National Lampoon put out several albums, two of them masterpieces: Lemmings and Radio Dinner. Tony Hendra may be a monster in dire need of chemical castration (I just read his daughter’s book), but he could write song parodies like nobody’s business. And while I’m glad I never got to know Michael O’Donoghue personally, his short sketches were the defining edge of brilliance.
Does anyone remember those tapes that Dudley Moore did with his friend in the 1970’s. . .I want to say something like “Peter Green” but that’s the guy from Fleetwood Mac.
google: Peter Cook.
I have a british friend that played some for me. Very funny stuff.
Fair enough. “Philosophy” is the only one I own thus far, but I’ll put that one on my “To Buy” list.
there was the “At Last, the 1938 Show” or some such title around the same time as Cook/Moore, but I’m not sure if that was the show they were in
Missed it by this much.
The first came out my senior year in high school, the rest during college. We all gathered around to listen to it. In Cambridge in late 1969, many a confused pizza guy got an order of “pizza to go, no anchovies.” I agree about adding Bozos to the best list - a prescient album about hacking PSP-10s (which is where twelve jobs, two detached comes from.)
The first two Tom Lehrer albums are also on my list - but the live versions are better than the studio ones (I have both.)
A Place For My Stuff. I think comedy albums are better in studio in most cases. And I think there’s a place on TV for “Asshole, Jackoff, Scumbag”.
Really??? A comedy album, especially from a one man stand up act, which often depends on audience reaction, is better from a studio as opposed to a live recording???
What? No one else ever liked Rodney Dangerfield’s No Respect?
[loosens tie]
Bruce McCulloch’s Shame-based Man has some classic songs: Daddy’s on the Drink Again, Eraserhead, Our Love and Lift Me Up (Don’t Fuck Me Over). Bruce had to keep it relatively clean and palatable for the TV consumers when he was a member of Kids in the Hall, but on this album he gets to shake a few demons out of his head. As a nice counterpoint, there are a handful of relatively innocuous (some might say lame, but not me) tunes and sketches.
You’re referring to the Derek and Clive albums, which surely represent some kind of high (or low) water mark in scatological/obscene humor. You have to love a CD that opens with the two performers telling you what a stupid cunt you are for buying their album. The show Cook and Moore were doing at the time of Derek and Clive, called Good Evening, was pretty funny and did make it to record at some point. “Frog and Peach” (about a restaurant that only serves two dishes—guess what they are) is a riot.
Most of my favorites have also been mentioned, but since we’re on the topic of Peter Cook, the album he did with Chris Morris, Why Bother?, is hilarious.
Peche a la Frog and Frog a la Peche
“It’s enough to put you off your food—which is a blessing, considering what the food is.”
Another vote for Shelley Berman and Stan Freberg.
I’ll add Beyond the Fringe, Flanders and Swann’s At the Drop of a Hat, and David Steinberg’s The Incredible Shrinking God.
“She’s not a well woman.”
When I was a kid,I’d go to my uncle’s house,sneak downstairs and just stare at the redd Foxx albums.The covers were so obscene the his material had to be blue and hilarious.I’ve heard a few cuts from Moms Mabley and Pigfeet Markham.
I just realized no one mentioned Richard Pryor who had me rolling on the floor and influenced a generation of comics
I did! I mentioned that I have all his albums. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Little Feets.”
sorry.I should have given you that credit
Anyone know who recorded Irving,the 142nd fastest Gun in The West?
“141 was faster than he,but Irving went looking for 143”
Frank Gallop, famous TV & radio announcer and voice actor, comedian in his spare time.