Comedy vinyl classics

In this day and age, the best way to appreciate the first 4 Lenny Bruce albums on Fantasy is on the 2 CD reissues (The Originals, Volumes 1 and 2), simply because they included a glossary in the booklets explaining his many topical references which are now dated and often obscure. After I read the glossary, I found the records funny, droll, and thought-provoking in a historical sense. His 20-minute monologue "The Palladium" is a true classic; he does an extended bit about an unfunny comedian and manages to make it hilarious.

 

My Son, the Folk Singer is hilarious, despite all the inside Jewish humor. The Weird Al of the early '60s.

 

Before he fell from grace, Cosby was the gold standard of stand-up comedy. To Russell is a masterpiece. And I always dug how assymetrical the album was with 14 minutes on one side and 26 on the other.

 

Sa-rah Jack-man, Sa-rah Jack-man, How's by you? How's by you?
How's by you da fam-lee? How's yer sis-ter Em-lee?

 

Some not yet mentioned: Brother Dave Gardner was a Southern beatnik transcendentalist comic/storyteller/philosopher who came on like an old time revivalist preacher (sort of like Lenny Bruce without the gutter language). He would pop a handful of amphetamines and walk up on stage and just improvise. He was also a pretty highly accomplished drummer and one of his Capitol albums ends with a drum solo. His best albums are his earliest ones on RCA which are pretty easy to scare up in thrift stores. My favorite is Rejoice, Dear Hearts, produced by Chet Atkins.

Mike Warnke is a Christian comedian and ordained minister who fell from grace long before Bill Cosby did. With long, shaggy hair, he had a hippie persona and claimed to have been a high priest in the church of Satan before his conversion. These claims were later exposed as total fabrications and Warnke was also exposed as a drug-addicted adulterer who used the offerings collected at his concerts to fund his extravagant and decadent lifestyle(claiming to fund a non-existent orphanage). His albums all follow the same basic formula. He starts off with straight comedy, transitions into Christian-themed comedy, and before you realized it (somewhere in the middle of Side 2), he was seriously preaching to you, often referencing his alleged Satanic past. It was a pretty effective approach and the records contain some pretty funny material. They are all out of print.

Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts were a nitty-gritty R&B band specializing in bawdy songs, dirty jokes and limericks, and other scatological humor. They played a lot of frat parties in the early '60s. Their material is rather mild by today's standards, but quite racy back in the day. Doug Clark passed away in 2004, but a revolving cast of Hot Nuts continues to carry on under his name.

 

How's your cousin Rita? A regular Lolita.

 

It might just be a legend, but I've heard Lenny Bruce came out on stage on 11/23/63 and the first thing he said was "Poor Vaughn Meader".

 

OK, now I just have to hear the whole thing.

 

Aside from "Nick Danger" (one of the older-fashioned tracks they did sometimes) another entry point may be the album Dear Friends, where they do brief pieces instead of the album long concepts.

 

Give him an issue and he'll give you a tissue.

And what's that in the street ... could it be ... GARBAGE?

 

Mort Sahl albums are almost entirely on vinyl. I bought all of them (used) and transferred them to CD. I'm surprised a cheap collection of sorts has never emerged (say, 5 CDs for $7.98). I imagine the reason it wouldn't sell is because much of the material is historical - and even a bit estoeric for those who were adults at the time - and Sahl never used offensive language or sexual content. I think Lenny Bruce still sells because of his profanity and anger (Sahl always seemed amused, but never angry). Bruce often is marketed - disappointingly, to me - with a picture of him being arrested or flipping the camera.

 

No, this :O) below is comedy record instead! But you probably have to be French Canadian to dig it. Because like everything coming straight out of human brains back in them days (1960), the words go lightning fast... That being said even for me, because some expressions are now obsolete.

The various imitations from Réal Béland (Ti-Gus) (insects, plane, train, etc.) are out-of-this-world good! A lot of the spoken stuff is a bit racy, but most often as innuendos. Things I didn't get at all when I was a kid, but now I go "Oh, o-0-0-h..."

Also their musical numbers (French chansons, French Can. folklore, yodel, instrumental rags) were quite the tops!

This is probably the first record I ever heard live! Grandma had it, and whenever I had a chance I'd sneak to her portable record player (!) in the living room, when she was doing the dishes and Grandpa would smoke his pipe on the porch, and turned that one up as loud as I could! I can still smell the dusty lamps of that pick-up and see me glued to the speaker, mesmerized by those imitations... Magic! As corny as saying this sounds today, that's what it was!

 

There's this:

https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Idle-a...nd-Weekend-Television-Song-Book/master/140418

 

^ I'll have to get that record just to be able to read the Radio Times type listings!

 

I alway liked Wonderfullness with "The Chicken Heart" and "The Go-Cart Race"
8:15 12:15 is an interesting listen where Cosby gets into racy material which he wasn't known for.

 

"Chicken Heart" is definitely classic Cosby. I like 8:15/12:15 in that it's relatively unedited with him talking with people in the audience and variations of some of the same material at both shows. A very honest picture of how he worked the crowd.

 

"Chicken Heart" is definitely classic Cosby. I like 8:15/12:15 in that it's relatively unedited with him talking with people in the audience and variations of some of the same material at both shows. A very honest picture of how he worked the crowd.

 

Meader actually made an attempt at a comeback in 1972 with his album The Second Coming; basically a spoof of Jesus Christ Superstar and the "Jesus movement" prevalent at the time.

 

I really enjoy the two Moms Mabley LPs I found at a thrift shop The Funniest Woman in the World: Moms Mabley Onstage (her debut LP on Chess Records from 1960) and Moms Mabley at the 'UN' (the follow up Chess LP from 1961). She can sure spin a tale and even just on record has a sense of timing that drives what she has to say home deep and often with an edge you might not expect from the time. Very funny too.

 

I remember Moms, I think she was a semi-regular on the Smothers Brothers tv show. Didn't realize there were LPs, thanks!

 

I still can't find that Pat Harrington LP again. Is it also, like children's records, really hard to find comedy on vinyl that isn't totally hammered?

 

There are some copies at Amazon that don't seem so bad. There are even CD and mp3 versions. Also, I noticed there are clips - perhaps the entire album - on Youtube.

 

I know this might not make any sense, but I'm really hesitant about buying used vinyl through Amazon even though I have from Gemm, Musicstack, and eBay (carefully). Maybe I should give it a try, I've bought new vinyl there.

 

If you're a fan of "Contractual Obligation", hunt down the unreleased follow-up, "Monty Python's Hastily Cobbled Together For A Fast Buck Album."

It's almost entirely unused "Contractual" material, plus a couple other spare things (like a deleted sketch from 'Life Of Brian').