Comedy CD Reviews

8/3/2019 Comedy CD Reviews

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/comedy-cd-reviews 1/7

.icllow t o n e a ro u n d these

scores, and she is supported bythe wonderfully poetic playing ofL e v in . B ra h m s ca l l e d these

sonatas for viola and piano, giv-ing the i n s t r u m e n t s e q u a lbilling, and this splendid collab-oration displays the grand musicof both parts. ECM's recorded

sound is very lifelike. P.B.

C o m e d yC a r l Reinerand Mel BrooksThe 2000 Year Old Man

in the Year 2000 ( R H I N O )

•IWie latest in a recent series of

I new recordings by long-dor-I m a n t co m e d y p e r fo rm e rs

(S t a n Freberg, The Fi res ign

Th e a t e r , T o m L e h r e r , T h eRutles) is the return of the f u n -niest stand-up personas of thepast tw o millennia. After a 24-y e a r h i a t u s , M e l B ro o k s t r i -umphant ly repri ses his 2000

Year Old Man role. With inter-v i e w e r C a r l R e i n e r , B r o o k sbegan his 2000 Year Old rou-tine while writing for Sid Caesarin the ea r ly 19503 , an d p e r -formed it at showbiz parties fo ryears . In 1960 they recorded

their first LP , which immediatelyestablished Brooks' character asa martyr who's seen and done it

al l ("I have over 42,000 chil-dren," he laments, "and not onecomes to vis i t " ) . Three morea l b u m s f o l l o w e d , in w h i c hBrooks told u s h i s tory 's f i rs tnational anthem ("Let em all goto hell/ Except Cave 76") andoffered such revisionist tidbits asP a u l R e ve re ' s a n t i -S e m i t i s m

("The Yiddish are coming!"). A tthe end of yet another century,Brooks' character is still alert —"smart as a ship," he would say— an d offers insight into com-puter sex, medicine and some ofth e forgot ten commandments("Thou shalt not squint"). Thisfifth Brooks/Reiner album isn'tquite up to the duo's earlier stan-dards; there are too m a n yHol lywood in- jokes outs ide rsmight not get, and on occasionthe 2000 Ye a r Old Man lets

Phe

I poI 1

Celebrities

loose with profanity, which ma ymake the CD unsuitable for chil-dren. But on the whole, it's still adelight. I defy anyone to play thisa lbum and not crack a smile

w h e n R e i n e r a s k s if B r o o k s 'f a t h e r w a s a d i s c i p l i n a r i a n .Brooks quickly replies, "Therew as no Aryan in that man!"

Andrew Milner

V a r i o u s ArtistsGolden Throats 4:Celebrities Butcher Songso f t h e Beatles ( R H I N O )

Bea t le s ' dominance inpopular music during the

9603 not only led to thou-sands of rock group imitators,but inspired pop vocalists of theday to do "meaningf ul" covers ofBeatle hits. M iddle-aged musicfans during the flower-power era

co u l d l i s ten toTe n n e s s e e E rn i eFord ' s "Le t It Be" orB i n g C ro s b y ' s " H e yJ u d e " a n d co n v i n cethemselves they werewith it. Of course, onem a n ' s t r a v e s t y isanother man's market-ing opportunity, andGolden Throats 4 slick-ly a n t h o l o g i z e s t h eworst of this genre.

Some of the worstoffenders include Joel

Grey's over-enunciat-

ed "She's Leaving H ome," MaeWest's shaky "Day Tripper" andGeorge B urns ' "W i th a Li t t l eH e l p F ro m M y Friends ." J oe

P e s c i , k n o w n in the '6os as

Little Joe, attempts "Got to GetY ou I n t o M y Life . " T o p a r a -phrase Goodfdlas, yeah, Joe, w edo think you're funny.

N o ba d record anthology iscomplete without Wil l i amShatner, and he's here with his"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."Shatner brings the same subtletyand understatement to Lenno n-McCartney as he did to Star Trek.

The common error in these coversis the attempt to impose anothermusical style on the Beatles. AlanCopeland actually underscores

" N o r w e g i a n W o o d " w i t h t h etheme f ro m " M i s s i o n :Impossible." (Surprisingly, this

cut won a G r a m m y in 1968.)"Norwegian Wood" appears a sec-on d t i m e , as Jan and D e a nunwisely add surf harmonies tothe song.

The Beatles are the most cov-ered group in music histo ry, soit's forgivable that no t every l ameBea t le s cover i s on th i s CD.Surpr is ing ly, though, noth ingfrom the soundtrack to the 1978Sgt. Pepper movie is here. Thereshould have at least been room

fo r S t e ve M a r t i n ' s e x e c ra b l e"Maxwell's Silver Hammer."A.M.



wise salutes the Kaycee masters,

no doubt resisting the temptation

o f complete stylistic imitation.

The Kansas City soundtrackpresents an approach to jazz that

is accurately historical y ithout ;becoming sta le or documentary

— unlike many of the "Young

Lion" re leases, this project t a k e sjazz off the pedestal, dusts it off,a n d breathes present-day life into

it. The best t r acks on this album

a re those recorded with aclub

audience, a s exemplified b y therapturous crowd interjections that

br ing each chorus higfier and high-

e r during vocal ist Kevin

Mahogany's blues, " I Lef t My

Get pas t this th re e -C D b o x

set's smarmy title ( b a s e d o n th emost n o t o r io us co v e r in Na t io n a l

Lampoon h is to ry) .and i t s se l f -con-sciously hip l i ne r no tes a n d you'll

discover a hilarious compilation o f

stuff f rom the Nat iona l Lam poon

Radio Hour, which a i red f rom

1973 to 1975.The Radio Hour skewered

everything frorn establishment

t a r g e t s l ike religion, b ig b u s i n e s sa n d politics to the counter-culture

b e l ie f s o f se x , d rugs a nd rock 'n 'roll, a n d d id s o boch with s a v a g ewit (se e "The R y e n O ' Ne a lS t o r y " ) . a n d g e n u i n e whn o ,

( "Ev i l S a n t a " ) . It's appar^i '.• j . < .



C O M E D Y



Comedy/

Spoken WordVarious Artists

Dementia 2000: Dr. Demcnta's 30thAn niversary C ollection( R H I N O )

After lavish two-disc sets commemorat ingDr. Demento's 20th and 25th anniversaries,



liturgical traditions; Modem Chant

is the perfect canvas for the pianist's

broad musical palette, and acatalyst

for brilliant trio work. Bley adopts

Gregorian harmonic conventions in

his reliance on unison and domi-

nant fifths, but only as a skeletal

framework. In"Digitant,"Bleyuses

a pedal point with modulating fifth

chords before releasing a solo state-

ment in octaves. At times, his right

and left hands engage in a sort of

contrapuntal conversation on thekeyboard. Bley's sidemen provide

much more than support; drummer

Bruce Ditmas plays with relaxed

control throughout the album,and

and two albums aurmhled posthu-

' mously)against Bruce, and Hicks

doesn't come off too shabbily.This

was not a comic preoccupied with

why youdrive on a parkway but

park in a driveway orother trivia.

He complains about the Gulf War,

the LAPD, comics who shill ("You

do » commercial, you're off theartistic roll call farntr... There'sa

price on your head, everything you

say is suspect") and the overall

"eighth-grade emotional level we're

at in this country."These CDs are not for the taint of

heart. Hicks Usometimes amazingly

hilarious, sometimes grotesquely

offensive, andoften both at once —



3OMEDY

3heechand Chong

•Vhere There's Smoke,.. There's C heech And C h o n gR H I N O )

When Iwas in high school during the 1980s

there was never a band or play rehearsalwithout somebody's boom box blaring the

constant refrain: "Open up, it's Dave!I got

the stuffl""Dave?... Dave'snot here." Beforethe arrival of Beavis and Butthead, Bill



COMEDY

Various Artists

T he Classic National Lampoon Box Set( U P R O A R E N T E R T A I N M E N T )

Thisfour-disc collection ofNational Lampoonalbums from the 1970sand

early 1980s(induding77ia&Not Funny, ThafsSick; TheNational Lampoon White

Album and Sex, Drugs,

Rock'n'Rdl and the End o f

the World) is one ^.oreattempt to resurrect the

Lampoon franchise for the21st century.The unfunnytrucker-song parody alb umRules of the Road was

released tw oyearsago, andthere's a Lampoon send-up

of TV poker programs in

the works—as you mighthaveguessed, this version

features strippoker.

Despite the good intentions, Lampoon's

moment has passed.Most of the once-out-rageous skits here wou ldn ' t shock con-

temporary audiencesaccustomed toHoward

Stern and The Aristocrats. ( I f , on the other

hand, you've been longing tohearRichard

Belzer quip about prison rape, this set isa godsend.) They've saved thebest for last,

though,as the Greatest Hits disc preserves

the funniest bits from the vintage Lampoon

era. "Pizza Man" perfectly nails the early-'60s"Leaderof the Pack" genreof teen death

pop songs, and "Deteriorata" demolishes

hippie philosophy ("You

are a flukeof theuniverse,

you have no right to be

here, and whetheryou

can hear it ornot,theuni-

verse is laughing behind

your back"). Recognizable;

voices include Gilda

Radner,Chevy Chase and

Christopher Guest (as

Bob Dylan on "Those

Fabulous Sixties," and as

a middle-class folkie

singing"Well-intentioned

Blues," about 30 years

before-A Mighty Wind).While the 1996 box set

of the Lampoon's Radio Hour programs ( B u y

Th i s Box or We'll Shoo t Th i s D o g ) w as pro-

fessionally presented, this set is decidedly

less slick.Therearen't anyold or new liner

notes, nor a list ofwhich performersdid

whichsketches. More laziness: three of the

Greatest Hits bits already appear on the

other albums in the set. TheLampoon folkswould havebeen better offsimply re-releas-

ingthe first Lampoon albums(Radio Dinner,Lemmings and Gold T urkey) instead of

the later, lamermaterial The Classic NationalLampoon recreates the original magazine

alltooprecisely—inordertogettothefiinny

s t u f f , yo u have towade through an awful lot

ofdreck.

—Andrew Milner

Documents

Comedy CD Reviews