RSSConsumer Guide by Review Date: 1973-03-11
1973-03-11
All in the Family: 2nd Album (Atlantic, 1972) Souvenir. Compares unfavorably with those shows I've seen (note verb) and makes me wish I'd seen (note verb) the ones I haven't. C
Sandy Baron: God Save the Queens (A&M, 1972) Proves that gay and gladsome do not necessarily go together, no matter what the thesaurus says. D-
Lenny Bruce: The Best of Lenny Bruce (Fantasy, 1962) A
Lenny Bruce: To Is a Preposition; Come Is a Verb (Douglas, 1970) Because of the way his intense humanism is balanced and sometimes overwhelmed by his tormented bitterness, Bruce is the father of modern humor, the man who transformed schtick into tragicomedy. Now that he's a totem, three labels (Fantasy, United Artists and Bizarre) have released multi-record, live concert albums, but they tend to drag. I suggest the two edited collections above, the Fantasy for a notion of his roots, the Douglas for his rich middle period. A
George Carlin: Class Clown (Little David, 1972) I much prefer the organic humor of this LP to the contrived bits and pieces of Carlin's Grammy winning AM and FM. Like Bill Cosby, Carlin seems genuinely good-natured--his takeoffs on his old parochial school buddies are affectionate and respectful. This is probably why his political humor tends to go a little flat--he can't muster the sustained hostility it requires. That is, he may end a parody of "America" "from sea to oily sea," but he'll never echo Robert Klein's suggestion that what one man can do to stop pollution is put his mouth over the exhaust pipe--if the one man is the president of Amoco. Great in person, he'll be at the Westbury March 30. A-
Cheech & Chong: Big Bambu (A&M, 1972) The National Lampoon asks: "If dope smoking doesn't damage your brain, how come so many teenyboppers think Cheech & Chong are funny?" Answer: Because they are, in a cheap way. They are the Red Skelton of marijuana--the dopes they mock are so wasted that your everyday teen toker can feel superior without bothering to get straight. But they're effective physically, and they made the National Lampoon record possible. B-
Marshall Efron: The Nutrino News Network (Polydor, 1972) The hip mocking the straight isn't even as funny as the straight mocking the hip. D-
Firesign Theatre: Not Insane (Columbia, 1972) At their best, these four men represent the pinnacle of recorded comedy--multi-leveled both aurally and intellectually, almost silly-funny and very serious at the same time. Their second and third albums (How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All? and Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers) present their basic thesis--that the US lost World War II. Their fourth, a two-LP set of radio tapes entitled Dear Friends, is more conventionally ha-ha, albeit devastating. But on I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus, they abandon humor for sci-fi middle seriousness, and this one, recorded mostly at one of their rare live performances, is mostly sight gags. Nos. 2 and 3 are A+, No. 4 an A, No. 5 a B-. This one, C-
Harrison & Tyler: Try It--You'll Like It (Dore, 1972) Feminist mis-schtique. E+
Groucho Marx: An Evening with Groucho (A&M, 1972) I know it's sacrilegious to say this, but they should have gotten to him about five years earlier. C
Monty Python: Another Monty Python Record (Famous Charisma, 1971) Inspired cover and some very funny internal jokes, plus Karl Marx trying to win a living room set on a quiz show, but overall too British subtle-eccentric. C+
National Lampoon: Radio Dinner (Banana, 1972) Except for one stupid bit about a car that runs for president, this is funny throughout, and often savage. As usual, the Lampoon crew raises bad taste to the level of masochism--what's remarkable is that they do even better on record what they have demonstrated they can do in print. The Bangladesh tragedy team that closes the LP exemplify the limitations of bleeding-heartism. A-
Murray Roman: Busted (United Artists, 1972) Roman has spent some time in jail, which does not in itself make you a comedian, as David Harris has long since proven. Lenny Bruce felt sorry for himself sometimes, but he never invited the audience to weep along. E+
Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara: Laugh When You Like (Atlantic, 1972) I never liked, not even once. At least at Bridget Loves Bernie I grimace a little. D