King Oliver

I always liked the 20s; not that I would like to live in those times but it had a very interesting setting. It seems to me those years were during the end of the old world and at the beginning of the new world. Everything was changing and so did the music. To experience those hectic nights at the brothels filled with unique and new music (along with the whores) at the time would be (and most likely was) fascinating. It was jazz at its early stage. Not yet swing but not anymore simple merrier versions of marching songs. People called it ragtime. Sadly you can rarely hear this kind of music live but lucky for us there are plenty of recordings around left for us to experience it at least with our ears.

King Oliver and his troupe were active mainly in Chicago and he gathered quite an interesting lineup during the heyday of ragtime. His band was the place where young Louis Armstrong really learned how to play and it's from there that he evolved to be such a great musician. Another interesting fact is that Armstrong's then wife also played with them on the piano which was somewhat weird since females didn't play that much in bands during those days.


I've uploaded several of the bands that King Oliver led and sorted them chronologically but all of these bands were led by Oliver so they do tend to sound similar. If you enjoy this kind of music you really should get this. This is also a very good starting point for those who are interested in this period of American music. These guys/gals played like there's no tomorrow, all fired up and melodic this is probably one of the best early jazz recording in my opinion.


King Oliver And His Creole Jazz Band (1923)
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (1923-26)
King Oliver And His Dixie Syncopators (1926-28)
King Oliver And His Orchestra (1928-30)

Here's a few youtube samples:

West End Blues
High Society
Riverside Blues

Your brain is clay. What's going on?

So I sit here, way after my sleeping hours, wondering if this is supposed to look like this. Why would anyone want their voltage/current function to look like this? I did something wrong and I don't know what. I tried every parameter. Fucking converters. Fucking flyback. Fuck electricity I'm going to bed.

George Carlin audio recordings.

One day a long time ago I scoured through, at the time young and newly bought, YouTube and saw this interesting video. It was this grey haired man with a raspy voice dressed in all black and he was talking about something. He spoke of religion in a very harsh yet unbelievably funny tone and to my immense surprise he talked exactly how I felt about religion at the time. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he spoke of many things of which I felt the same way as him but he also spoke of many new things that helped me evolve and realize many more things. That person was George Carlin and forever was my life changed.

I don’t know exactly why I love him so much but I can safely say I’m not really alone here. Carlin was justifiably one of the best standup comedians of his time. He pushed the boundaries of comedy and censorship along with many other things. He passed away in 2008 and when I heard the news that day, I didn’t go to school nor did I do anything else other than watching his videos and sort of contemplating about his life and how he changed mine. ‘Twas a really good day.  I’m not really in a position to be his biographer so I’ll leave that to some other more informative site. This blog here is essentially about sharing what I like and since I like George Carlin a lot I decided that for Flying Teapots third birthday (a date that I annually miss every time) I’m going to post most of his work. In a way this is my way of honoring his memory and thanking him. I’m sure he would appreciate the deed of sharing his thoughts to people who do not know about him or know only a few things. And the fact that I’m ripping off companies that are making profit now in his name.

His career can be split into two eras basically. The first era was much friendlier and perhaps more improvisational.  His second era was more critical and more direct. Essentially Carlin is like wine, it gets better as the years go on and this can be noticed really well if you go chronologically through his discography. At first he parodies the news broadcast, little differences and he points out how absurd we are in ordinary life. It was all good and sometimes it went really far but there are some jokes that are flat out terrible and uninteresting. He also took a lot of his early jokes from Richard Pryor (and he even reused them later on). I’m not sure if I should understand this as ripping Pryor off or paying homage to him? As time went on he became more direct and direct until it practically exploded with “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”. After he got recognized he was able to express anything he wanted the way he wanted it. This led to many of his legendary recordings where he ranted about the government, religion and many other completely nihilistic and misanthropic views that we all love and cherish.

 

Where to start?

I’m not sure where to tell you to start. If you already know about Carlin and how he works then I’d start from the beginning for absolute effect. If you are new and want to hear Carlin when he shined the most then I humbly suggest Jammin' in New York or You Are All Diseased. My own favorite is his It's Bad For Ya.

Some albums are badly tagged (When will Jesus bring the pork chops especially) because I forgot to tag them but most of them are all right. Carlin On Campus is one big single track. Other than that everything else should be in order.

Here we go chronologically:

Post-mediafire apocalypse commentary: Due to insane amount of time it took me to upload this for the first time I will sadly not reupload any of this unless you really, really, really want some of this uploaded. If that's the case let me know.

Complimentary (early years)  

1960 - Killer Carlin

1963 - Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club

1966 - Take-Offs and Put-Ons

1972 - Class Clown

1972 - FM & AM

1973 - Occupation Foole

1974 - Toledo Window Box

1975 - An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo

1977 - On the Road

1981 - A Place for My Stuff

1984 - Carlin on Campus

1986 - Playin' with Your Head

1988 - What Am I Doing In New Jersey

1990 - Parental Advisory- Explicit Lyrics

1992 - Jammin' in New York

1996 - Back in Town

1997 - Brain Droppings

1999 - You Are All Diseased

2001 - Complaints and Grievances

2001 - Napalm and Silly Putty

2002 - George Carlin on Comedy

2004 - When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops

2006 - Life Is Worth Losing

2008 - It's Bad For Ya

Boris albums rating

 I made this because I have nothing better to do with my life (and that's why I love my life). Click to enlarge. As much as I love Boris I really think they went downhill after Smile. I don't know why, it just feels like they are overdoing their thing. Although every release has 2-3 excellent songs. I think I missed out one album but I can't notice which one is it. Blah blah. Just checking if the bots are still around.