ROADRUNNER (Sex Pistols)
“Roadrunner” is a song written by Jonathan Richman and recorded in various versions by Richman and his band, in most cases credited as the Modern Lovers. A version of “Roadrunner” was recorded by the Sex Pistols as a rough demo in 1976, seemingly in a spontaneous transition from Chuck Berry’s legendary “Johnny B. Goode”, which is in the same key and a similar tempo. This recording was then overdubbed upon in 1978, and released in 1979 on The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle album. (More from Wikipedia)
The Modern Lovers is probably best known for their song “Pablo Picasso”. (Another of their tracks is “Roadrunner”; “Roadrunner” was covered by Sex Pistols on their little-known, sort-of second album, The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle). I actually first heard the song on the Phranc album, Positively Phranc (1991), where (with Jonathan Richman’s blessing) she had rewritten the song as “Gertrude Stein” in honor of the famed Paris avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein who was the life partner of Alice B. Toklas – her 1954 recipe for marijuana brownies was celebrated in the Peter Sellers film, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968). An excerpt of “Pablo Picasso” (as performed by Burning Sensations) appears in the 1985 cult classic film, Repo Man that has been in heavy rotation on my TiVo for most of the year.
(December 2016)
