These have been a long time coming. You’ll know Keith and They Showed Me The Door To Bohemia from gigs in the past 5 years – Keith is that pagan tribute to Keef Richards. Jonathan has fun rhyming “Rolling Stones” with “looks like skin and bones” and “since the days of Brian Jones”.
There’s not quite the love for Keith (“Not exactly the blues because it’s sorta European too”) that JoJo shows for the Velvet Undergound (“Twangy sounds of the cheapest kind/Like ‘Guitar sale $29.99’") but then Sterling Morrison did say “if the Velvet Underground has a protege, it would be Jonathan”.
As if to prove the point, They Showed Me The Door To Bohemia does that VU thing of ‘playing less notes to leave more space, staying kind of still, looking kinda shy’. This is a song about being 16 in New York and finding the light. Its brightness and candour, reflected after almost half a century, are undiminished.
O Sun crosses the borders into a snappy Latin American rhythm. He’s been there before and you know what you’re getting (good things and good times). Wait Wait on the other side is an absolute pop peach that’s as fresh as new paint. Jonathan is “like a kid distracted” once again seeing the world for the first time through newly opened eyes. Underneath the spare guitar riff there’s even a hint of those garage rock organ riffs from the Longbranch Saloon.
You can buy these excellent singles from the nice people at Blue Arrow (I did, and they were nice).
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