Customer Reviews

Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For years now I've looked in CD sections--do I look in folk? In comedy? I couldn't find any of the old Smothers Brothers bits. God, they were funny. Then I found this.

I'm almost inclined to give it less than 5 stars as I can't find any other CDs of their old albums, ones with "She's gone forever, and I can never go on, how ever I try..." and other songs that have rung through my memory for decades now. But if there must be a summary of their performances, this is a good one.

Among their bits that was most memorable was "Mom always liked you best!" That's on here, an excellent example, but it's not overdone. In other words, enough of their other bits also need to be on the CD and they are too.

I'd almost forgotten (1) how funny they were/are and (2) that they're really pretty good musicians! Tommy had is characteristic Guild guitar. (He used a cheaper one when The Who was on the show and Pete Townsend took his guitar and smashed it. But that's another story.) Their voices mixed well, and some of the numbers they choose were decent folk tunes.

As to their being funny, Tommy was brilliant. I'd forgotten how good he was as the little kid. His timing is impeccable, and his mind wanders like that of a kid.

Anyway, if you liked the Smothers Brothers, this is a good start. Maybe we need to lobby them to release some of their other stuff on CD. In the meantime, enjoy this!

I had the good fortune of running into Tommy Smothers once and had the opportunity of telling him how the Smothers Brothers were THE forumlative influence when I was growing up. I had all of their albums before I was a teenager. My appreciation of vocal harmonies (there is something about people who are related singing harmonies whether its the Judds or Tom and Dick) and the power of satire (even before their television show).

Certainly you can quibble with whether or not your personal favorite is included on this album, but the selection is pretty good. What I want to commend is that they included not only "I Talk to the Trees" but "You Didn't Come In," which shows how they played off of their audiences and their own routines (remember their 10th album "Golden Hits of the Smothers Brothers Vol. II. There was no Volume I, because the point was all of these songs/routines had been done before and they were still milking them for laughs).

The album does cover the scope of their humor. You have quickies like "Laredo" and "Daniel Boone" to longer efforts like "The Saga of John Henry" and "Cabbage." Both classic bickering brother routines are included ("Mom Always Liked You Best") and some of the original songs written for the boys (e.g., "Crabs Walk Sideway"). They included "Mediocre Fred" which was always a fav of mine.

There is even a reference to Ralph, from the original Smothers Brothers Show (the sitcom) where Tommy Smothers became what must be the only person to play himself as a dead man (Right?).

If they are releasing all of Bill Cosby's albums on CD, we can hope that the same will happen with the Brothers Smothers. But to date all we have is "Curb Your Tongue, Knave," which is arguably the weakest of their comedy albums. Hopefully the dam will burst and we will get the rest before the end of this decade.

"Sibling Revelry" almost killed me in the 1960s. I was in an isolation ward, gravely ill, when The Smothers Brothers came on TV and Tommy did The Frog Prince. I laughed so hard I literally broke open my surgical wound and had to be re-stitched. To this day, the excellent musical ability of the duo, combined with Tommy's "mistakes" and Dick's straight-man admonishments, defies the test of times and still makes me almost bust a gut. (This may all sound morbid, but I figure warped humor deserves a gross review.) Kudos to my fellow hometown natives!

Tommy and Dicky are truly funny. I've loved them and their material since the 1960s, and I'd pay to get all their albums on CD. The originals are at my parents' house BUT they won't part with them. My children even laugh at these routines. I think they're amazed that you can understand the words and that humor does not have to contain obscenity. I play this gem over and over. It never stops being funny. Does anyone else remember their old TV show when they did "Mom Always Liked You Best" and then introduced their Mom who was in the audience? She came onstage and slapped Dicky! It would also be wonderful to have this CD put onto video tape so kids could see Tommy and Dicky's facial expressions and body language. As a sidenote, Tommy and Dicky's father died in the Bataan Death March in WWII. They also have a sister named Sherry so their mom really did have a Tom, Dick, and Sherry! :)

What a great collection of some of the best loved and remembered routines from the Smothers Brothers! Talk about turning back the clock with a smile!

The thing that brought me looking for it in the first place was the fact that I recently got Show #9 of the Judy Garland Show on DVD in which the Smothers Brothers appear doing their "I Talk to the Trees" routine. This Show #9 was a truly classic hour in television history not only for the fact that a 21-year old, "pre-Funny Girl" Barabara Streisand was also a guest star on that show.

The point is that after having been so suddenly and visually reminded of how MUCH I loved the Smothers Brothers when I was a kid, I immediately came to Amazon.com to see what other materials might be found (the whole TV series on DVD maybe?, I thought, as I had been so lucky to find for nearly the whole Judy Garland series) only to find this one and only "best of" CD.

I can't get over the fact that nearly every review here is also begging for more of this truly classic pair of timeless comedians.

Hello producers! Are you listening??? To date there are nothing but five-star reviews here begging for the same thing with clear evidence of real trans-generational popularity potential!

An important point made by other reviewers is the fact that with audio recordings we only get to hear the humor. Growing up at home we had one Smothers Brothers album which we nearly wore out with continuous listening. I am thrilled that so many of the routines on that album also appear on this CD. But the Smothers Brothers' appearance on the Judy Garland DVD struck me like lighting when I recalled how visual half of their comedy was with Tommy Smothers' perfectly timed sweeps from sheepish grins to huffy pouts to giddish giggles contrasted to Dicky's criticizing, complaining straight-man act. Put that together with all of those most-loved comic routines and their perfect singing harmony when they finally do get back on track and you would have another collectible set that anyone who loved them in the 60's would surely go scrambling for!

I heard this in the car of my friend's mom and I started cracking up. I'm only 14, but I thought this was hilarious. It's really great to hear humour that doesn't involve obsenities. I loved listening to it and wanted to hear it again. The only think that made me rate it down a star was that the audience laughed a lot so sometimes you couldn't hear what they were saying. It was hilarious, though!

As a child, I discovered the Smothers Brothers on my own, without help from my parents. So I set upon the task of collecting all their comedy albums. I was able to do so before I finished high school, and that's also the same time Sibling Rivalry came out. It's great to have these routines on CD, but I can't help but wish the studio would release all the albums onto CD like they did with the Monkees albums. I have seen the Smothers Brothers in concert many times in the past ten years, and they never fail to sell out a show. I still haven't seen their long-famous Comedy Hour, either, since that is not on video. We want More!

It was so great to hear this funny, funny pair again! The Smothers Brothers were one of the funniest teams to ever hit TV and they managed this without making fun of anyone except themselves. Hearing their great routines again ("Chocolate," and "Mediocre Fred") made me laugh so hard and feel so good that I am planning to send this CD to everyone in my family for Christmas. Great stuff (even if it is a little hard to hear Tommy sometimes; same problem on the original LP).

This CD includes some of the classic Smothers Brothers "songs." What's sad is that no one is releasing more of their great collaborations. Their comedy relies on so many elements lacking in today's "comedy" which tries to get laughs by being crude and lewd. Yes, the Brothers sometimes were a little risque, but most of those jokes went over children's heads and there was always plenty for everyone of all ages to find funny. Get this CD and encourage whatever powers control these things to release their other albums on CD.

I was so excited to get this CD because The Smothers Brothers really are a genius act but the sound quality of the CD was not great, in some of the songs it sounds like only one of the brothers was miked so you can hear one but barely the other. I've tried re-adjusting the quality and it helped a bit but not enough to really get the best benefit.