Comedy Record Corner

[catesta]

Some favorites...

Every time I hear a "best of" Howard Stern show it reminds me of how great Kinison was.

+ the original

[JSngry]

Speaking of Vaughn Meader, anybody ever heard this one?

It's an album-length comedy about...you guessed it. Pretty funny (and cynical) stuff, and no way did it get any push in 1971... but if you see it, carpe diem.

[Joe]

PBS-sponsored article on the history of comedy LPs

And does anyone else remember Steven Wright's first record?

I HAVE A PONY

[GA Russell]

What label was The First Family on?

[JSngry]

Cadence (the Archie Bleyer label, not the Bob Rusch one).

And there was a Volume 2, lest we forget.

[Chuck Nessa]

Also owners of the Candid label. Can you imagine a Vaughn Meader/Charles Mingus date?

[Mark Stryker]

Speaking of Vaughn Meader, anybody ever heard this one?

It's an album-length comedy about...you guessed it. Pretty funny (and cynical) stuff, and no way did it get any push in 1971... but if you see it, carpe diem.

Never knew this existed. Is Vaughn Meader in this picture? Always thought the First Family stuff was pretty lame, actually. No satire, just sitcom-safe jokes with Kennedy accents, though I always liked the distribution-of-bathroom toys bit and the punch line: "The rubber swahn is mine."

[Chuck Nessa]

He's leaning on the cross. Where else?

It is the focal point of the pic.

Edited June 28, 2010 by Chuck Nessa

[Mark Stryker]

Also owners of the Candid label. Can you imagine a Vaughn Meader/Charles Mingus date?

What would the words to "Fables of Faubus" sound like with a Boston-Kennedy accent?

[JSngry]

Speaking of Vaughn Meader, anybody ever heard this one?

It's an album-length comedy about...you guessed it. Pretty funny (and cynical) stuff, and no way did it get any push in 1971... but if you see it, carpe diem.

Never knew this existed. Is Vaughn Meader in this picture? Always thought the First Family stuff was pretty lame, actually. No satire, just sitcom-safe jokes with Kennedy accents, though I always liked the distribution-of-bathroom toys bit and the punch line: "The rubber swahn is mine."

This is a lot darker than that. Between '63 & '71, Meader...uh...."went through some changes"...

To summarize the album, Jesus comes back, starts out being rejected as a freak by all but the hippies, then gets an agent who spies novelty appeal. Then he becomes a star, starts speaking his mind, becomes uncommercial, and finally gets killed/assassinated. More commercial potential dead than alive.

And yeah, it is funny.

[Big Al]

We just recently got this album in our house and it's proven to be something of a catalyst for history for my teenage son. Plus it's just damn funny! Gotta spin it later to throw out some favorite quotes, but as Lady Bird says, "That's alraght!"

[GA Russell]

Cadence (the Archie Bleyer label, not the Bob Rusch one).

Thanks. I didn't remember that. I assume that you refer to the Cadence that had the Everly Brothers and Andy Williams.

[Stereojack]

Cadence (the Archie Bleyer label, not the Bob Rusch one).

Thanks. I didn't remember that. I assume that you refer to the Cadence that had the Everly Brothers and Andy Williams.

Yes, that's the one.

[JSngry]

That's the one.

[Mark Stryker]

Speaking of Vaughn Meader, anybody ever heard this one?

It's an album-length comedy about...you guessed it. Pretty funny (and cynical) stuff, and no way did it get any push in 1971... but if you see it, carpe diem.

Never knew this existed. Is Vaughn Meader in this picture? Always thought the First Family stuff was pretty lame, actually. No satire, just sitcom-safe jokes with Kennedy accents, though I always liked the distribution-of-bathroom toys bit and the punch line: "The rubber swahn is mine."

This is a lot darker than that. Between '63 & '71, Meader...uh...."went through some changes"...

To summarize the album, Jesus comes back, starts out being rejected as a freak by all but the hippies, then gets an agent who spies novelty appeal. Then he becomes a star, starts speaking his mind, becomes uncommercial, and finally gets killed/assassinated. More commercial potential dead than alive.

And yeah, it is funny.

Plot not unlike the film "Network" with Jesus as the Howard Beale character and Faye Dunaway as the agent. Not an exact parallel but interesting.

[Aggie87]

Yes, he started in the 1950s, was on Merv frequently, then disappeared for a while until Letterman brought him back in the 1980s.

When asked in an interview how he described his act, Brother Theodore called it "stand up tragedy."

Interestingly enough, he was also the voice of Gollum in the Rankin/Bass editions of The Hobbit and Return of the King, though not Bakshi's Lord of the Rings (despite the three being available as a set).

Edited June 29, 2010 by Aggie87

[Mark Stryker]

http://comedyspace.punchlinemagazine.com/_Bob-Newhart-Abe-Lincoln-vs-Madison-Ave/VIDEO/114895/10058.html

One of Newhart's classics and very prescient: "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue" from "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart"

Edited June 29, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[fent99]

Not sure I've got the idea here but when comedy records are mentioned I always think of a few that we listened to while growing up in Scotland in the 70s. Comedy, certainly more than jazz, can be very culturally specific and though we generally laugh at and 'get' the american cultural gags since we have access to much of your culture and comedy the British and Scottish stuff might mean little to anyone who wasn't around at the time.

Of the US stuff, I used to have a Spike Jones Album (any fans here?) and always loved I went to Your Wedding and Clink Clink Another Drink. Not sure I'd still find this funny.

A local classic is "Scotland the What" which was succesful a theatre review like Flanders and Swan but with couthy NE Scottish characters the albums were staples and I re-bought some lately and they made me laugh quite a lot!

Last story relates to the Billy Connolly albums that were everywhere in Scotland at a certain point in the 70s. My granny bought me and my brother a copy of "Get Right Intae Him" at the peak of Welly-mania in 1975 ("If it wasnae for your wellies" was a massive hit at the time, so I was 8). We were pretty excited and broke open the cellophane to have a good look at the gatefold sleeve to find a full length picture of Billy across the 2 inside faces, dressed as the Pope and pissing in the sink. Once we got over the shock we laughed like drains.

Other comedy albums were BBC or TV spinoffs "Not the 9'Oclock News" was a favourite. I picked up the Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin recently by Alan Coren and read by John Bird, who still does the same material by Robert Mugabe instead.

Edited June 30, 2010 by fent99

[BruceH]

PBS-sponsored article on the history of comedy LPs

And does anyone else remember Steven Wright's first record?

I HAVE A PONY

I hate to say this, but despite considering myself a big Steven Wright fan I never heard this album. I'm guessing it wasn't a huge seller. Kalo, ever heard (or owned) this one?

[BillF]

Of the US stuff, I used to have a Spike Jones Album (any fans here?)

Yes, indeed. Just pulled out my 1970s British vinyl version with"Cocktails for Two", "My Old Flame", "You Always Hurt the One You Love", "The Fuehrer's Face" and other gems!

[paul secor]

PBS-sponsored article on the history of comedy LPs

And does anyone else remember Steven Wright's first record?

I HAVE A PONY

I hate to say this, but despite considering myself a big Steven Wright fan I never heard this album. I'm guessing it wasn't a huge seller. Kalo, ever heard (or owned) this one?

I never disliked Steven Wright, but I always thought that he took Jackie Vernon's thing, added some modern touches, and ran to the bank with it.

[mjzee]

I used to own the first 3 Monty Python albums. This was before the TV show reached the US. "Another Monty Python Record," "Monty Python's Previous Record," and "Matching Tie and Handkerchief." These were not the audio portions of the TV shows, these were taped in the recording studio. Easily the funniest things I had ever heard, and somehow having to imagine the visuals made them even funnier. Some skits were never on the TV show. They also had certain LP-only attributes: On (I think) "Monty Python's Previous Record" was the skit about the Piranha Brothers, the gangsters who used sarcasm to chilling effect. On record, that skit ended with one gangster saying "Sorry, squier, I scratched the record." And the lead-out groove didn't lead to the label, it just repeated over and over and over, so you heard "Sorry, squier, I scratched the record (click) Sorry, squier, I scratched the record (click) Sorry, squier, I scratched..." etc. "Matching Tie and Handkerchief' had an amazing attribute: 2 side twos! There were 2 parallel grooves and, depending on which one your stylus landed on, you got one of 2 entirely different programs.

[JSngry]

I used to own the first 3 Monty Python albums. This was before the TV show reached the US.

Those were indeed funny records, but...Python made its US TV debut in the fall of 1974, right here in Dallas, on KERA, the local PBS station. For once, we were ahead of the curve!

Biut speaking of British comedy records...was it the Pye label that released some old Goon Show broadcasts on LP? I used to have one of those. Funny stuff indeed!

[BillF]

Always loved The Goon Show. Listened to it on the radio as a teenager in the 50s and in the 80s bought audio cassettes of it put out by the BBC. Shows are still regularly broadcast on digital radio.

[Mark Stryker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUCe5OaKldM&feature=related

Another fave in honor of this thread and July 4: "The Declaration of Independence" from Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Vol. 1" (Capitol)

There's an unfortunate skip in the recording used so you loose a great line during the song. Per one of the comments, here's the missing text:

Jefferson: Come on and put your signature on the list!

Franklin: It looks to have a very subversive twist!

Jefferson: How silly to assume it! Won't you nom de plume it....... today?!