Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – The Catalyst

here is the info file from Dime

Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA
18th October 1980

01 Intro
02 Baby We Can’t Go Wrong
03 Here Come The Martian Martians
04 Back In Your Life
05 Louie Louie [The Kingsmen]
06 Egyptian Reggae
07 Stop This Car
08 I Love Her Little Body
09 Lover Please [Billy Swan]
10 Rockin’ Rockin’ Leprechauns
11 My Love Is A Flower
12 Hang On Sloopy [The McCoys]
13 Shake [Sam Cooke]
14 Money [Barrett Strong]

01 Intro
02 Abdul and Cleopatra
03 Baby Baby Boss Me Around
04 Buzz Buzz Buzz [Hollywood Flames]
05 Affection
06 Hello Josephine [Fats Domino]
07 Ya-Ya [Lee Dorsey]
08 Important In Your Life
09 I’m A Little Dinosaur
10 Get In The Groove
11 Miracles Will Start To Happen
12 The Twist [Chubby Checker]
13 Shirin and Fahrad

Jonathan played the Catalyst on October 18, 1980 with Ronee Blakeley.

Thanks for the reseed. I’ve wanted this show for a long time because of the presence of all the covers, which were gone by shortly after this.

I saw this version of the band in early Jan 1981 and the personnel was

Ken Forfia — piano
Michael Guardabascio — drums
Curly Keranen — bass
Ellie Marshall — bg vocals
Beth Harrington — bg vocals
JR — vocals — and no guitar

This band lasted without peronnel changes until 1984.

With this band, Jonathan was resurrecting a concept he toyed with in 1975 which was getting onstage with a bunch of friends and having "fun". As time went by, the number of friends joining him on stage shrank until it was just him and a drummer.

This also marks the final end of the Chuck Berry fixation which dominated the records he made for Beserkely, although he’d begun to move away from that by the time Back in Your Life was recorded.

Disagree that this period marked some sort of lyrical transition. Songs like Abominable Snowman or Martian Martians or Little Dinosaur may seem silly, but they are really touching songs about alienation and isolation.