There's a big difference between childish and child-like. Jonathan Richman's songs are often child-like in their appreciation of innocent pleasures like ice cream and abominable snowmen, but they incorporate a sharp sense of humour and a fiendish love of wordplay, and never resort to sappiness.
Richman's history as a Velvet Underground freak, East Coast punk pioneer and maker of one of the best albums of the '70s, The Modern Lovers, might seem to stand in stark contrast to the gentle acoustic songs he's been making since the early '80s. But it's possible to hear faint echoes of the old style in the beautifully crafted tunes on his latest album, Her Mystery Not Of High Heels And Eye Shadow. And his sense of humour was certainly evident when he played the wandering troubadour/Greek chorus in the Farrelly brothers' movie There's Something About Mary, which introduced him to a larger audience -- but not too large.
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