Customer Reviews

Will Failure Spoil Jean Shepherd?

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

 

 

A long lost treasure comes to CD. Go ahead...just try to find a copy of this little beauty on vinyl...I double dog dare 'ya. This disc is made up of several of Shep's best bits captured live on stage in NY in the early '60s. No one...but no one tells a story better than Shep did...either on radio or in print. This disc is short...and there are a few very minor sound problems (remastered?)...but you will not regret picking this album up while you can.

"The King of the Night People" spins his yarns and shares his insights in this, a wonderful collection of some of Shep's better bits.

I, for one, never really "got" the enthusiasm over Shep's preoccupation with Orphan Annie, a cut on this CD that I personally would skip. Where this late, underrated cult figure excelled, I believe, was in his trenchant social commentary and understanding of the human psyche. Here, two riffs - one related to Role Reversal, the other to the connection between male sexuality and autos - presaged societal trends, and they really hit their mark.

Shep was at his finest in the late Fifties to mid-Sixties, and this CD captures some of his better material quite nicely.

Great stand up by my man, Jean. He jokes about the Village in 1961, when this was made, and of course, goes back to his core material source, his midwestern 1930s bringing.

Clean humor with a beatnik edge. How could you ever go wrong?

I'm a fan of Jean Shepherd, but what I got was a bad CD that repeatedly rejected and skipped in my player. I'm very dissappointed.