ROADRUNNER JOSHUA CLOVER

A SONG BY JONATHAN RICHMAN & THE MODERN LOVERS ROADRUNNER SINGLES ▶ A SERIES EDITED BY JOSHUA CLOVER AND EMILY J. LORDI Jonathan Richman around 1972, with Modern Lovers. Department of Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. ROADRUNNER JOSHUA CLOVER

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DURHAM AND LONDON 2021 © 2021 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-­free paper ∞ Designed by Matthew Tauch Typeset in Bitter and Work Sans by Copperline Book Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Clover, Joshua, author. Title: Roadrunner / Joshua Clover. Other titles: Singles (Duke University Press) Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2021. | Series: Singles | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2020049234 (print) lccn 2020049235 (ebook) isbn 9781478013471 (hardcover) isbn 9781478014393 (paperback) isbn 9781478021698 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Richman, Jonathan (Vocalist)—Criticism and interpretation. | Richman, Jonathan (Vocalist). Roadrunner (Song) | Modern Lovers (Musical group) | Rock music—United States—History and criticism. | Popular music—United States— History and criticism. | Automobiles—Songs and music—History and criticism. | Automobiles—Social aspects—United States. Classification: lcc ml420.r5572 c56 2021 (print) | lcc ml420.r5572 (ebook) | ddc 782.42166092—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049234 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049235 CONTENTS

1 01 Rock & Roll Radio, 1980 7 02 Faster Miles an Hour, 1972 29 03 That Highway Sound, 1955 61 04 The Main Streets and the Cinema Aisles, 1997 81 05 World Runner, 2007 105 06 In Love with the Modern World, 1972

121 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 123 NOTES 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY 127 INDEX

01 Rock & Roll Radio, 1980

They were just another band out of Boston. Private Lightning were local heroes at the end of the seventies who got their shot at the big time with their 1980 major label debut, self-titled­ as unwritten law demands. They were just another band out of Bos- ton but there were worse starting positions right around then. The Cars’ self-­titled debut from 1978 would move six million cop- ies. Boston’s self-­titled debut from 1976 is presently the twelfth best-selling­ album of all time. Private Lightning never broke nationally. Perhaps it is obvious why. “Christopher Sky is the afternoon dj on rock & roll radio,” begins “Song of the Kite,” one of their lead singles. No one but Prince could get away with that name for a character in a song. Reader, I do not want to mention this but I feel compelled to note that the opening line is perfect dactylic hexameter, the verse meter of epic poetry. The Iliad, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses. It is almost never used in English. Adam Sherman hits the weighted sylla- dio” fervently because those fervently dio” things ra There is no stripping away the allegory from the kite, “the color color “the kite, the from allegory the away stripping no is There roll” and & roll” “ “rock in bles & meaning is roll Rock then. the epic Or what are matters. now, it lost maybe already was as the epic is lost. “Do remember you pos- of 1980, spring in the Ramones the asked radio?” & roll rock later Kite” the of “Song play would that channel same the on sibly more but meter epic tracing again “Kite” of line second set, the in for born he was knows everyone velvet, is like “His voice loosely: simile. No with one that the hackneyed could studio.” get away One while is The day Christopher story lying quickly. develops in a withfield, he rhymes “beautiful sees a which beautifulkite, unforgettable “an heart his in hears He light.” of “vision and sight” vision The song. the within song the kite, of song the is This song.” him leaves mute for seven months during which he vanishes else, and returning amid from finallyeverywhere the airwaves not does he But in. listens Everybody excitation. and rumor great “the studio, darkened the in music recorded play not does speak, voice turntables still Instead hegives and off.” the tape players to a the single song, his of rendition the song he that day, heard time. first the for hear to get too we that song the kite, the of song we throughout, repeat will it as repeating bears it that, onto Hold radio. the to listening is someone where radio the to listening are in the is “There love Sherman, sings, by voiced Sky, Christopher cut. Chorus, again. and then it again he sings and then world,” We a of tail a wood, mile long.” or crossbar the of more crimson, get is which it. though the named Even character Christopher,

Chapter one ▲ 2 “I tune in myin tune “I tor makes the only possible move to escape his restless boredom: neutral,in is summer.”thismotionless As night falls, narraour - Speed”Privateis Lightning’s begins,it “Myand heart hit biggest It sounds a bit more like the Cars and it is about driving. “Physical song isalsointerested inthe radio but inamore secular register. sing members.But “Song theof Kite” was only A-double a of half band’sPrivatetheremembered familyoutside song Lightning is love. worldtherethe love worldin there is the love worldin thereis allyreturn fromexile with messagelove.a of There loveis thein eventutheydrill, - theknow you and Christs,it everyonedoes lesser the and saints the contemplation, all and silenceascetic exteriorexile from society interioran and exile into ascesis, into double exile that features regularly in redemption songs, both an Damascus,roadtothe on theor desert the in or hell in months the violence of grief” violencetheof that scarcely anything remains ofthe suddennessofdeath and evenly so spread lament, centuriesover the of dilution infinite history (Elias Canetti memorably describes Christianity as“an crucifixion ofthe sky across of the mark endless and absolute the blood, the is tail cross;the wooden old the upon Christ is thekiteactersis it thatname, himself itself thatsometimes and theexactmeans thingherewhenPrincesame as gave charhis - It would be something if this anagogicthisweredisaster if something onlywould thebe It le. The track on the flip side is called “Physical called is side flip Speed.”trackthe The on This le. radio,am turnthekeyI go.”I and There’s theradio. 1 ). Christopher’s). followedis vision by seven ­ side

3 ▼ Rock & Roll Radio, 1980

- aimless circu these letters to to letters these you , highway , car er one. But this never hap- never this er one. But ­ deliv us; us; then the “and chorus: I ride, and I ride, chor ­ This This leads back around to “Song we before leave of the Kite,” I have omitted one obscure detail. In the first verse, before he he before verse, detail. In the one first omitted obscure I have pens, he just rides. Nothing is delivered . . . unless the song itself is itself song the unless . . . delivered is Nothing rides. just he pens, - someone that will hear letter the com he has letter the written, will you that message the radio, the of out darkness, the of out ing receive. one day in us set to here just were they good, for behind Lightning Private is another book. There of this title song in the the motion toward reading of the song. This reading at is allegorical all.barely It’s That’s the That’s pre- can what ride, I and ride, I and need, I what just is speed physical repeats back, circles verse second The you.” for lonely so I’m do, I is engine the blasting, radio’s the on highway, the “out scene: the as fast The racing, song as - is it not innova goes.” a particularly of its but old it building mythology, of blocks, retelling rock tive efficient atis setting admirably all the elements in andplace in seconds: ninety about within motion go. it, it, got . Get radio & roll , rock , loneliness, nighttime larity himself launches onto the road, our nameless has driver been busying himself otherwise: “I write all these letters to drop in during highway the on Out whom. to out find never We mail.” the the in verse first the of much repeats descant a verse, second the post to intimates, song the around, driving is He mail.” the in drop hand- to or perhaps a message background, with a background, small change: “I write

Chapter one ▲ 4 a popsongbecause that isthe disposable commodity to measure put all of this into a song, their own song for once, they put it into ordinary, about how they are in love with the modern world. They world to deliver their message about the extraordinariness of the and they need to tell you about this, they need to drive around the that the world comprises these things and is thus itself beautiful, is trivial, that the world is in fact filled with such beautiful things, rather that it is beautiful even if it is trivial, or beautiful because it others’ music, sees that this object is not abject and degraded but their remnants, and anyway this person, this lover and curator of beto then and commoditiesworld,modern be the to objects in in any regard the object is a commodity because that’s the fate of trivialproletarian,or chewinga or wrapper,gum we could call thisobject common or signneon a be well as just could it kitebut a be could It object. nical, devotedis others;toof the music they are,overly tobe not tech - ferent in different moments, the song that is ten thousand songs. I am goingur-calltotheam I multiple the origin of the single? And it is this that will yield what the not Isnew? being wayof our storiestogether old snapping that can be combined with the story of physical speed—and is not one but different one story,a old an also is story.It the . . . just The story is this: There is a fan of such enthusiasm that their life This of them bookisaboutall andoneinparticular. adjacent to the radio. One day they encounter anordinary popular ­st ory,folktale,a social,shared and dif in the old sense, old the in , but of the, people -

5 ▼ Rock & Roll Radio, 1980 It is the most ordinary single of all time. single most ordinary It is the all other disposable commodities, the pure thing, the paradigm all thing, the the paradigm pure other disposable commodities, for the or kite the neon sign or and the gum chewing wrapper, the radio have on, or they the radio because have they although sing. to begin on, they

Chapter one ■ 6 NOTES

Chapter 1. Rock & Roll Radio, 1980 Chapter 3. That Highway Sound, 1955 1. Canetti, Crowds and Power, 155. 1. Barton, “The Car, the Radio, the Night.” 2. Christgau, Any Old Way You Choose It, 144. Chapter 2. Faster Miles an Hour, 1972 3. Powers, “Bittersweet Little Rock and Roller.” 1. Mitchell, There’s Something about Jona- 4. Walsh, Astral Weeks, 120. than, 20. 5. Hans Thomalla, personal correspon- 2. Vasari, Lives of the Artists, 177. dence, April 4, 2017. 3. Mitchell, There’s Something about Jona- 6. McNeil, “Modern Lovers Bassist Ernie than, 20. Brooks.” 4. Marcus, Lipstick Traces, 60. 7. L. Robinson, “New Velvet Underground,” 5. Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies, 21. 90. 6. Stop & Shop, “Our History.” 8. Quoted in Mitchell, There’s Something 7. Mitchell, There’s Something about Jona- about Jonathan, 72 – 73. than, 20. 9. Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies, 19. 8. Lees-­Maffei, “Men, Motors, Markets and 10. Smucker, Why the Beach Boys Matter, 16. Women,” 363. 11. Christgau, “Ain’t That a Shame.” 9. Stephen Bayley quoted in Lees-­Maffei, 12. Mitchell, There’s Something about Jona- “Men, Motors, Markets and Women,” 368. than, 26. 10. Sagan, Aimez-­vous Brahms, 11. 13. Smucker, Why the Beach Boys Matter, 21. 11. Benjamin, Illuminations, 222. 14. Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies, 39. 15. Flink, Car Culture, 211.