Search - Lenny Bruce :: Lenny Bruce Originals 2

Best Of The Originals

11/17/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Best of the Originals series. But be warned that this is not the real Lenny: It is not live (the CD breaks off into "bits" which was not Lenny's style at all). It is also censored so badly you can hear the edits!Check Out the Carnegie Hall Concert. Still, this CD does have some good bits."

The Cover Art of the "Togetherness" LP...

D. Burleigh | Vancouver, BC (Canada) & West Los Angeles, CA. (US | 09/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lenny Bruce was one of the most brilliant and daring comedians of all time... Especially when he contracted/hired my late aunt Sylvia Mansfield (the Black woman) for $50.00 cash to model on the "Togetherness" LP cover to Lenny's right...



It was quite a story that was past down oral-traditionally to me from my late grandmother (Elizabeth Mansfield) of how Lenny first saw my aunt and my mom (as young post-teenage women) walking down the street of Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, California on a weekend shopping spree in the late 1950's... Moreover, according to my grandmother at the time, she said that Lenny came over to the house one late evening and begged her for a release so that my aunt Sylvia could do the "photo-shoot" for the LP cover-- my grandmother nearly called the police on him...which often seem to be a common trait with Lenny...



The cover art idea for this LP project was timely and extremely controversy for it's time...with Black guys posing under white sheets as "Kans Men..." (*Note, the actual "photo-shoot" was taken in front of the Abe Lincoln statue "up at" the Los Angeles Griffith Park Observatory, 2800 East Observatory Road Los Angeles, CA 90027).



Buy the CD or the original red vinyl LP if you can find it-- it is well worth every penny!



*Footnote, this LP was one of Elvis Presley's favorite comedy LP's...for proof of this, you can view it for yourself at his Graceland home in Nashville, TN, it is in one of his trophy cases...for all you Elvis fans...



--"Big Dave" Burleigh, 'AmeriCanadian' Record Producre."

More Classic Early Lenny Bruce

Eric Petersen | USA | 02/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

""[Lenny Bruce] is the eighth wonder of the world! You have to go back to Mark Twain to find anything remotely like him. And if they don't kill him or throw him in jail, he's liable to shake up this whole f'n country!" - Dick Gregory, African-American Comedian and ActivistThis CD compilation, like Originals Vol. 1, is an absolute must for all fans of the late, great Lenny Bruce. This volume contains two more early Lenny Bruce albums: I Am Not A Nut, Elect Me and American. Note: a few tracks from American were put on Volume one due to time constraints. The four albums collected on Originals Volumes 1 and 2 were originally released by Fantasy Records in the late 1950s and pressed onto fancy red vinyl. For the CD release, Fantasy has digitally remastered these recordings. The result is a crisp, clean sound that is a joy to hear. I know - my father owned all the LPs, and as a kid in the 70's, I would listen to them on the family Hi-Fi. The remastering and CD quality is a definite improvement.While these albums consisted of pre-written routines (in one bit, Lenny states that at the time, he did very little improv) and not the amazing free-form improvisational work of his later career, Lenny's genius and caustic wit shine through.Some of the classic bits on this CD include White Collar Drunks, My Trip To Miami, Our Governors, Lima Ohio, and Marriage, Divorce, and Motels. Also present are Lenny's all-time great routines like The Steve Allen Show (where he talks about his problems with Allen's censors), The Palladium (Lenny's satire of the working life of a comedian) and How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties, where Lenny attacks the casual racism of self-professed "enlightened" white folks of the late 1950s.These incendiary routines were the real reason why Lenny Bruce was persecuted by the authorities, not his use of vulgar language. Buy this CD and hear for yourself why Lenny Bruce was the most brilliant and daring comedian of all time."