Customer Reviews

Martin Mull & His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room

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

 

 

If you wondered how Martin Mull's act sounded like when he was on the road, this is it. Just picture him in the middle of the stage, sitting in an armchair very much like the one on the cover. A tacky little lamp sits on the rickety table at his elbow.

MM runs the gamut here, from "Dueling Tubas" to a bottle-neck blues parody played on a ukelele. And, while his musical style may change from song to song, his patter does not.

He spends almost as much time introducing the songs as he does in the playing of them. And, in doing so, he adopts the "too hip for this room" style that he used on his talk show parodies in the mid 70s and has since been adopted by David Letterman.

Very funny stuff, played by a very talented musician.

Yes! The ascerbic comedian, Martin Mull did have a short recording career in the 1970's. This is his first album and he pokes fun at rock n'roll, the 'blues', Americans abroad, catholics, the French, you name it!

The album features both studio cuts and recordings from 'live' performances. Mull's caustic wit spares no one, including himself. He takes us on a funny, poignant ride through his life: the life of a musician and artist and all those people and things that annoy, amaze and amuse.

His song, Ukulele Blues, should be in the rock n' roll Hall of Fame for its' simple, brief, and eternally hilarious sendup of the white boy blues. After 25 years of listening to it, I still laugh and giggle out loud. Now where could you buy a 25 year laugh? I ask you.

The sound production and musicianship will not make us forget Abbey Road or Eric Clapton, but both are more than adequate to support the inspired lyrics and songwriting. The album has many great songs, a few ! decent ones and a couple of turkeys.

But, hey! Where else can you listen to messed up blues, polkas, 'Dueling Tubas' (shamelessly adapted from the Deliverance soundtrack), and a sense of humor that is as fresh today as when it was released.

If you enjoy quirky, unique and funny musical efforts, "Martin Mull and His Fabulous Living Room Furniture is for you.

A fine, funny Mull CD, not as good as "Everyone I've Ever Loved," but a good approximation of one of his live shows. Clever, dry humor with some great bits - Dueling Tubas, Ukelele Blues -- and funny commentary in between. If you like Mull chances are you'll like this. But beware the price on used versions. This is currently availabe (May 2006) for download on iTunes -- which is a lot cheaper than the $70 I've seen elsewhere. Shop around before paying scalper rates.

Nice to have this album available cheaply, but the tags on the MP3s cause the files to show up under two different Artists. Some tracks are by Martin Mull, others (the spoken ones) are by Fabulous Furniture. The person who created these files apparently had some fun with that, but may be confusing or annoying when someone downloads the files and then tries to find them in a music library (like iTunes).

"The blues started in the delta region of Louisiana," Martin Mull teaches us on this all-time great album.

Now, bear in mind that this album largely sold on the word of mouth associated with the air play that "Dueling Tubas" got. I bought the CD because of that cut. But, in all truth, it's "Straight Talk About the Blues" that makes the album itself.

That, and "Licks off of Records" helps us all understand what popular music is all about.

But my real question is, who is the lady with the distinctive laugh in the audience to this performance, and in what way, exactly, is she related by blood or marriage to Martin Mull??

The public radio station where I worked 20 years ago had this album. I played cuts from it whenever I oculd fit them into my freeform show. My favorite is LICKS OFF OF RECORDS, but there are many wonderful tracks. I am so happy to finally find it on CD.

First of all, let me correct something. Unlike what the first reviewer here said, "Fabulous Furniture" is Mull's SECOND album, not the first. ("Martin Mull," his first album, has never been released on CD in its original form--too bad.)

That said, this album is funny and shows off Mull in his best light--live. Unfortunately, many of the jokes (about the Carpenters and Elton John, for example) are quite dated and face it, if you weren't there, you aren't gonna find them funny.

Still, there are some neat things here: Licks off of Records, Ukelele Blues, and Dueling Tubas, which I THINK most people will still get a kick out of, even if you weren't born yet when "Dueling Banjos" was an unlikely hit.

If you like this, pick up Mull's "Mulling it Over" collection and you'll have pretty much everything you'll ever need by Mr. Mull (unless you thought that "Men Men Men" thing was funny).