Guilty pleasures- music edition

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by bigrun

Have a box full of old lp vinyls, here's a few.
Carpenters,Close to You & Now and Then...Karen died way too young.
Barry - I made it through the rain
Aretha's Gold
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles greatest hits
Introducing The Beatles
Andy Williams - The Shadow of your smile
Richard Pryor's Greatest Hits
Christmas with the Chipmunks Vol 2
A real old jazz fav, June Christy with Stan Kenton..
and a host of others.

Also have about 50-60 cassette tapes,Patsy Cline my fav..Four Seasons, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Eddy Arnold,and an real old fav, Joni James and a ton of others...

My son worked for a major record company and i have several promo records.

Oh my God. Richard Pryor. So freaking funny. I was a little too young for his stand up when he was big, but now I really love him. What a brilliant, brilliant comic.

My brother's and my first cassette tape was a copy of Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have been listening to it. Between "Coward of the County" and "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" those are some mighty adult topics for elementary grade kids to be singing along to.

Of course, we also knew every word to "Centerfold" so, you know, what're you going to do.

Okay, I just thought of another guilty pleasure- (deep breath)- Juice Newton. I admit it.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Oh my God. Richard Pryor. So freaking funny. I was a little too young for his stand up when he was big, but now I really love him. What a brilliant, brilliant comic.

My brother's and my first cassette tape was a copy of Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have been listening to it. Between "Coward of the County" and "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" those are some mighty adult topics for elementary grade kids to be singing along to.

Of course, we also knew every word to "Centerfold" so, you know, what're you going to do.

Okay, I just thought of another guilty pleasure- (deep breath)- Juice Newton. I admit it.

My fav comedians back then hard to seperate..
Pryor
Carlin
Richard Lewis

Still have vcr tapes of HBO shows on all three...I liked Dennis Miller's stand-up back then but dropped him when he showed up on Fox politics.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by bigrun

My fav comedians back then hard to seperate..
Pryor
Carlin
Richard Lewis

Still have vcr tapes of HBO shows on all three...I liked Dennis Miller's stand-up back then but dropped him when he showed up on Fox politics.

Carlin's work is also some I've grown to love more and more the older I get.

I think the problem with Dennis Miller is so much of his schtick became about using totally obscure references as punchlines. Which I found funny for awhile, but it gets old. And then to make the hard tack to the right when the GOP was very much in control of gov't- where's the funny? You're the guy cheering on the guys in power and putting down the guys not in power. Which is anathema to what good comedy is, which is poking fun at the status quo. It was a really weird career choice, and I don't think he'll ever fully come back from it.

Not a comic, but someone whose appeal, for me, anyway, depended on his personal life was Howard Stern. I really liked him in the 1990's- I listened to his show every time my bosses were out of the office and really thought he was hilarious. But a lot of it was because I knew he was married. The humor came from this guy fantasizing about these things he couldn't actually do anything about in real life- it made, I think, for a connection with his audience, who also went home to their spouses, who might frequently bore and annoy them, but who they loved enough not to want to screw up their relationship with.

Once he split up with his wife and was basically free to do all the things he talked about, then he just sounded like another overprivileged rich guy who could get whatever he wanted because he had a lot of money.

Comics need to be able to connect to their audience on a personal level. I think Louis CK's stuff is hilarious, but what's especially funny is his stuff on how boring parenting is. In some ways, for all the cussing, though, he's less edgy than Bill Cosby's parenting routines in the 1980s which, now that I hear them today, are still hilarious, but REALLY edgy in that some times I wasn't sure he liked his kids. Cosby gets kind of written off as a cuddly comic, thanks to his sitcom, but his best stuff came from a really dark place, I think.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Carlin's work is also some I've grown to love more and more the older I get.

I think the problem with Dennis Miller is so much of his schtick became about using totally obscure references as punchlines. Which I found funny for awhile, but it gets old. And then to make the hard tack to the right when the GOP was very much in control of gov't- where's the funny? You're the guy cheering on the guys in power and putting down the guys not in power. Which is anathema to what good comedy is, which is poking fun at the status quo. It was a really weird career choice, and I don't think he'll ever fully come back from it.

Not a comic, but someone whose appeal, for me, anyway, depended on his personal life was Howard Stern. I really liked him in the 1990's- I listened to his show every time my bosses were out of the office and really thought he was hilarious. But a lot of it was because I knew he was married. The humor came from this guy fantasizing about these things he couldn't actually do anything about in real life- it made, I think, for a connection with his audience, who also went home to their spouses, who might frequently bore and annoy them, but who they loved enough not to want to screw up their relationship with.

Once he split up with his wife and was basically free to do all the things he talked about, then he just sounded like another overprivileged rich guy who could get whatever he wanted because he had a lot of money.

Comics need to be able to connect to their audience on a personal level. I think Louis CK's stuff is hilarious, but what's especially funny is his stuff on how boring parenting is. In some ways, for all the cussing, though, he's less edgy than Bill Cosby's parenting routines in the 1980s which, now that I hear them today, are still hilarious, but REALLY edgy in that some times I wasn't sure he liked his kids. Cosby gets kind of written off as a cuddly comic, thanks to his sitcom, but his best stuff came from a really dark place, I think.

Yeah, had the same problem with Miller after awhile..He was called a cerebral comic..thought i wasn't smart enough to get his punch lines.
I watched Stern's tv show some back when he was on cable...thought he was far out and pushy...lot's of sexy guests..
I catch Lewis Black's bit on the Daily Show when he guests, hilarious..

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by bigrun

Yeah, had the same problem with Miller after awhile..He was called a cerebral comic..thought i wasn't smart enough to get his punch lines.
I watched Stern's tv show some back when he was on cable...thought he was far out and pushy...lot's of sexy guests..
I catch Lewis Black's bit on the Daily Show when he guests, hilarious..

I like Lewis Black, too. We still laugh about his quip after the 2003 blackout in NYC when they sold Tshirts ("I survived the blackout")- "Congratulations! You're made of stronger stuff than ice cream!"

[Hickory Hill Hoff]

Tom Jones

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Hickory Hill Hoff

Tom Jones

Oh my God, I LOVE his cover of "Kiss." So much so that I need to go listen to it RIGHT NOW.