The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso
Call super doofus Jonathan Richman what you will, but you can’t deny he wrote some really, really good songs. Not only that, his irony-fueled self deprecating nowave paved the way for Television, Talking Heads, They Might Be Giants among others.
It’s really no wonder why I’ve always really dug this song. Richman acts as the king of the losers, reciting how Pablo Picasso never “got called an asshole” as he tried to pick up girls, “unlike you” and presumably, Richman and his Modern Lovers as well. Like a nerdy Lou Reed, the song plods on over a single piano note and plucked guitar notes. The dry, detached humor of “Pablo Picasso” is pretty representative of the whole record and the bands legacy; a long running gag of loser anthems and oddball misfit jams.
June 25, 2008
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
