Customer Reviews

Little David Years 1971-1977

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love great comedy in all forms -from Robin Williams,Bill Maher, Kevin Smith films, Chris Rock & the cast of Everyone Hates Chris, Bob Newhart, The old classic Dick van Dyke show to South Park, Bill Cosby, ALF, Mel Brooks, Buster Keaton, Don Rickles, and Jerry Lewis. So actor and comedian George Carlin has a special place in my heart. His wit and humor is messaged to the audience, most of his comedy bites are still timeless years and years later.

The Little David Years (1971-1977) is the first six classic carlin albums with an extra CD of Carlin stuff from that time not on album or CD. These CD albums including such routines as" The seven words you cant say on television" and its sequel "Filthy Words", Ed Sullivan, Football/Baseball, Occupation Foole, and " Death and Dying".

Carlin is witty and thought provoking. He will make you laugh and think-sometime at the same time. These comic routines are 35 years old and still can pack a punch and a laugh

Worth it for any person who enjoys great comedy

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I have tons of comedy CD's, but this set is the most unbelievabally funny out of all of them! George Carlin tells it like it is in this set and I recommend that all of you raunchy and intelligent comedy lovers buy it!

You are looking at a George Carlin box set which contains six early albums of his and a new disc with previously-unreleased material. George Carlin is a legend, the voice of three generations and these six early albums show what he was when he was just starting out with actual stand-up comedy. His first solo album, Take-Offs and Put-Ons is sketch comedy, which is good in its place, FM&AM is half stand-up half sketch, but Class Clown is Carlin's first entirely stand-up album and it is great, as are the other five albums in this collection.

The seventh disc is great for Carlin fans because it shows his unreleased stand-up from through-put the years, but people who are new to Carlin should not start by listening to this disc but to the others in the collection, leaving #7 for last.

Some people have complained about the fade-in/fade-out thing, but what you have to understand is the original Vinyls had them, and if they were taken out, Toledo Window Box wouldn't be Toledo Window Box, FM & AM wouldn't be FM&AM (etc.) they would just be concerts.

this is a must-buy for all fans of Carlin.

His older material was more enjoyable and you could even listen to it with your mother without her saying something about his language...except for stuff like "Filthy Words" and "The Seven Words You Can NEVER Say On Televison." I originally had 2 of his albums on vinyl which I still have and that was "Class Clown" and my favorite "Occupation: Foole." But when I saw this Boxed set I knew I had to get it. It is 6 CD's of his BEST material and 1 book.it is definitely worth it.

...the sound quality was a little better.

"The Little David Years" is an all-at-once presentation of George Carlin's best-known pre-HBO work. It was after his TV-friendly suit-and-tie days, and before his openly hostile, gruff, bitter-sounding later work. None of it was bad, of course, but the material here is vastly calmer sounding than what we get from the balding, grey-bearded misanthrope who appeared on HBO every two or three years after.

I titled an early Amazon review of mine ("Ahead Of Their Time" by Frank Zappa with the Mothers Of Invention) "Sound Quality Isn't Everything," and where it's true, something that's really good doesn't always suffer when the sound isn't mixed up to snuff, the sound in "The Little David Years" is consistently muffled and far too quiet. Play any one of the discs from this box, let's say, "Class Clown" from 1972, for instance, then listen to, say, "You Are All Diseased," from 2001, and the difference in the sound is astonishing. It's mixed WAY too low, especially if you listen to any of this in tandem with something that has a better production. The better recording will be far too loud, because the "Little David" box is too quiet.

Contents:

Disc One: "FM & Am" (1972) - Carlin is still fleshing out his new outsider image: shoulder-length hair, full beard and casual attire; a radical transformation from the image he had in his not-so-distant past. If you see a photo or film clip from those days (the 1960's, when he worked with Jack Burns), you'll notice he actually looked a lot like TV's Tim Allen ("Home Improvement," "The Santa Clause"). Here, with his new hippie persona, he is soft-spoken, mellow, and fairly clean in his language (save for the opener, called "Shoot.") There are some expletives contained, of course, but most of this material has been played on the radio, with no problem from watchdog groups of the day. Pretty mild stuff, actually.

Disc Two: "Class Clown" (also 1972) - This is George Carlin the story teller recalling his days from Parochial School, ironically, with affection. And despite his admitted history of drug abuse (pot and cocaine), he recorded this 100% straight, and it shows. His voice is bright and sunny, he is talking with a soft enthusiasm, and apart from the last track, it is all very tame. It's a little dated, with references to 'Nam and Muhammed Ali, which are now on history's trash heap, but well-delivered nonetheless. And of course, it ends with his notorious "Seven Words" routine, resulting in a Supreme Court decision and several Lenny Bruce-style arrests for obscenity on stage. All over words.

Disc Three: "Occupation Foole" (1973) - By now a full-blown coke-head (obviously), Carlin is again talking about his days as a young boy in New York; more reminiscing about attending Catholic school and hanging out with the black kids in his neighborhood, and yet more about objectionable language and certain "filthy words." He goes on at length about the big ones, the four-letter words which are used as adjectives, verbs, nouns, compliments, insults, and so on. And despite being wired for this show, he pulls it off. His imitations of the people from that time in his life are spot-on. He was a gifted mimic.

Disc Four: "Toledo Window Box" (1974) - Carlin's "stoner" record, it was very popular in the day, and the material holds up very well today, despite this premise. By now, he had a very loyal, appreciative fan base, and he is definitely in his element. He jokes about drugs, the body, odd situations, God, his issues with faith in God, and of course words and the language. High or not, this is an excellent performance.

Disc Five: "An Evening With Wally Londo featuring Bill Slaszo" (1975) - Very similar to "Window Box," it is a very good follow-up; these two could have been together as a double set. His observational humor is so off-the-wall, but everyone still identifies with it. And of course, this one contains the debut of "Baseball--Football," one of his most famous bits. He obviously preferred football over baseball, and it was a mainstay of his act for a long time to come.

Disc Six: "On The Road" (1977) - This is overall the worst sounding disc in the box, but he is still in fine form. And, as in "Class Clown," there are some moments of audience participation, something absent from the later grey hair performances. Here he's still interacting with his audience, instead of venting on them. Again, he used to be conversational; in later years, he was on a continued rant. This disc is a young kid's primer on how to be a smart-alec with their parents; if you want to have a sassy attitude, why not do it right? Again, abominable quality.

Disc Seven: "Free Complimentary Extra Bonus Disc Not For Sale Anywhere" (1999) - This is a collage of odds and ends from different points in Carlin's journey from a young unknown amateur, on through the years to "On The Road," all previously unreleased. Some material did see the light of day, but not in this form.

You can call it a high point, or a nadir, but on the track called "How To Handle A Heckler," he unloads on someone in the audience who obviously doesn't know how to behave while in an audience. It's a very harsh, profanity-driven diatribe, intended to provoke this loser into revealing himself to the more vigilant members of the audience for some vigilante justice, or to just humiliate him into shutting up. Every crowd has one.

Again, if the sound quality didn't stink, this would be a flawless document of George Carlin at his finest.

AWESOME!!!

I grew up listening to George, and I have (or had) all of his albums...remember what albums are? lol....

After George passed this year, and after having seen him in April at the Orleans in Vegas, I needed to get all of his "stuff" on CD.

This collection contains a small CD sized replica of each album, including the liner notes and all images as the original album had - VERY COOL!

Also included is a bonus CD with material (mostly) that I had not heard before. It is called the Coney Island Recording.

Also, you get a small but informative biography booklet of George's life.

If you are a fan, or just want to know about the man and his art, you NEED this collection.

I love it.

RIP GC.

mqqn

I'm not the first to say this, but his earlier stuff, compiled here in this box set, really is the funniest out of them all. Rather than the "know-it-all" bitching angry old man he has become, there is a certain sense of innocent wonderment to be found in his earlier observations. His recent material do have their moments, but are just not as clever and thought-provoking as his earlier work. Don't think you know Carlin - or comedy - until you listen to these works. Personal favorites are "New York Voices" in "Occupation: Foole" (listen to his mastery in mimicry), and "God" in "Toledo Window Box."

I got the collection in pristine condition today. I haven't stopped laughing since I put the collection on my CD changer. It's an amazing collection from George's early "Dirty Hippie" era. If you love George, like I do, then get this collection. It will not disappoint you, I promise!

many of us are young (old) enough to have only known George Carlin AFTER the 'seven dirty words', we got to know him through his HBO specials. Some of us, I am ashamed to admit, thought that the HBO was the body of his work...Wow...did I learn a lot.

It's fascinating to go back through his work to see (hear) ourselves in his mirror; the politics and sociology of the 70's gets the grilling that those of us who were 3-13 at the time never had a chance to live through Carlin's lens.

Great stuff; nice package, good price.

This collection comprises all of Mr. Carlin's work, from the Little David label, but as stated in the title to this review, it misses one vital piece (which, since it wasn't issued on any of the albums, is probably why): Morningside Heights, which was a funny routine he did on the Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson. If you can find a copy of the double lp, on ebay, that's where you'd find it. Too bad they couldn't get permission to include it on a future reissue of this work.