Classic Bob & Ray, Volume 1 [Audio CD]

Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1991

This 4-CD set contains 74 Bob & Ray routines including Wally Ballou at the Fire Engine Factory; Grub, The Story of Food; Mary McGoon s Recipe for Frozen Ginger Ale Salad; Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons; One Fella s Family; Aunt Penny s Sunlit Kitchens; Your Sanitation Department in Action; Bob & Ray Grand National Spelling Bee; Lawrence Fectenberger, Interstellar Officer Candidate; Webley Webster s Book Review; Matt Neffer, Boy Spotwelder; What the Tune Is, and many more. For a detailed list of tracks go to BobandRay.com/catalog.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob [Elliott] & Ray [Goulding], legendary American humorists, are loved by fans and by fellow humorists, comedians and broadcasters. Bob & Ray's 40-year career began at WHDH, Boston. Bob was a disc jockey, and Ray a newscaster. When the Red Sox games were delayed on account of rain, they began to amuse each other to fill the time. Soon they had a daily show of their own, "Matinee with Bob & Ray," an improvised, madcap exercise in controlled chaos. Over their long career, they created more than a hundred characters, all played by Bob or Ray: Ace reporter Wally Ballou, winner of 17 awards for diction; Mary McGoon, whose recipe for frozen ginger ale salad prefigures Martha Stewart; Biff Burns in the sports room; Webley Webster; Barry Campbell, a third rate actor with an ego the size of the universe; Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife whose pals travel the world in search of goofy adventure. Their humor is subtle, dry, intelligent and clean but never treacly. Bob & Ray have a keen ear for language, how it is used and misused by the con artists, hucksters and hustlers who populate radio and television, even today. Their humor is timeless. Bob & Ray's satire of soap operas, game shows, radio shrinks and other self-appointed "experts," and commercials, is as pertinent today as it was in 1946 when they began. They belong in the pantheon of American humor, alongside Mark Twain, George Ade, Will Rogers, S. J. Pearlman, Kurt Vonnegut and Garrison Keillor. In 1951 NBC brought them to New York for a daily 15-minute television program, and network radio shows including, Monitor. Over the next thirty years they appeared on every major network, and on three powerful New York radio stations. They finished their radio career on public radio with the "The Bob & Ray Public Radio Show" (1982-2004), and two sold-out, farewell appearances at Carnegie Hall (1984). All of these performances have been preserved on CDs from Bobandray.com™. Bob & Ray have won three Peabody Awards and three Grammy® nominations, as well as many other prestigious honors. For more information about Bob and Ray, and for detailed track listings, visit our website at bobandray.com (just copy and paste into your browser as this is not a link.)

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Bobandray.com (TM), a division of the Radio Foundation, Inc. (November 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892091291
• ISBN-13: 978-1892091291
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Books on CD > Humor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Radio Comedy, April 10, 2008

By 

RJ (PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Bob & Ray, Volume 1 (Audio CD)

It great that the recordings of Bob & Ray span their entire career. Their creativity throughout those years is so amazing that, outside of topical references, it is difficult to pinpoint when exactly the separate bits were done. After listening to many of their recordings, it is much clearer to me now how much Firesign Theatre was influenced by Bob & Ray, especially the live radio of the "Dear Friends" album.
In this day and age, when humor has sunk literally into the toilet, it is great to have examples of what real talent and creativity were in the past.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Error 1, March 11, 2008

By 

J. Haydon (WI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classic Bob & Ray, Volume 1 (Audio CD)

Bought this for my mother. (Her new car has a CD player but no tape player, so she can't play her old Bob & Ray tapes.) Put the disc in the player and got an error message. Tried it in the player in my car and got an error message. I can't say they're defective, but it's very disappointing that it won't play in a car stereo, since that's the entire reason for buying it.