Customer Reviews

Mind Over Matter

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Robert Klein has not received the recognition he deserves, but at least Jerry Seinfeld has cited him as a one of his influences. Many of his routines are of their time, but they still are still funny and I think they have aged better than most of his peer's material (especially Woody Allen's albums). Although I've seen many skits based on "The Final Record Offer", Klein's performance is still the best. "In Praise Of The Harmonica" has one of the most creative uses of the harmonica ever recorded.

Please excuse the hyperbole - but this series of Klein's comedic writing is, to my taste, the funniest stuff ever conceived. 'Juergen's Myasthenia', '100% undetectable hairpiece', 'Ever Record Ever Recorded' EVERY BIT on the album 'The None News News' - EVERYTHING IS ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC! I laugh every time I hear this work. Robert Klein has more wacky, kooky, zany, stuff crammed into this album than ANY other comedian... EVER... on any other album. THIS IS TRULY WHAT HUMOR IS ALL ABOUT... Sorry for the shouting - but I'll never hear anything else as funny, as long as I live. God bless Robert Klein - he is the greatest of all time.

This album didn't age as well as "Child of the 50's." But that didn't stop it from being funny. My nephew, who was born about ten years after Watergate, still laughed at most of the tracks. And even my _mother_ laughed at "Obligatory Drug Bit: First Time Stoned."

Also, I still think of Robert Klein's ine "Shovel please!" every time I read (or write) B.S.

Besides, the song "Mind Over Matter" is one of my favorite Robert Klein songs ever. Anybody who had to cope with being outside of the "in" crowd in school will appreciate this one.

Anne M. Marble -- Reviewer, All About Romance

Stand-up comic Robert Klein's first appearance on vinyl was in the cast of a Kenny Solms & Gail Parent LP called I WERE A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE. Also debuting on that 1965 album was Joan Rivers (as a teenager named Bambi 'the Frog' Levine).

After leaving Yale Drama School in the early '60s, Klein's Show Biz career began with Chicago's SECOND CITY improv group. He and Fred Willard auditioned on the same day; both were accepted. The now-forgotten Solms/Parent disc was next, then a few film roles followed by the release of his most famous album, CHILD OF THE FIFTIES (1972). In the over 3½ decades since Robert Klein waxed MIND OVER MATTER, he's had a fairly steady movie and TV career, and has also hosted eight HBO specials. At the time of this review he'd finished work on National Lampoon's DIRTY MOVIE.


This Warner/Rhino reissue of "Mind Over Matter" opens with a parody of a one-minute TV ad that flooded the NY Tri-State area in the early 1970s. In it, an elderly fellow pitches a set of classical music highlight LPs as a dozen familiar strains parade in the background over a contents scroll. Klein's amusing angle is "every record ever recorded" including Gregorian chants and Yshabba Ganoush No.1 and No.2. Our final track is the title song. Among other topics in-between are Watergate humor, a PSA for a rare disease in which "the nose mysteriously slides off" and a Ted Mack's Amateur Hour spoof. (Klein appeared as a grade-schooler on that program, singing "Sunday Kind Of Love.")

PROGRAM--

SIDE ONE
[1:18] The Final Record Offer
[1:26] Fred Capossela
[2:04] Feminine/Masculine
[1:33] 100% Undetectable Hairpiece
[3:16] Crime & Punishment
[1:02] Jacques Cousteau
[0:39] Juergen's Myasthenia
[2:13] Mysticism
[2:34] The Borscht Belt
[2:39] Our Heros
[3:07] The National Anthem
[0:51] Oil
[4:04] On the Road

SIDE TWO
[4:18] Test on This
[0:52] Graffiti
[1:20] No News News (Milton Lewis)
[6:36] Wallowing in Watergate
[3:50] Greed & Jeopardy
[2:12] The Ted Mack Amateur Hour
[2:48] In Praise of the Harmonica
[0:19] Obligatory Drug Bit: First Time Stoned
[4:32] Mind Over Matter

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 53:33

Stand-up comic Robert Klein's first appearance on vinyl was in the cast of a Kenny Solms & Gail Parent LP called I WERE A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE. Also debuting on that 1965 album was Joan Rivers (as a teenager named Bambi 'the Frog' Levine).

After leaving Yale Drama School in the early '60s, Klein's Show Biz career began with Chicago's SECOND CITY improv group. He and Fred Willard auditioned on the same day; both were accepted. The now-forgotten Solms/Parent disc was next, then a few film roles followed by the release of his most famous album, CHILD OF THE FIFTIES (1972). In the over 3½ decades since Robert Klein waxed MIND OVER MATTER, he's had a fairly steady movie and TV career, and has also hosted eight HBO specials. At the time of this review he'd finished work on National Lampoon's DIRTY MOVIE.


"Mind Over Matter" opens with a parody of a one-minute TV ad that flooded the NY Tri-State area in the early 1970s. In it, an elderly fellow pitches a set of classical music highlight LPs as a dozen familiar strains parade in the background over a contents scroll. Klein's amusing angle is "every record ever recorded" including Gregorian chants and Yshabba Ganoush No.1 and No.2. This LP's final track is the title song. Among other topics in-between are Watergate humor, a PSA for a rare disease in which "the nose mysteriously slides off" and a Ted Mack's Amateur Hour spoof. (Klein appeared as a grade-schooler on that program, singing "Sunday Kind Of Love.")

PROGRAM--

SIDE ONE
[1:18] The Final Record Offer
[1:26] Fred Capossela
[2:04] Feminine/Masculine
[1:33] 100% Undetectable Hairpiece
[3:16] Crime & Punishment
[1:02] Jacques Cousteau
[0:39] Juergen's Myasthenia
[2:13] Mysticism
[2:34] The Borscht Belt
[2:39] Our Heros
[3:07] The National Anthem
[0:51] Oil
[4:04] On the Road

SIDE TWO
[4:18] Test on This
[0:52] Graffiti
[1:20] No News News (Milton Lewis)
[6:36] Wallowing in Watergate
[3:50] Greed & Jeopardy
[2:12] The Ted Mack Amateur Hour
[2:48] In Praise of the Harmonica
[0:19] Obligatory Drug Bit: First Time Stoned
[4:32] Mind Over Matter

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 53:33

He is one of the best stand-ups of all time. If you lived his bits they are probably a lot funnier. But the National Anthem, First Time Stoned & Final Record Offer still are relevant. Watergate was & still is Hilarious.

Robert Klein in his second album is at his funniest and most insightful ever.

The genius of Robert Klein shines through again and again on this collection of short comedy pieces.

True, "Mind over Matter" is over 25 years old and some of the material is very dated, but much of it holds up and make you laugh out loud at the turn of century as it did the first time your heard it over a quarter of a century ago.

Klein has a way of getting to the heart of the matter. His exaggerations of the fact only make the listener understand how silly the subject matter is to begin with.

Klein was a forerunner for some of today's great comedians. He shows why with his timing, phrasing and vocal agility.

Love the service AMAZON. Enjoyed the total experience of dealing with you and loved listening to Robert Klein, once again.

I just loved this album when it first came out. I listened to it all summer. Hearing it now brings back the memories of those times. I think you would have to be familiar with the late 70's to really enjoy this album. If you are, than the content will have you laughing and repeating the phrases that Robert Klein uses. He had a really funny take on what was going on.

Robert Klein is the best in stand up comedy. I have fond memories of memorizing his stuff as a kid. In eighth grade I had to recite a poem and chose Mind Over Matter because it WAS me. He's the forerunner of Seinfeld, the master of the craft who never got his due credit. If you haven't heard him yet get all four albums in the order they came out. This comes first. You can catch him at the Gotham in Manhattan on Wednesdays. He's had an illustrious career that as he recently put it has taken him "from Broadway to the White house to ...a dump in New Jersey." If you have any appreciation for stand up then get all the stuff you can of my inspiration Robert Klein.