Classic Rock Bottom

     I think we already established the fact that I love humor. It's the first thing I read in newspapers. Hägar The Horrible, Calvin And Hobbes are my favorites. In comic books that would be Deadpool. In movies I like slapstick, surreal, dark comedies and romantic toilet humor, but what I don't get is the stand up comedians. I want to. Sometimes I torture myself sitting through one of those yak-yak's, but all I do is wonder, will they ever deliver a punchline? Chuckle is the best I can muster. Is there something wrong with me? I don't think so. You know why? Because I piss my pants listening to Sam Kinison. That's why. He was funny. So what's up with all this laughing? Well, worshipers pilgrim to these shrines in a hope to witness the Sam Kinison wannabees recycle his old jokes in a pathetic attempt to summon the preachers ghost or laughter from the audience... whichever comes first. It's laughable, because they all know Sam won't show up, instead they laugh. That's the only rational explanation, I got.

     But wait, there is more. For additional 10 minutes of your time, you'll get not one... not two... but three stories of the equal value for one low payment. The first saga started in 1990 when I was living in Sweden. My wife and I would occasionally go out to browse and most often we'll end up in one of those department stores, because they had apparel to pique her interest and CD's to suit mine. She figured, this way we can kill two birds, with one stone. Then I thought to myself, that's barbaric. Let's be considerate for a moment. We should be killing only one bird... at a time. Be kind to the fauna and whatnot, so when it was my turn, I choose a CD store. Plain and simple. That way both of us could enjoy the same thing. It sounded great in my head, but in retrospect, it didn't go down very well. Next thing you know, she chose a beat down clothing store with selection barely superior to a thrift shop... and I HAD to be there. Dresses, shoes and hay hats weren't my thing, so it didn't take me long to figure out the store had a basement and looking down from the stairs I saw tools. Once I descalated, I noticed CD racks in one corner too. Man, I wish I had a cellphone at the time to take a Selfie when I found the CD section and a picture of my wife's face when I delivered the news to her. The place was even more awesome than I thought. They were stocking only Rock and Metal CD's. Initially I thought, I'm in heaven, but soon I realized I was in hell. Literally, there were thousands of CD I would've liked to own and a budget to barely allow a single purchase. Finally, I narrowed my choices down to a Heavy Metal CD from a band whose music video I watch the night before on Headbanger's Ball as one possibility and Sam Kinison's Leader Of The Banned as the other. You should know that in Europe those days some CD's were in plastic wrap, some weren't. The Metal CD wasn't, Kinison was. The clerk would have allowed me to open it, but they had no means to play the CD, so I didn't and choose the Metal CD, because I noticed in it's liner notes that two of the band members were one of my favorite musicians of their respective instruments. Had I opened the Kinison CD, my choice would have been different, I suppose, but we'll get to the reason later. Needless to say, I forgot about Sam's album until I heard about his death in 1992. Drove back to the same store, but his CD was long gone. (Well, for all I know, it could have been sold just couple minutes before I got there, but the outcome was same. No Sam for me) End of Part I.

     Few years later, when internet expanded my horizon, I saw few music videos Sam made and instantly I recognized the songs from the CD I never got. They were choke full of famous people and a quick search revealed to me, that the participating musicians were all cream of the crop. That made me want the CD even more. An internet search yielded few copies on sale, but at the price of my kidneys. No dice. End of Part II.

     The sun run few times around our planet since then and used CD stores were still a thing when I finally tracked down and was able to hold Leader Of The Banned in my hands, again. This second hand store was different than the others, thou. They were selling CD's for $10 a piece (double the price of their competition) and won't trade 2 for 1 CD's, but quite often 5 for 1 and even then, they were picky. However, none of that mattered. Still at the fraction of the internet price, there are no words to describe my excitement when I found Leader Of The Banned. I found a CD I had on my LIST. Can you believe it? And to boost that, I also found another CD from my LIST!! Luckily, I didn't have to make a choice this time. End Of Story.

     I know, it's a long story, but it was a looooong journey. So what's so special about this CD, you might ask? Well, let me tell you. Track number one is a 30 minute long epic live performance of Kinison doing on stage what no one else can. My favorite bit is the Shopping For Pets, which is hilarious on itself, but what makes it an exquisite gag is that he delivered the punchline few segments down the line. Genius. Then you got 4 cover tunes. I know, I know, not my thing either, but these are quite good AC/CD, Mountain, Cheap Trick and Rolling Stones tributes. In fact, I like 'em so much, these are the only versions of those songs on my iPod. Now in my own tribute to the best joke Sam told us, here is the reason why this CD would have beaten the other one in Sweden if I was curious enough to open it. Here are the names of the musicians performing beside Kinison: Kim Bullard (k) POCO / Jody Cortez (d) CINDERELLA / Randy Jackson (b) / Lanny Cordolla (g) HOUSE OF LORDS / Leslie West (g) / C.C. DeVille (g) / Mike Baird (d) AIRBORNE / Rudy Sarzo (b) / Robert Sarzo (g) / Dweezil Zappa (g) / Slash (g) / Jimmy Bain (b) / Fred Coury (d) CINDERELLA. Scroll down to watch the music videos. 

     On the side note, it was exactly on today's date in 2002 when I made that historic purchase.
Sam Kinison (1953 - 1992) R. I. P.

Finally getting around to listen to, (for the first time) some music I've been putting aside (for years). Including, things from the past I recently discovered, projects I previously had, but replaced with a newly remastered version, or those simple cases, were my last years order didn't arrive on time.

SAM KINISON - Leader Of The Banned

CD ℗ 1990

COMEDY CLASSIC ROCK

1. Detox This/Shopping for Pets/Sex, Videotape and Zoo Animals/Jerry's Bastard Kid/Lenny Bruce's Mom/Casual Users of Terrorism/Old People Must Die/Grilled Cheese Sandwich/Phone Call from Hell


2. Gonna Raise Hell – Cheap Trick cover
3. Mississippi Queen – Mountain cover
4. Under My Thumb – The Rolling Stones cover
5. Highway to Hell – AC/DC cover

 

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He sure strayed far form the pulpit, oh wait I've seen what TBN and Daystar have to offer, maybe he didn't fall very far at all...

Yeah, he was threading the path less traveled, but there is no shortage of copycats.

Man, I loved Kinison.  He was so funny to me.  I could not believe it when I heard the news he had died.  I always liked his alphabet routine...more T.  

I think I owned this at one time, but I can't be sure.  I do know that I don't own it now.

I love comedy.  I believe I have featured a Cheech and Chong and a George Carlin album in the AOTW forum...

My friend had lots of Cheech and Chong and Adam Sandler, so I never bothered to buy those, but I did forget about Carlin (and Dave Allen), which further proves that there is nothing wrong with my sense of humor. It's the other people that are easily impressed. Why do the good ones go first?

I missed your Carlin post, but I will definitely give it a play now.

Never was a big fan of Kinison but he doesn't make a mockey (or a sham) of these songs. hey, he got those two from Smokey & The Bandit in that second video. And the kid from MWC! And Ozzy. Oh, and some chicks.

I find Anthony Jeselnik to be funny as hell, but some of his humor might go too far for some people. But I also like Bob Newhart's standup material as well, so I'm all over the board.

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