Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years

Richard Pryor - Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years

Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Richard Pryor
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Music Label: Rhino
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Peoria
  2. Improv, Pt. 1
  3. Heart & Brain
  4. Taxi Cabs & Subways
  5. Playboy Club
  6. Rumpelstiltskin
  7. Slippin' in Poo Poo
  8. Birth Control
  9. Nigger Babies
  10. Faith Healer
  11. Black Power
  12. I Feel
  13. Jail
  14. Prison Play (aka Black Ben the Blacksmith)
  15. Directions
  16. Movie Stars in the Bathroom
  17. War Movies
  18. The Army
  19. Hippy Dippys
  20. Hank's Place
  21. Improv, Pt. 2
  22. Mankind
Music CD 2
  1. Prelude
  2. Gettin' High
  3. F**k from Memory
  4. Big Tits
  5. Gettin' Some
  6. The President
  7. Ass-Hole
  8. The Line-Up
  9. Masturbating
  10. Religion
  11. Black Preachers
  12. Being Born
  13. Blow Our Image
  14. Blackjack
  15. I Spy Cops
  16. Sugar Ray
  17. White Folks
  18. Indians
  19. Ass Wupin'
  20. Got a Dollar
  21. Pres' Black Baby
  22. Dope
  23. Wino Panthers
  24. After Hours
  25. 280 Pound Ass
  26. Crap Game
  27. Gettin' the Nut
  28. Fartin'
  29. Wattstax Monologue: Niggers/The Handshake/Rummage Sale/Stylin'/Whitey
  30. Whorehouse, Pt. 1
  31. Whorehouse, Pt. 2
  32. Niggers & Italians
  33. Jim Brown [Alternate Version]
  34. Black Films
  35. Jesus Saves
  36. Street Corner Wino (Wino & Junkie Intro)
  37. Wino & Junkie [Alternate Take]
  38. Interview

Free Music Notes for Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years

Free Music Review: "Evolution Revolution" is a revelation!
Hit: 5 Stars

This is an amazing set featuring Richard Pryor as you've (in most cases) never heard him. Rare routines from his start in the 60s and mvoing on to his on the verge stardom with "Craps After Hours" (1971), his Wattstax monologues from the following year, and some variations of "The Wino&The Junkie" and other early classics.

The 1966 "performance" at the Hungry I when Pryor was 25 is so bad you feel embarrassed for him as he bombs on the stage. He tells some really corny jokes about growing up in Peoria (hardcore Pryorologists will recognize this bit from his 1964 TV debut on Kraft Summer Music Hall). Then he takes pictures of the audience and does some bizarre improvs on a gay Batman and Robin and a Japanese mime. However, he does a good job in handling a heckler.

By 1968, the transformation is so astounding that you wonder if Pryor made a Robert Johnson-type deal with the devil to improve his skills. "War Movies" is largely the same material he did on a well-known July 1967 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show filled with wild voices, sound effects, and characterizations. "Rumpelstilskin" is a comic reenactment of his actual debut in that play in 1946 as a child in Peoria. "Hippy Dippys" is an amusing tale of a young Pryor and his Fat Albert-type group of friends ("You guys are facetious!"). "Faith healer," a religious satire, is the earliest version of what would be Pryor's classic "Our Text For Today" some seven years later. But the real classics here are HANK'S PLACE and PRISON PLAY (aka Black Ben the Blacksmith). The former is an amazing and affectionate look at characters who seem to populate every ghetto juke joint in America (Pryorites note the "Mr. Perkins" character that apparently foreshadows MUDBONE of "Is It Something I Said" fame) and PRISON PLAY is beyond description-Pryor's imagination gone wild and a sheer work of genius that is a treasure to behold of Pryor's storytelling, acting, and social commentary abilities.

Disc two is the wild man side of Pryor. The ghetto juke joint classic "Craps After Hours" in it's entirety. More street observations than characterization here, and he's done better versions of some of this same material (Black Preachers, I Spy Cops,the title cut,) elsewhere. While more hardcore and profane than CD 1, this is not for the faint of heart. Even the midly religious will find "Jesus Saves" a blasphemous and uncomfortable listen (although comfort was never Pryor's concern).

Highlights here are "Whorehouse 2," which contains the classic moment filmed in "Live and Smoking" (1971) where Pryor makes a passing comment about his mother's prostitution, drops his head sadly and takes a drag of his cigarette before giving the routine a blistering conclusion. It's less poignant, but oddly comes off as amusing without this visual. A two part "Wino and Junkie" captures an early version of this routine in all its brilliance.

Overall, the title is fitting. Pryor started out as a poor Cosby clone and wound up doing what expanded from standup comedy to one-man theater that made you think as well as laugh. I would say that aside from the DVDs of Live in Smoking, Live in Concert, and Live on the Sunset Strip, this CD and "Is It Something I Said" are pretty much all you need for Richard Pryor. Enjoy.
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Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years Poster

Before he was doubling over audience members with profanity-laced sketches and stories, thus igniting a comic revolution, Richard Pryor was a young joke man struggling with his identity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Pryor transformed himself from a nonthreatening, middlebrow comic to a controversial, X-rated sensation, and in turn forever transformed the landscape of comedy in the process. For the first time, those contrasting worlds have been brought together on Evolution/Revolution: Early Years (1966-1974), a 2-CD set chronicling the groundbreaking metamorphosis that predated Pryor's 1974 breakthrough album, That Nigger's Crazy.
Richard Pryor was many things to many people: a bigot, a troublemaker, and drug abuser. He was also the most influential comedian of the latter half of the 20th century. This marvelously compiled 2-CD, 65-track compilation contains selections from his self-titled debut LP, the obscure Craps, and previously unreleased live dates. This collection captures his metamorphosis from a conventional comic to the artist we know today. On the first disc, when you hear tracks like "Peoria," "Improv, Pt. 1" and "Playboy Club," he sounds more like Bill Cosby. But the second disc tracks like "Wattstax Monologue," "Whorehouse, Pts. 1-2," and the brilliant "Wino & Junkie," feature his insightful, profanity-based humor, which truly reflected his ghetto upbringing and the racial climate of the 1960s. His monologue on "Black Films," where he imitates jazz drummer Tony Williams's rhythms, brilliantly highlights his incredible improvisational skills unmatched by anyone today. --Eugene Holley, Jr.

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