Sunday, August 28, 2011

Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)

As a follow-up to Let's Get Small, I listened to Wild and Crazy Guy. Side One of this album (I still have a turntable) is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. It's smart, clever, "in," likeable, and mostly not dated.  The material about the French language is priceless, and an all-time favorite of mine.

Side two is interesting, because it's after he hit mega-stardom and audiences screamed at every word he said, even the non-punchlines. I saw him during a show like this, and it was closer to mass hysteria than anything else -- not far from the Beatles in '63 or '64, I imagine. This material is funniest when he's playing with the idea of having several thousand fans who basically do anything he says (the "crimestoppers" and "non-conformist oath" material is my favorite; the wild-and-crazy-guy stuff holds up the worst, though I loved it the most back in the day).

This is a great album to get a sense of life in 1978, and it's also really funny.

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