“Dodge Veg-O-Matic” by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

"Dodge Veg-O-Matic" is pure Jonathan Richman, who wrote the words and the music, and it rides along on Rock 'n' Roll with the Modern Lovers, the band's second album, put out by Beserkley in 1977. That's the record with the European hit "Egyptian Reggae", and it split the critics down the middle. Greil Marcus, in the Village Voice, called it the purest rock and roll album he'd heard that year, a record built on the notion that a good beat lets you get away with anything; Dave Marsh, in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, figured Richman had lost his vision and gone back to being a teenage twerp. Trouser Press landed somewhere between, noting that the folk songs, lullabies and kid-friendly originals tested how far his grown-up fans would play along.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.