Customer Reviews

Dr Demento 30th Anniversary: Dementia 2000

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3 star:		(1)
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... a tragic admission at many encounter sessions.

But what the hell, I'm a member of the Demento Society and yay for lunacy!

This collection brings out tunes and sketches that have not been seen since "Greatest Novelty Records of All Time". I still have the cassette with "Rock and Roll Doctor" on it. A good chunk of these tracks I only had from recordings off the airwaves.

It must be acknowledged that there will ALWAYS be a Weird Al, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones, or Stan Freberg on each compilation. The reason is simple, name recognition and pure talent. With any luck, subsequent revisions and releases will have the many out-of-print works of the likes of the Frantics, Shel Silverstein, and the "Them-Poems" of Mason Williams.

Anyone who listened to and enjoyed the show, briefly, casually, will surely feel justified in adding this (and the two previous) compilation to his/her collection. The humor is timeless.

Thank You Dr D,for providing us with classic novelty recordings, thank you for keeping these things archived so that they can be tranferred to a less destructable medium, thank you bringning us this album!

Stay DEEE-MENTED!

Before taking a well deserved road trip this summer to San Fran. I bought Dr. Demento's 30th!, The Annoying Music Show CD, and Golden Throats. Needless to say, thanks to the good Doctor, Jim Nayder & William Shatner -I've never laughed so hard in my life. The songs fit the changing scenes and people so perfectly, it was frightening. The miles flew by, and I don't think I turned on my radio more than 4 or 5 times -only to get the weather. I kept popping the CD's back in, mainly because I COULDN'T BELEIVE IT. These songs have to be listened to carefully and should be appreciated as what is truly American classical music from the Bizarro World. Thanks Doc!!!!

What can you say about a man whose work has inspired many and entertained generations? As someone once said laughter is indeed the best medicine and we're in a sick world here.

This CD is brilliant - the only flaw I find is that some of the songs are older and have been on previous Dr. D CD's. Weird Al is of note here - he's done some terrific work recently yet all his songs here are old (from the 1980's). Also, it seemed odd to me that there was not more Spike Jones.

Many thanks to Dr. D and I look forward to his 35th and 40th anniversary collections too!

I've been a huge fan of Dr.Demento since the mid-1970's-Unfortunately,his program isn't heard in the NY metro area at the present time,which is a doggone shame-You will not be disappointed with this particular anthology-My favorite cuts are "The Elements","Deteriarota","Ice Box Man",& that ode to pulchritude,"Bras on 45"-If you're a true Dementite or Dementoid, you must purchase this one.

It's great to find even more Dr. Demento favorites on one tidy package, especially "It's a Gas," "I Want My Baby Back" (both of which I have not heard in almost 25 years!), and "Hamster Love." OK, so there isn't any Spike Jones or Allan Sherman here; that's all right, there are plenty of anthologies of their material around. OK, so there are one Tom Lehrer and three "Weird Al" Yankovic tracks; that's all right as two of the "Weird Al" tracks fit very nicely into the scheme of things (true, I, too, am tired of seeing Weirld Al on these anthologies). What is great about this set is that almost all of the tunes relate to each other in some bizarre way or another in a series of thematic chains; some are obvious, others subliminal.

Starting on the first disc, the first five tracks are almost independent to each other, complete with an overture ("Daffy Duck's Rhapsody"). The first thematic chain begins with "Dungeon and Dragons," leading to a few tracks of matters of fringe characters. The Ozzie Fudd track leads to "Stress," then to "On the Shoulders of Freaks," which leads nicely to a tome of "over the shoulder boulder holders" ("Bras on 45") and other tunes regarding undergarments, culminating to Brian Hyland's ditty leading to beach scenes. The Cheech & Chong bit leads to the subject of vacations, tied in with Weird Al's "Twine" track. After the Chuck Berry fluke tune (his only #1 when his prime tunes came up quite short; chart robbery I say, but that's another story), "It's a Gas" relates to the "Twine" tune in regards to roadtrips and what to put into the vehicle, leading to another car tune which tragically goes awry ("I Want My Baby Back"), segueing to what happens after someone departs ("Last Will and Temperment").

The second disc opens with the Bonzo's Beatle Paul-produced "Urban Spaceman" (I am glad to see the Bonzos acknowledged in a Demento anthology; the complete boxset of all of their albums, Cornology, is worth seekingout; we miss Viv Stanshall), which goes to "Bulbous Bouffant," taking place at an urban bus stop. The bus eventually arrives, but it is alas stuffed to the rafters ("Another One Rides the Bus"). Then we get a series of fauna-related tunes, culminating to one critter which meets it demise ("Dead Skunk"), what likely caused it ("You Were Speeding") and the feelings arising from it ("I Hate When That Happens"). The rest of the disc is made up of a combination of odd lifestyles, occupations, dementia(of course), and what to do about it. The last three tunes offer some choices (as it were) on the last subjects; one can, A) seek professional help("Everything Reminds Me of My Therapist", harking to the previous "Rock & Roll Doctor"); B) escape and have some fun (Mrs. Miller's spirited, if that is the correct word, rendition of "Downtown"); or C) just revel in its demented glory as Ivor Biggun so eloquently states (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

But you know, despite all that blathering, it is quite a fun set (although I would have love to have seen Les Crane's "Desiterata" segue right into "Deteriorata"). It is a great combination of well-known tidbits of lunacy and lesser-known diamonds in the dementia rough. I just wish the good Doctor's show could get back here in the Bay Area. I hope that in future Demento anthologies such acts like anything by the Android Sisters, "Mama Get Your Hammer (There's a Fly on Baby's Head)" by the Bobby Peterson Quartet and Ogden Edsel's "Kinko the Kid Loving Clown" will get to see the light of CD day. Thank you, Dr. Demento.

This collection is an improvement over the 25th anniversary collection, but, it doesn't come close to topping the 20th anniversary CD's. The 30th anniversary collection lacks the mixture of old and new as the 20th had, sticking more with contemporary numbers. But, a few great oldies like Phil Harris's "The Thing" spice up the mix. Weird Al's "Biggest Ball Of Twine" was certainly welcome, but, a rather odd choice from the Weird One, given the other Al pieces.

And, where's Spike Jones?

All in all, a decent collection, but, you're probably better off if you get this collection only if you're aware of the tracks already and you know/want/like them. And, if you're looking for a good sample of contemporary dementia, it's here.

This CD is pretty cool. I sure wish there where more laughs on this CD. There are some truley good songs on here, but nothing made me burst out laughing except the George Carlin thing. I am not saying this isen't a good CD, but it COULD be better.

Nice to have "Hamster Love" and "Rock And Roll Doctor" on CD at last. The 3 Dr. Demento anniversary collections are the black sheep of my music collection (along with "Golden Throats"). Actual chart hits and gems from DD's radio show make these the best history of the novelty record you can find. Anyone with a sense of humor should enjoy this.

I used to listen to this show religiously in my area before it left the local airwaves, so I knew a lot of these tracks. Some of these I'd been hunting for for ages, and some could have stayed buried. I loved The Rock n Roll Doctor, and Bulbous Bouffant is a scream. My only complaint is too much Weird Al. If you've already got Al's records, you don't need the tracks here. Other than that, Great stuff.

I never knew what that meant but I heard it faithfully every Sunday night in the late seventies. I haven't been thrilled with every Dr. D anniversary CD that has come out, and this one I purchased primarily for the Daffy Duck Rhapsody, which I was pining away for. But this one does have many treasures on it, not even necessarily introduced (to me) by Dr. Demento. Long ago, for instance, I lost my copy of the lp, "The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse" by the Bonzo Doo Dah Band, and though I may never get the rest of it back, at least I have "I'm the Urban Spaceman" now. "The Elements" takes me way back to when I was gonna get a degree in chemistry....what was I thinking....anyway, there are a couple of Weird Al gems, Jim Cross's incomparable satire of Dead Teenager ballads, "I Want My Baby Back"; Nat'l Lampoon's take on that awful, ubiqutous 1970s poem, "Desiderata" (theirs is "Deteriorata": You are a fluke of the universe/You have no right to be here).

These songs aren't just funny. Well, some of them are just funny. But there's some very witty satire here, as well. Enjoy.