Repetune - The Songs of our Heads

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Ice Cream Man (live)

Writing by Segal on Friday, 5 of October , 2007 at 7:52 pm

Listen to the first 48 seconds 

Speaking of songs with compositional links to the 1950s, tonight I turn attention to a piece of music that utilizes the time-tested C-A-F-G melodic progression. The differentiation is this - as with Holiday Road, this song was released much after the era of its inspiration - 1977, to be exact. In a year rife with the twin thrusts of Luke Skywalker and Johnny Rotten, this li’l ol’ paean stands out as the catchiest song ever about a frozen confections seller.
The album version, I can only assume, is well produced and lasts under four minutes. I say “assume” because the live version found on the Modern Lovers’ greatest hits collection is all the evidence I’ll ever need of the song’s greatness. The audience gives a round of applause, the classic riff chumbles along for four bars, someone plays a rack of bells, then Richman begins with his lyrical ode:

Ice cream man, on my street
I love your truck outside, it’s really neat
Now ice cream man, upon my block
I love your chimes, sir, they reel and rock

The allure of the song lies in its lack of facade, the marriage of the mathematically proven melody and lyrics completely bereft of irony. Richman & Lovers use every new verse to ratchet up the treacle and charm. With the second go-around, the backing musicians contribute a few “ding ding” vocals. A slanky guitar filigree, half rockabilly, half cornpone, mirrors Richman’s unfettered yet deadpan ebullience. Following traditional verse-chorus-verse, the band completes the song, then revisits the last verse, no less than 5 times. With each refrain, Richman’s voice becomes more strained in its vibrato, as if he is trying to convince us in earnest that that truck is the center of his universe.

Therein, you see, lies the true secret of the song. What is so simple about the song is what makes it so refreshing and goddamn hummable - the appeal it has for the kid in us. I close my eyes and envision the band on a low stage, its adoring hipster coterie sitting Indian style on small mats on the floor below, gently reeling and rocking like rows of bells. Each revisitation of the song makes it more insistent and pleading, as if… as if a child were singing it. Listening to it, I become a boy of 10 again, running to the sidewalk in the sticky summer evening with quarters jangling in my pocket, hoping to get a BooBerry Freeze, or maybe an Eskimo Pie this time, and they’ll never taste this sweet again.

 At about 4:40 into the song, Richman asks the audience, “You like the ice cream man?”. Yes, Jonathan. We like the ice cream man.

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Category: Jonathan Richman

What is a repetune?

It has happened to us all. For any reason, and sometimes for no reason at all, some obscure song we have heard but try to avoid manages to sneak itself into our head. It does nothing but repeat in our head over and over until one day, we realize it is gone. Then it only comes back again. These are those songs. These are repetunes.