Re: You Can’t Talk To The Dude, genesis of

I’m not usually one to note the birthdays of celebrities (even live ones) on social media, but Jonathan Richman’s 70th birthday today seems like a reasonable exception to the rule, especially since I have a sort-of-personal connection to the reclusive Mr. R, who commendably doesn’t do social media.

The story involves my late wife Donna, who definitely had a few good stories to tell. I can affirm that this one is absolutely true (Donna didn’t tell no lies).

Re: You Can’t Talk To The Dude (Richman, Jonathan), genesis of

Excerpt from an email to me from my future wife, Donna Young, on Feb. 14, 2001. I was living in Slovenia at the time, she in New Jersey, and we had only been aware of each other’s existence for about a month. Among many, many other things we said to each other (I still think there’s a book here), she mentioned this tidbit about her and Jonathan Richman. Specifically, it’s about how an offhand remark by Donna led to Jonathan writing one of his better classic songs. At least I think it’s a classic song.

[Donna wrote] You’re very right about Jonathan Richman, of course. [I had said to her: ‘Talk about someone who turned his back on commercial success to go his own way.’] It’s been interesting to follow his career (or lack thereof, until recently). The first time I saw him was in ’88 at the Knitting Factory in NY. It was jammed and there was a guy who was particularly irate that Jonathan wasn’t taking his requests. I remember him screaming “I’m Just About Seventeen!” ad nauseam, and after Jonathan finally had the guy escorted out, he remarked drolly, “I guess he is just about seventeen.” The next time I saw him was a year later, in the fall. We worried that he wouldn’t be able to get tickets and arrived insanely early, only to find that only five people had shown up for the first show. That’s how I got to know Jonathan…It was the only time I ever heard him do “Walter Johnson” live, complete with an “ooh, scary!!” in each chorus in honor of an ill-timed creaky kitchen-door opening…A couple years later I took a friend with “man troubles” to see him, and when Jonathan came to sit with us for a while, I humored her by asking, “Jonathan, why are men the way they are?” A few nights later he called saying “I’ve got your answer…” and I heard “You Can’t Talk to the Dude” for the first time. It still amuses me…

Here’s a video of Jonathan performing it live in 2005 at the Middle East in Cambridge, Mass.!