. . .IS IT SOMETHING I SAID?  -  RICHARD PRYOR

YEAR:  1975
LABEL:  Warner Bros.
TRACK LISTING:  Eulogy,  Shortage of White People,  New Niggers,  Cocaine,  Just Us,  Mudbone - Intro,  Mudbone - Little Feets,  When Your Woman Leaves You,  The Goodnight Kiss,  Women Are Beautiful,  Our Text For Today
IMPRESSIONS:  I led a sheltered life.  For some reason (most probably due to the naughty nature of the albums), I never heard an actual Richard Pryor album until my friend Cheeks gave me some cerpts tapes containing them.  And this was probably the first I got.  I know it's the one we got the most "catch-phrases" from.  And it was only when I recently got the new cd box set of Richard Pryor's 6 Warner Bros. albums from 1974-1983 and listened to these classic comedy gems which I hadn't heard for at least 15 years that all the memories came flooding back to me.  Not only did I suddenly remember where the hell I got some of those old catch-phrases from ("Goddamn baby, I love you but shit!") but also received another of those vivid sensory flashbacks discussed in the previous post.  Memories of those early early cerpts tapes that I would receive from Cheeks which alternated stuff like Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" song with Richard Pryor's "Mudbone" -- and all of this taped onto a Kmart cassette tape from his old wobbly-turntabled record player with the noticeable hum hinting that there must've been some shady wiring going on in that thing.  As familiar and well-loved as all this material is to me, I never even knew the names of the albums they were taken from until I got the new box set!  I wonder if Richard would be surprised that listening to his comedy albums would conjure up such a warm and fuzzy glow?
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  All of 'em.
FACT SHEET:  . . .IS IT SOMETHING I SAID? is Richard Pryor's fourth album and his first under his new contract with Warner Bros. records.  The album cover was conceived by Richard Pryor.  The album made #1 on the Billboard R&B album chart and won the Grammy award for Best Comedy Recording in 1976.  This is the first appearance on record of Pryor's "Mudbone" character.  "Just Us" is credited on the album label as having been "stolen from Paul Mooney".  The album was recorded almost right down the road from me at the now-defunct Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ.