Customer Reviews

Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years

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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.

Read his review -- his knows his Richard Pryor! I'm just chiming in here to say that this is a 2CD set worthy for purchase by any fan of standup comedy. The first disc highlights his earliest material, and it is a delightful, yet hardly "revolutionary" mix of Bill Cosby's and Woody Allen's comedy stylings. By the end of the disc, his style "matures" toward the provocative, but not expletive-laced material that made up his underrated debut album "Richard Pryor" (1968), including a rough draft of the "Craps" sketch. The second disc might seem redundant for some fans, as it includes the entirety of "Craps (After Hours)" (1971), which I already had. But this album is brilliant -- perhaps his best (other than "That N----r's Crazy" [1974]). The Wattstax material is brilliant but uneven (particularly his parody of Black Power rhetoric). The remaining material is amazing. It shows how his sketches evolved over time. "Wino & Junkie" is quite stellar here, almost as good as the version that appeared on the 1974 album). The liner notes by David Felton are sincere AND informative. So go by this at once, and if you don't have it, go buy "...And It's Deep Too," which has all of Pryor's Warner Bros. albums.

I can't say this is a hilarious collection because much of the material is from Pryor's early days and therefore not very funny. (He bombs on CD1 - no one in the audience is laughing! I wasn't either.)

However things get really funny on Disc 2 (material from "Craps") where he expands his routine and becomes comfortable enough with his own stage persona to experiment and create his own method (instead of being what the back cover describes as a "Cosby imitator).

Overall this is an essential collection for any Pryor enthusiast, however if you're new to Pryor's material I recommend purchasing his later albums which are funnier and will likely entertain you more. For collectors, however, this is great stuff.

*Evolution/Revolution* is a beautifully assembled 2-CD collection that traces Pryor from his early days as a Cosby clone, chafing at the limits of that sort of stand-up, to his early-'70s breakthrough recording *Craps (After Hours)*.

Hat's off, really, to the producers of the collection, Reggie Collins and Steve Pokorny, who sorted not only through the material released on twenty (yes, count 'em, twenty!) records that Laff Records released in an attempt to cash in on Pryor's fame after he jumped ship to a bigger label, but also through 40 hours of previously unreleased tapes from Pryor performances from the mid-to-late '60s. From that huge trove of material -- which includes multiple versions of many, many routines -- they've managed to select out the most hilarious performances, where Pryor's timing was sharp and his riffs flawless. This 2-CD set feels like a true labor of love, and is a great historical document, too, since listeners can hear for themselves how a self-doubting stand-up comedian named 'Richie Pryor' became arguably America's greatest satirist in the '70s.

I can't help but notice, lastly, two nice grace notes to this collection. First, the cover image: Pryor yelling 'Ebena Mat' (the words are printed in Cyrillic characters -- it's Russian for 'motherf***er', and plays off of the 'revolution' of the collection's title). Second, the 1974 interview with *Rolling Stone* writer David Felton that closes the second CD: not a Pryor performance in the usual sense of the word, but a wonderful glimpse into his mind as he grappled with the meaning of his own success.

EVEN when he was alive, THERE was NO competetion . . .

This man was so far ahead of most people --- and certainly
most comics . . .As far as I'm concerned, as long as there
is sound recording, Richard Pryor will never be dead.

You'd be surprised, wouldn't you? That this set is actually an absolute treasure trove of a Black Man's enterprise into 1960's agendas. 'Being Born' immediately comes to mind. "I'm one of the few people that remembers being born, and I'd like to do it for you, can I have a lady volunteer?"
After any reafricanizing movements that you may have seen in the late 1980's from youth culture, you can find an unrequitted boiling point of that kind here from the man who perpetuated the better points of those ideas.
Some of the things Richard says are a little off, some are even lame ducks, but some are to blow one's mind. He's like some Coltrane of comedy with Thelonious Monk-the amateur audience not yet ready for that train.
Let me say this too, that Richard Pryor melds his act so ingeniously within his Warner Bros. albums, that for a white man like me, it's difficult at times to understand what he is saying, nevertheless his awesome ideals. This is a vein of spirit that Richard had, that is black and white, and obvious for its reach for laughs. Like a blueprint for the most beautiful human being I've ever seen.

still devasted upon hearing the News of the soul brother's Passing. Pryor to me was to comedy what water is to the Human Body:something that you truly needed&had to have. this Collection shows a Cat starting out finding himself. once He ditched the Cosby accessible vibe&went Raw he was unstoppable. Richard Pryor if you will did with his comedy like what Marvin Gaye did with His Music;findign his own Voice&taken it to a whole different level. Richard Pryor&Muhammad Ali are ChildHood Heroes of mine who were two Strogng Black Brothers who are truly free&did there thing.this collection takes you to alot of Familar themes that became part of Richard's trademark legendary shows over the years.the Evolution of His Genius is Mind-Blowing but it also shows a Artist who was gonna make you take notice&He was gonna do things to the beat of His own drum. RIP to brother Mudbone&I will Pour a Little something out tonight. every Comedian is eating off this Man's Plate. he was a Ground-Breaker,Trail-blazer truly One of a Kind.GENIUS&Incredible Soul.

These recordings of an early and perhaps timid Pryor document his exploszion into a human torch lighting up the world with his personal experience and self-expression.