The Runaways in the 1970s. He has been ...

in 1973 and first released in 1981 by Fowley's short-lived Mohawk Records label, a subsidiary of Bomp! Records.

Background

After recording demo sessions in 1972 with

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...

for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

and others with Alan Mason and Robert Appere for A&M, the Modern Lovers re-performed some of the same songs, as well as some previously not recorded, with music impresario

. Some of these tracks were produced by Stuart "Dinky" Dawson and would appear on the 1986 reissue of the band's self-titled album that compiled both the Warner Bros. and A&M demos.Dinky Who?
/ref> Other tracks recorded by Fowley were less polished, with frontman

Jonathan Richman Jonathan Michael Richman (born May 16, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic a ...

taking inspiration from Stooges vocalist

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

.Tim Mitchell, There's Something About Jonathan, 1999, These included new versions of "She Cracked", "Astral Plane", "I'm Straight", "Girlfriend" and two versions of " Roadrunner", as well as the songs "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms", "Walk Up The Street", "Dance With Me" and the

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

"Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste". Richman also credited James Osterberg (Iggy Pop) as co-writer on "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms" as a way of acknowledging that the song borrows a Stooges guitar riff. After deciding to sign with Warner Bros. and enlisting Cale as producer, the band began to fall apart due to personal and artistic differences between its members. Richman now wanted his songs to be mellower and less aggressive. The Modern Lovers' second recording date with Cale was cancelled and Warner Bros. hired Kim Fowley to work with the band again, but without results. Warner Bros. terminated the Modern Lovers' contract and the band broke up in 1974.

Release

Beserkley Records issued the more polished demo sessions as ''The Modern Lovers'' in 1976, and 10 of Fowley's rougher versions came out five years later as ''The Original Modern Lovers'' with certain song titles appearing in alternate spellings. The LP was the second and final release on Fowley's label Mohawk Records (the other being by Los Angeles punk band the Germs), a subsidiary of Bomp! Records who would issue further editions of the LP. Richman has taken issue with the album's title because the Jerry Harrison/Ernie Brooks/ David Robinson line up was not the original formation of the band. There are also disputes about when the versions of the songs on ''The Original Modern Lovers'' were actually recorded.

Track listing

All songs by Jonathan Richman, except "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms" by Jonathan Richman and James Osterberg. # "Road Runner #1"† # "She Cracked" # "Astral Plain"† # "I'm Straight"‡ # "Walk up the Street" # "I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms" # "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste" # "Dance With Me" # "Girlfren"† # "Road Runner #2"† † Song title spellings vary on different Modern Lovers albums.
‡ "I'm Straight" appeared on the Mohawk Records edition of the album but was omitted for further Bomp! releases. It differs from the version that would surface on reissues of the band's first album

Personnel

;The Modern Lovers *

– vocals, electric guitars * Jerry Harrison – piano, organ, backing vocals * Ernie Brooks – bass, backing vocals * David Robinson – drums, backing vocals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Original Modern Lovers, The 1981 albums Jonathan Richman albums Bomp! Records albums