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ROCTOBER COMICS AND MUSIC 2S SU MEER 2O0o

1307 E. S3RD ST. G17 CHICAGO, IL. 6OG15

www .roctober.com esroctober.com BACK IsS8UE INFORMATION ON FOLLOWING PAGE, OR CHEECH OUT www.dustgroove.com/roctober-htm OR wwarnw.insound.com ON THE WEB

Welcome to a variation on a theme! Every year we have a Comics Galore issue, exploring the glories of the American artform made popular by the Charles Schulzes, the Winsor McKays and the Jack Kirbys of the world. This year we're taking Comics Galore somewhere else, as the “Comics” in question this time are Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore and the makers of the wax that provides Dr. Demento's trax. Unfortunately we're a little low on the word balloon type comics this issue, but hopefully our delving deep into the catacombs of Comedy and Novelty will satisfy even those in the Charles Atlas advertisement set. In these pages you'll not only get to read about the kings of Party Records, Foxx and Moore, but also about he Kings of prop comedy punk, The Dickies. We'll not only meet T. Valentine, the man behind the novelty classic, “Lucille, Are You A Lesbian?” but also remember a man who had a supreme love for everything silly, Cub Koda. We'll get down with Swamp Dogg, the man with the craziest LP covers, Kid Creole, the man with the kookiest coconuts and Maceo, the man who made sure that James Brown's and Funkadelic’s flights of absurdity were grounded in funk greatness. We'll delve into the dark side of the ridiculous as Xuxa, Brazil’s combination of Bamey and Madonna ts disturbingly deconstructed, and we'll even check in with three of the acts that are making some of the best kooky records of the 21st century, despite the fact that the members of the groups likely have several hundred years of music biz experience, Los Straitjackets, Phantom Surfers and Andre Williams! More historically, we'll do a bit of anti- revisionism with a man who was taken seriously (believe it or not) in his day, but has been reduced to novelty today in the eyes of music history. Nowadays you only hear Pat Boone’s whitebread cover versions when documentaries, TV specials or DJs want to show how funny they sound next to the sizzling R&B originals. Well Pat wants to be reconsidered, and we're giving him his say. Actually, the main impetus writer Ken Burke had for interviewing Boone wasn’t that he was a big fan, but rather that Boone was the last living huge 50s pop star that you can actually have a coherent conversation with. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, Little Richard...they’re all off the deep end these days. Thus, remarkably, Pat Boone is the only person who made it into this issue by being sane!?! So put on a Rusty Warren LP, get your wighat on, pour yourself a Yoo Hoo and get to reading. The Laffs are on us!

TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover: John G. . Kogo and by Alex Wald

Inside front cover: Punk’ nhead by Jake Austen Name &-PpP.1i Web Of Mystery -F.1 cub Koda Remembered by James Porter and John Battles -P.4 Wardwuar ws. DOLEMITE!-F.7 REDYPD FoOoxxX!-PYP.13 The Dickies interviewr by John Battles - P. =D Kid Creole interview by Eric Ottens- P. 32 Anare Williams meet Los Straitjackets (fotos by John Phillips)-P. 398 T. Valentin by Jarmes Porter. Fotos by John Phillips - F. 40 Pat Boone by Ken Barke - FP. 42 My Breakfast writh Boone “Pig” Gold-P. 5a

Swamp Dogg interview by James Porter: YF. Gi Phantom Gurfers by Jake Austen- F.G& « Maceo! by Jake Austen. Qliustration by Jason ‘SE hithead’ Mitchell - _ . Ee x

xXuxaby Brian Mier heat PrP, (BpE8 Rock Is Funny by Dan Buck- P. 7° Mask/Monkey/Midget Rock Updates -F. 71 Wraymon Reviews CXhlostrations by Caudia Parentelia, Mike Goetz é& more‘)-

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The highest reccomendation we have for a website this month is

www i ini if you love pop music and you liker things mini. this is for you. Tip: Look at all of ‘em! Words can’t describe. but this is my favorite site.

For our Redd Foxx issue let us recommend sanford-and-son.com, (http://members.xoom.com/sanfordson/index.html). which seems to even have a deal with the estate to sell some weird merch, as well as asuper loving tribute to Redd and the show. With less juice but more soul is my other Sanford reccomendation, reachable at

wien Midiesandgentlemiant2s com tredandlamont tredandlamonthtmt Neither cover pre -Sanford Foxx enough, but what they do cover is ultra impressive.

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Loe ME

Why was the skeleton lonely at the party? Because he had no body to

dance with! --M. Siler, St. Louis Roctober,

Based on the review of Los Exitos De Sex Pistols that ran in the most recent Roctober, J went and got a copy of the album (not easy to find --[ had to go to Amsterdam to get one). It's great, really a brilliant, twisted document. Via a circuitous route, Johnny Rotten has beeninformed about the existence of this album, and requested to get « copy. He had never heard of it before. I'll let you know if I get any comment back, which I may or may not. _--Ph. M., Boston

nod |SEA MONKEYS

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1. Twang Bang 2. Bantam Rooster

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Note: At one poini. FDJets had a third member. Cash Money recently changed their name to Cash Audio & added a harmonicist. Bands Whose Drummers Play The Front of the Stage [. Los Straightjackets

2. Dwight Twilley Band 3. Dead Moon

4. Treat Her Right

5. Archies

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ROCTOBER MEDIA EdvMPiReE

Send Concealed cash, Money Orders or Checks TO 1507 E. 53RD ST. # 617 CHICAGO, IL 60615 Make checks and M.O.'s out to Jake Austen

SUBSCRIPTIONS ONLY $10 FOR 3 ISSUES ($15 CAN/MEX, $20 WORLD)

Subscriptions and back issues available w/ credit card online at www.dustygroove.com/roctober.htm Back issues also available from Insound.com

BOLD=INTERVIEW. IT. ALICS=COMIC

#27 PSYCHEDELIC SUPERHEROES, PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE, MARVIN RAINWATER, D.J. FONTANA, CHUCK BERRY, KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD, MISFITS, ROCK & WRESTLING, FLAMING LIPS, GREGG ‘MR. COMPILATION PRODUCER” GELLER, DAVID LEE ROTH, CHARLES SCHULZ, LITTLE RICHARD, WAX TRAX RECORDS, DON “SUGARCANE” HARRIS, SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS

#26 COMICS GALORE ISSUE: CIBO MATTO, ALVIN CASH, BRUNETTI'S NANCY TRYOUTS, ROCK & WRESTLING, SPARKS, TIM MAIA, DAN CLOWES, MORTIIS, JOHNNY LEGEND, TERRY JACKS, MONKS, HALL OF DYNAMIC GREATNESS CALENDER

#25 UPDATE ISSUE: JERRY BUTLER, HASIL ADKINS, CORDELL JACKSON, CHARLES WRIGHT, R. KELLY, THE FLYS, TRIKK BABY, KOTTONMOUTH KINGS, SCREAMING LORD SUTCH, ORION, MUMMIES, SAM THE SHAM, GOSPEL MIDGETS/JOY BOYZ, LOU CHRISTIE, ANDRE WILLIAMS, GEORGE ELLIOT, FELA, JOBRIATH, CRIME, THE PHANTOM, THE FAST, DOLLY, SKIP SPENCE, KISS, DION MCGREGOR, EDDIE MONEY, BILLY LEE RILEY, RONNIE DAWSON

#24 VANILLA ICE, PATTI SMITH, THE NUGE, SUGAR PIE DESANTO, SWINGIN' NECKBREAKERS, G.G. ALLIN, ALBERT AYLER, STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE, WIX , RAY SMITH, WAYNE WORLEY, WAYNE KEELING

#21 LIMITED SUPPLY' SPICE GIRLS, CARL PERKINS, KASENETZ-KATZ, CRAMPS, DAVID ALLAN COE, MOE TUCKER, ANNABELLA LWIN, MORTIIS, THE MAKE*UP, EDIE ADAMS, SKIP SPENCE

#20 *LIMITED SUPPLY * COMIX GALORE/STH ANNIVERSARY. SECRET THREE, WEIRD AL, KISS, EQUALS, GOBLINS, GODZILLA, LOS CRUDOS, RUNAWAYS, DOLLY PARTON, ? (QUESTION MARK), WEST COAST POP ART EXPERIMENTAL BAND, 2 LIVE

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#18 * * CHICAGO ROCK &SOUL TOUR, ALICE COOPER, EIGHT GREAT JEWS, TINY TIM, THE TRENIERS, MILT TRENIER

#17 ZINE TRIBUTE ISSUE, ANDRE WILLIAMS, WALKER BROTHERS, ?, STANDELLS, JOHN HOLMSTROM, NICO, KICKS, DORA HALL, JANIS MARTIN, P-FUNK

#16 MONKEY ROCK'N'ROLL, DENNIS DUNAWAY, NEW COLONY 6, ? & THE MYSTERIANS, TYRONE DAVIS, SAMMY DAVIS, JR.,. MONKS, GOBLINS, HALL OF GREATNESS POSTER

#1S JAYNE COUNTY, CYNDI LAUPER, OSCAR BROWN, JR., JOHN DOE, RON KITTLE, GEORGE STRAIT, OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN, LOU CHRISTIE, SERGE GAINSBOURG, WANDA JACKSON, OZZY OSBOURNE, LITTLE JIMMY SCOTT

#14 *LIMITED SUPPLY* GO NUTS, R&B ECCENTRICS, KISS, WAYNE KRAMER, SAMMY. INCLUDES PUNK'NHEAD FLEXI DISC WITH SONGS BY GIRL TROUBLE, MCRACKINS, PEDRO, GOBLINS, BUTTERGLORY, SCISSOR GIRLS AND MORE!

#13 GREAT AND SMALL ISSUE. JERRY LEE LEWIS, SUGARLOAF, KIDDIE- A-GO-GO, ROLLINS & ROKY, VELVET CRUSH, PEDRO BELL, THE MONKS, GARY GLITTER., THE HISTORY OF MIDGET ROCK AND ROLL, , KENNY "R2D2 " BAKER, KID DYNAMITE, HFH, GARAGESHOCK, WILDGIRL GOGORAMA oS HALL OF GREATNESS POSTER

PUNK WHEAD APPEARS IN 84 AND ALL SSUES AFTER. SAMMY REVIEWS APPEAR IN BSUES 4, 8-10, AND FROM 12 ON. WAYMON APPEARS IN ISS UBS S$ AND UP, ROCKIN’ ACE APPEARS iN 87 AND ALL SUBSEQUENT SSUES... EXCLUDING &22. BEAU GRUMPUS PANCAKE PARTY APPEARS IN 19-21, 23 -UP

NEW!!! THE BEST OF CHIC-A-GO-GO VIDEO! 62 minutes of concentrated excitement featuring Ratso, Mia, The Chic-A-Go-Go Dancers and tons of special guests including The Shirelles, Kelly Hogan, Bobby Conn, MOTO, The Donnas, Cynthia Plaster Caster and MORE! Includes a special montage with hundreds of guests and comes in a deluxe box with King Velveeda art! Only $15

Also: Chic-A-Go-Go - The Soundtrack CD! Over 30 tracks of musical madness! Only $12 ppd! Order both with check or m/o throught the mail from Roctober or use your credit card online from www.belugarecords.com

CHIC-A-GO-GO VIDEOS!

Chic-A-Go-Go, Roctober's own Cable Access Kid's Dance Show available on video. See the stars lip synch to their hits! Each volume approximately 2 hours, in a custom box, a recorded in SP

mode.

Each volume is $10 ppd. VOLUME 1: # 1 w/ special guests The Lone Ranger & 3 Blue Teardrops, # 2 w/Oscar Brown, Jr & The Kaisers, #3 w/Andre Williams & The Goblins, #4 w/ "Velvet Welk" VOLUME 2: #5 withe monks & Scissor Girls, #6 w/Jan Terry, #7 wi Leviathan, #8 Salute to Prince w/tribute artist Teee VOLUME 3: #9 w/The Exotics and Treniers, # 10 w/ Pedro Bell & Dirty Wurds" # 11w/Mink Oil, # 12 w/The Pharaohs (live ) VOLUME 4: # 13, Fireshock Special w/Volcanoes, Bouncing Balls, Chinese Millionaires, Hentchmen, Quadrajets, Goblins & The Crown Royals, # 14 w/Lord of Lightning & Bobby Conn, # 15 w/ Shonen Knife & New Rob Robbies, # 16 Steppers Special w/ Herb Kent The Kool Gent VOLUME 5: #17? & the Mysterians Special , # 18 Psychedelic special w/Red Krayola, # 19 Skateboards, #20 Monkey Rock'n'Roll VOLUME 6: # 21 Filmfest, # 22 w/Gentleman John Batties, # 23 wi Slink Moss, # 24 Goblins and Friends VOLUME 7: # 25, # 26 Fela Memorial, # 27 French Videos, # 28 w/Nerves VOLUME 8: #29 wiIdiot Box, #430 Commercials, #31 w/Stereotypes, #32 Singing Nun Special VOLUME 9:#33 masks, #34Halloween, #35w/Kweisi, #3 6w/Greenhouse VOLUME 10: #37 Kids Party, #38 International!, #39 X-Mas Special, #40 "Ha Ha Hannukah" VOLUME I1: #41 w/ Cramps & Frontier, #42 RocknRoll Heaven97, #43 w/ Chamber Strings, #44 w/ Utopia Carcrash VOLUME 12: #45 ,w/The El Dorados, #46 wiThe Polkaholics & Guitar Wolf #47 Hip Hop Sock Hop, #48 Millennium Videos VOLUME 13: #49 New York Dolls Special w/ Sy! Sylvain, #50 Anniversary , #51 w/John Huss, #52 Lone Ranger Memorial VOLUME 14:#53w/Sara B! & Creative Soul, #54w/Rockin' Johnny #55 w/Cynthia Plaster Caster & Dishes,# 56 Ballroom Dance Champs VOLUME 15:#57Goblin Pride, #58w/Steelers, #59w/Grand Theft Auto & Mustache, #60 Ratso at the WARP tour w/The Specials,Ozomotli, Aquabats VOLUME 16: #61 w/Geronimo, #62 w/Rockin' Billy, #63 German Special, #64 White Sox Special VOLUME 17: #65 Filmfest, #66 w/ Eiren Cassal, 467 w/Team Satan & Hoodoo Hoedown, #68 Soul-abration VOLUME 18#69 Monkey Party w/The Krinkles. #70 w/Baltimores, #71 Koo Koo Videos. #72 w/Sweet Thunder VOLUME 19#73 w/Monotrona, #74 Late, But Great '98, #75 75 Years of Chic-A-Go-Go!, #76 KISSUE Party VOLUME 20 #77 w/ Bo Dudley, #78 Mia's MT VAdventure w/Beck, Everlast, Soul Coughing, #79 w/ 6 Feet Over, #80 Swing Videos w/Louis Jordan, Louis Prima and The Treniers VOLUME 21 #81 Funkadelic Dance Party, #82 Birthday Bash w/ Lobstar, New Rob Robbies, Bouncing Balls, #83 Chic-A-Go Going to the Movies, #84 w/Astrid VOLUME 22 #85 Michael Jordan Party wShioinke, #86 PASSOVER IN PUPPETTOWN (S50 min), #87 Youth Parade VOLUME 23 #88 w/Ronnie Rice & Carmelhed, #89 Nerd Party wiJ. Davis Trio, #90 Video Press Kit, #91 Wacky Wideo War VOLUME 24 #92 w/The Blacks & Tav Falco, #93 Backwards Day w/We Ragazzi, #94 Monkey Mania 2, #95 Museum Day w/ Poi Dog Pondering Frank and House-O Matic VOLUME 25 #96 w/Quintron, Miss Pussycat, Sponge + Carter Lee Tribute, #97 Wedding Show w/Prairie Town, #98 James Brown Dance Party ,#99 Ratso goes EXTREME w/Motorhead, Marky Ramone, Impaler, Trash Brats, Texas Terri and more!

VOLUME 26 #100 wi Lou Christie,Vanilla Ice, Shirelles, The Mentally Ill, Otha Turner, Dickey Lee, Girl Scout Troop 753,Jello Biafra,DJ Curt & Ronnie Dawson (2 Hrs)

VOLUME 27 #104 Cultural Center, #105 w/ Mr. Rudy Day, #106 w/Kung Fu Monkeys & Cats & Jammers, #107 w/ Alejandro Escovedo, Mainliner and The Creeps

VOLUME 28 #108 w/The Donnas, Kim, Davie Allan, Knoxville Girls, Gentleman John Battles, #109 wi Ebo Dadson and The Returnables, #110 LIVE! w/ Kelly Hogan, #111

1p id and The Puta-Pon VOLUME 29 #112 Wacky Wideo War Il, #113 w/ The Havox, #114

wi Mr. Wet & Pogo Cello, #115 Scary Movie!

VOLUME 30 #116 Halloween w/Caketown Puppets, #117 wi Pretty Things, Cibo Matto, Li?l Wally and Pansy Division, #118 w/M.O.T.O. and Lynnard’s Innards, #119 Puppet Film Fest! VOLUME 31 #120 Garage Hoedown, #121 w/Deals Gone Bad, Know Budget, American Dream, DJ Kurt , #122 Ha Ha Hanukah Special Edition, #123 w/Phenomnal Cat

VOLUME 32 #124 w/Soozers, #125 w/Twang Bang, #126 w/Alan Gillett, #127 Gone Before Their Time ‘99

VOLUME 33 #128 wimonks, Demolition Dollrods, Bobby Joe Ebola, #129 Cavestomp! w/Chocolate Watchband, Vipers, Dead Moon, 5-6-7-8s, Hatebombs, #130 Cavestomp! w/Standells, Gravedigger V, Mooney Suzuki, Loons, Greenhornes, #131 Goblins-Return of the Pharoahs VOLUME 34 New Year’s Party w/El] Dorados(live)&Bobby Conn(2hr)

VOLUME 35 #136 w/Milt Trenier & Tub Ring, #137 wiRico & Loraxx, 138 wiFernando Jones & Flaming Lips, #139 w/Teenage Frames & Ray St. Ray the Singing Cabdriver VOLUME 36#140 Passover In Puppettown 2000, #141 w/ Ted Ansani, #142 w/ The Smugglers & L’il Shorties, #143 Rockabilly Hoedown w/ Billy Lee Riley, Deke Dickerson, Marvin Rainwater, Sonny Burgess & Sleepy Labeef VOLUME 37 #144 4th Annual Film Fest Pt. 1 w/ Rusty Nails & Groundspeed #145 4th Annual Film Fest Pt. 2 w/ Rusty Nails, Lisa Brandt & Star Vehicle #146 w/ Celeda

147 wi Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement & Big Angry Fish VOLUME 38 #148 WACKY WIDEO WAR III, #149 WACKY WIDEO WAR IV, #150 RATSO: BEHIND THE MUSIC, #151 w/ Swamp Dogg & Esham

VOLUME 39 #152 w/Sleater-Kinney & Evil Beaver, #153 Li'l Ratso in Europe w/ Eiffel 65 & Briar, 154 Rooftop Dance Party w/ Jim “Annoying Music Show” Nayder, 155 w/ Los Straitjackets & OK GO

Vv

alilimiarianlieap New & used LPs & CDs.

THE GOBLINS - RETURN OF THE PHARAOHS VHS (Gonef Video) A live concert in full Egyptian couture performed att he Ancient Egyptian musesum, The Oriental Institute. “The Nile,” “Curse Of The Pharaohs,” “Giant Pharaoh Rock N Roll,” “Passover,” “Tribute To Pharaoh Sanders/Sun Ra,” “King Tut,” “Egypt Medley,” “Return Of The Pharaohs” $5.00

KISSUE Release Party (Shady Deal Video) Four bands (USA, Cash Money, Eisen, Goblins) become KISS multi-solo bands (an all Gene Simmons band, and all Peter Criss band, etc.) and play KISS songs, plus The Polkaholics play their KISS tribute song. $6.00

Instore (Gorilla Video) An almost unwatchable security camera videotape of an instore record signong by the Goblins rescued from bottleggers. $4.00

"Unasuite, The Goblin Guerrillas with "Giant Robot”, "(The Police Are) Just Doing Their Jobs", "Mr. Beef”, the first Goblins show with "Dance of the Dead" and "Temple of the Phantom," and the Goblins "Chic-A-Go-Go" theme song, plus The 7. poy "Rock Me’, The Hideaways "Wipeout® and the monks “monks chant".$7.

ROCTOBER RECORDS 001 ROCKTOBERFEST COMPILATION 7” (TART, BOSS FUEL, GOBLINS, SMALL FACTORY, JOHNNY CREEPER) $3

002 SLINK MOSS “SUICIDE ROCK" (SOLD OUT)

003 GOBLINS/EIDEAWAYS: LIVE AT THE FIRESIDE 7" $3

004 A TASTE OF PUNK'N Compilation Flexi W/ Songs By Girl Trouble, Mcrackins, Pedro Bell, Butterglory, Scissor Girls & more! (Free in Roctober 14, but if you want one unbound for some reason, $2)

005 BLACK LONE RANGER 7” (SOLD OUT)

006 GOBLINS FLEXI "DELILAH'S THEME*/"SMOKIN' DICK’ - $2 007 NEIL SAMBURGER This flexi was a holiday gift to subscribers a few years ago. We found a batch of them | and have a limited number on sale for §5 each. 008 KISS HELL KISS HOMAGE COMPILATION 8" - SOLD OUT 009 CHIC-A-GO-GO - THE SOUNDTRACK! CD $12 -info above |

OTHER VIDEOS:

“Go Down Moses,” “Creeping Death,” Pharaoh-A-Go-Go,”

The GOBLINS and FRIENDS! (GVI Video) "Giant Robot Rock'n'Roll” video,

4

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Hi-FiRecords

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CUB KODA :Smokin' In Heaven

by James Porter

Cub Koda, who passed away in July of liver failure, is one of those people who wore so many hats thal it was easy to know of one of his projects and not the other. People who read his "Vinyl Junkie" column in Discoveries magazine might be surprised to see a Cub Koda album in the record bins. A buddy of mine knew Koda from his liner notes for vanous projects, but didn't know he was a member of Brownsville Station, Motor City madmen from the seventies. Still more people are amazed that the guy who sang and played guitar with the band who (originally) did "Smokin' In The Boys' Room” wasn't buming himself out on the road, opening up for the new edition of Black Oak Arkansas. What would be considered overachievement to some was simply living life to the fullest for Cub Koda. He wrote, produced, performed, and continually stayed on the scene in various ways. When VHI approached Koda to do a segment for their Where Are They Now? program (re: Brownsville Station), Koda warmed them up front that he had no hard-luck stories to tell, and good for him: anybody whose seen this show knows that they can be harsh on aging hard-rock bands. Koda, and Brownsville Station in particular, were not just another embarrassment from the Watergate/energy crisis years; at their best, they were the natural extension of the Detroit sound spearheaded by the MC 5; high protopunk energy crossed with roadhouse roots. In my lifetime, I've known people to wave the flag high for the Detroit rock sound of the sixties and early seventies. There will always be someone to remind us how great the MC 5, Stooges, Mitch Ryder, early Bob Seger, etc. were. If they're really hip, they'll put in a plug for Funkadelic, who came out of that same scene. But these same people, when confronted with Brownsville Station, will recall "Smokin’ In The Boys' Room" (a Top 10 hit in the winter of 1973-74, later covered by Motley Crue), and smirk. In my mind, Brownsville, at their finest, are one of those metal bands who somehow predated punk, ala Thin Lizzy or the Sweet. During a period where most hard-rock bands believed in long-winded solos and draggy rhythms, Brownsville had a real old-time AM radio sensibility that keeps it sounding current, especially when some alternative band remembers their hair metal roots. This was due in part to guitarist/singer Cub Koda, who latched onto the big beat as a kid, snapping up every Chess and Sun 45 he could get his hands on, before growing up to play in a series of Michigan bands like the Del-Tinos (his early frat- rock combo) and the Koda Corporation (his blues band). In interviews, Brownsville always insisted that in the early 70's, other bands considered them "weird" for performing jacked-up versions of fifties songs, complete with Koda's jive raps delivered in that flat Midwestem tough-guy accent. This penchant for humor stood the band in good stead through ten years and seven albums. After the band dissolved in 1979, Koda continued to release solo albums for various labels, including an album recorded with the Houserockers, bluesman Hound Dog Taylor's old combo. (It's said that Hound Dog and the Houserockers used to play the bluesy "Smokin’ In The Boys' Room" as a warmup for their set.) He also became known for his "Vinyl Junkie" column, which ran in Gulcher, Goldmine, and finally Discoveries. Early columns were essentially Cub rambling on about various old rockabilly/garage/blues/C& W/novelty discs in his

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collection; around 1985, when more of this music was being reissued, he concentrated on the newer compilations. At no time did he fall prey to the stuffiness that afflicts most record collectors writing about music (when the music and the personalities take a back seat to catalog numbers and label designs, as intriguing as they are, you're in trouble). Koda was not above reprising "Smokin’..." for the occasional oldies revue, but at the same time he knew the value of keeping the slate clean and fresh. His writings and his music survive (witness the All-Music Guides, which feature a number of his bylines...many on Redd Foxx reords | might add); the humor, passion and spirit behind them will always be remembered. And, no, ] was NEVER embarassed to admit I Jiked "Smokin' In The Boys' Room.”

4

OF B : Ft - vee BEST of ID |

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Dolemite. Rudy Ray Moore. Millions of people have laughed and maybe even cried while listening {to his numerous comedy records. "Dolemite for President,” “Eat Out More Often,"j and “I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing” are but a fraction of the titles. He's been sampled by Easy E, Dr. Dre, 2 Live Crew and whole whack of others we will probably never know about. Dolemite has also starred in a wad of classic flicks such as “Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-In-Law” and my personal favorite "The Human Tornado". But there happens to be more matey! Norton Records is about to expose the world to another side of Dolemite, via “Hulley Gully Fever,” a compilation of Rudy's 50s and early 60s R&B recordings! Dolemite was a rock n roll pioneer too! Not to be outdone, Lookout Records has unleashed "XXX Party,” an adult comedy record by San Francisco's masked madmen, the Phantom Surfers, featuring contributions from Neil Hamburger, Blowfly, and, none other than, Dolemite! This deserves further investigation, and so...

ever end up doing

Nardwuar: Who are you?

Dolemite: | am Rudy Ray Moore, is Dolemite! Nardwuar: Rudy, is there going to be some Dolemite franchising soon ? Dolemite: Yes. | am now featured with Altoids mints. Instead of them calling them Altoids mints, they are calling them Dolemints. They're for breathe, to clean the breath. Nardwuar: That's kind of interesting, isn't it? I bet a lot of people wanted to clean your breath in the ‘60s, didn't they? Probably with soap?! Dolemite: Well, don't you know it! (laughs)

And, Rudy Ray Moore, in the very beginning, at the very very beginning, you were a dancer? Like

going way back, you were a dancer?

I was a dancer. They called me Prince Basil Dumarr.

What groups did you work with back then, Rudy?

I] worked with a group called the Prince Dumarr, uh, African Dancers. We did afro dances, and my dances were called the Drama of the Hindu Dance, the Drama of the African Dance, the drama of the Chinese Dance, and it was my own Operation, my own organization that did them. It was African dancing. Jungle dancing. You know, like, you saw jungle films when you see afro dancing done by natives in the jungle? [It was an interpretation of that.

What year was this approximately, and where?

This was in 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio.

When you were dancing, Rudy Ray Moore, did you ever throw any lyrics in there as well?

When I danced, I did chants. Before when I'd hit the floor, I'd go “Ahhhh ahhhh. Semilooooo. Jungoooooo.” And then the drums would start playing and we'd start dancing. So I did do a little singing in the dancing.

As rock ‘n’ roll started coming in, did you get into that with = the routines of dancing? Like, did you

“The Chicken" or "The Mashed Potato” or "The Fly"?

Were you dancing for any rock '‘n' roll groups?

No, in the rock ‘n’ roll era I came out as a singer. I did rock'n' roll tunes like "Robbie Dobbie" and one of the biggest I had was called "Step It Up And Go."

7

‘hit’ with

that Moore, your early days, rockin’ out.

The closest I got to it was the tune I| did on

Did you have any hits Billboard , Rudy Ray

World Pacific Records called "Easy Easy Baby.” It was called a, not a bullet, but it was reaching for the chart but it never made it.

Do you remember who you played with back then? What was the circuit that you were on? Do you remember your first gig, like your first big show you played? Where was this? When was this?

Mm, yes. the first big show I did was many years ago I worked with the late Big Joe Tumer in Cleveland at the Paradise Auditonum. Whereabouts did you play? Did you play all across the country? What was the circuit that you were on?

Uh, during those years, I did take out groups like -- you've heard of Ray Charles, have you? I have indeed!

I took Ray Charles out on tour where we played Louisville, Kentucky. We played, um, Cincinatti. We played all up and down Ohio and Kentucky. Then I come back with that show, and I carried Chuck Willis out. He's the one that had "CC Rider”.

Now when you say you carried these

guys out like Chuck Willis or Ray Charles, were they in the house band?

They were the stars of the show and I was the manager of the operation, with my own act with them too.

I think it's totally fascinating that you were there, right from the early days of rock 'n’ roll, and even before that. Did you do any gigs with James Brown at ail?

Yes. Many of them. I worked with James Brown in the Sports Arena here in Los Angeles some five times. James Brown was my very dear friend at one time, because I had control of programming records in Los Angeles, and when a new record would come out, he'd ask me to program it. I would program it and he'd treated me so royal, he'd put me on the show for at least ten minutes, on stage, but when | lost that radio program, uh, he hasn't spoke to me but once since. So I think I had something to offer him at that time, and when I lost that. James Brown and myself would not associate any longer.

Rudy, when you were brought on Stage with people like James Brown, what exactly were you doing at that point? Were you singing?

Comedy.

Was there much wild partying back

then, you know, dope smoking and orgies. Was there a lot of that?

I am not involved in drugs so whenever this was going on, if I knew it was going on, I never went in their rooms, or associated with it because I am definitely against drug using.

al a3,

Well, Rudy Ray Moore, surely the sex must have interested you. What o you remember about Screamin’ Jay awkins? Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, I will remember him very greatly because I worked with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in the Royal Theatre in Baltimore, and he was wild. | mean, wild! I think the girls used to come and invade his

. dressing room. And I saw it once, I'd peeked in - 5. on him, so he was wild!

Because apparently he had sex twenty-one times a day, and there's even a website now (jayskids.com) that’s dedicated to finding all his fifty-seven children so his kids can get rewarded with some of the little money that he _ had. Fifty-seven children, Screamin' Jay had, Rudy Ray Moore!

Is Screamin’ Jay passed? I heard he was in France.

Yes, he did. A little while back.

I didn't know he had passed.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Speaking of kids, Rudy Ray Moore, are the Phantom Surfers your kids now?

The Phantom Surfers, [ am adopting them.

Did you ever meet Wynonie “There's Good Rocking Tonight" Harris?

Yes, 1 knew Wynonie very well. Wynonie "Mr. Blues” Harris” he was one of those go-gelters too.

He was quite a wild partier, he?

Yes. I know he would have beautiful girls come to his room at one time and he'd pick and look and look and look and say, “here's ten dollars for you, uh, get your ass out here, I ain't never messed with a bitch as funky as you." Now he'd take another, and say, “oh you take this ten dollars and get your ass out of here, ‘cause | ain't never messed with a bitch as ugly as you are.” And then another one would come and said, "now you get your ass out here ‘cause | never fucked a bitch as black as you are." And on and on until he'd pick the right one he wanted. That was one of his by-lines.

wasn't

Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite, you are _truly “sexsational!” Like you are “sexsational!” Did any lovely ladies

ever rip your clothes of when you were performing, Rudy Ray Moore? Well, 1 had these type of things. I was a Streaker at one time. I used to streak in the nightclubs, and when I would be streaking, the ladies would take off, running behind me. One time I was streaking and in order to be exciting I had an artificial penis wrapped around me, and it was tacked on, it looked so real, and the ladies caught up with me and snatched it off, and held it upin the crowd and said " Ohh, I got it! f got it! I got it!" That was one of the most embarassing moments , but I said ‘I still got the real one!’

And you still got it! And you are Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite! Rudy, when you moved to Los Angeles, you mentioned you had a radio show, or you were programming radio shows. Programming the Dolphins of Hollywood Record Show and I did spin records on it. | would present the Album of the Hour, and call

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it a quiet hour, and we would present uh groovy ballads. One of them ballads that I really liked to present at that time was Erma Franklin, sister of Aretha Franklin, had a record called “Time After Time." And I used to wear that out because that was such a beautiful ballad. And then I played other ballads like Nancy Wilson's “It's Over" and stuff like that. Beautiful stuff that I played on the air on the Dolphin Show.

You must have met everybody on the Way up, everybody!

James Brown, Eartha Kitt, Jackie Wilson, BB King, Bobby Bland, all of them | participated in interviewing them for the radio show. Rudy, did Bullmoose Jackson, who had the hit "Big Ten Inch (Record)"

inspire you at all to move in the Dolemite direction?

Uh, no.

Were you aware of Bullmoose Jackson?

Of course I knew Bullmoose Jackson. He had lips so big it looked like he was wearing a turtleneck sweater.

Were you the first guy to say "fuck" on a record, Rudy?

The very first on the face of the earth...Richard Pryor did it four years after 1 did. And a lot of people may want to credit Richard Pryor with being the outline for the comedians today, but I am the world's first to come out with explicit language on record, and I don't call it "dirty words” I call it ‘ghetto expressions in form of art.’

And what other words did you pioneer on a record

Fused "motherfucker" and I used "eating pussy” and “sucking dicks,” "bitch this,” and the term “bitch” was heavy with me. And I was the world's first comedian to come out like that. Now Redd Foxx was before me but at the time he come out, he was not able to use that term. Rudy, was it hard to get these records pressed? Like bringing them to the pressing plants? Did _ the pressing plants refuse to press them?

No. In fact, one of the pressing plants that I went to picked up my record and released it and distributed it nationally. They were glad to get it and wanted more of them and never questioned me what kind of record I was making. Whatever I made and carried to them, they took and distributed. I have twenty-one albums which I leased to Kent Records which | own today.

Rudy Ray Moore, what was biggest selling record you-

Eat Out More Often, and This Pussy Belong to Me.

And how many did that sell?

Eat Out More Often in its first return was about 338,000 records

Without airplay. Just walking the street, making people aware of it.

And how many records have you sold totally, all together, of all your records?

How many that I've gotten paid for is not as many as I have sold. I'll leave it there, because you know the companies always ripped you off. So, I did make enough money to make a movie with.

your

What was the interesting ways that record companies tried to rip you off? Like, how did they trick artists back then? Do you have any advice of how they tricked artists? So people can avoid that in the future, Rudy Ray Moore?

Well... even today it still happens. The only thing I can say is to be a little bit close to on top of what you are doing than the artists that did in my early days. We were not as aware of the loopholes in the business as the young artist is today. So the advice that I would have to give them is to develop the talent and make it great, so it would work when it gets out here on a record. and make darn sure that you get some of your money before you put out another record and give it to them. Therefore they will give you more of the money that you've got coming. If you don't pile it up all at one time. Like I was putting out a record every two months, you see, and giving them everything at one time.

What you did, Rudy Ray Moore, was

totally amazing! When you think about it. Like you were totally Do It Yourself. Totally DIY, No radio

play. No advertising. You did it all yourself. You got it out there.

I walked the streets of the ghettos through the United States. When I say walked the streets we would get in our car and load it up with a trunk full of records and go from city to city, passing out records, letting people hear what we had, and before we'd leave the town, the record store was buzzing "where can I get it at,” that's the way we made hits in my days. Not by radio airplay, because you couldn't play it on the air

Have the cops ever shut you down at all, at any of your performances? Did you ever get arrested because of your act?

No.

Did you ever have to fight or use any martial arts to perhaps defend yourself against somebody that

might have been insulted by your act 9

No. The people that came out to hear me, they knew what was going on because it was advertised that way. “If you are offended by explicit language, dont come in.” So the advertisement was for explicit language and they poured in. So we didn't have that problem.

You must have gotten quite a bit of interesting mail over the years, haven't you, Rudy Ray Moore?

Yes, but it was not so derogatory. [| have always been commended for my performance. People have always loved to come to see it, and I have never had that in the clubs, maybe a little bit, uh, women you know may, uh, object, but then, you know, if they wanted their money back, they was given it back and they could leave.

Who were your rivals, there any rivals on the circuit who were up against you like the Baronness Bobo? Was that a rival? No. Baroness, the Baroness Bobo, uh, if you repeat that name anywhere, the average person

Rudy? Were

would know nothing about it, totally forgotten. So the Baroness Bobo never stood close to anything I was doing because they only had one record to my knowledge. and it was a dog.

But Rudy Ray Moore, records, and I'm sure quite a lot of people. comics, once you. started getting going or comedians who tried to tread the same water that you did?

Oh yes, all of them. From, uh, the great Richard Pryor was one of the main ones that jumped on the bandwagon and it took him four years to start doing it, but when he found it was working, he jumped on the bandwagon. Then Renaldo Ray, the Risin’ of Renaldo Ray. he did one. And Leroy and Skillet from the Laff Record Company. the president of Laff Records, suggested that they go in that bag, and Wild Man Steve come behind me doing the same thing. And Blowfly come behind me rappin’ the same way.

You were on Kent Records, or a division of Kent. That was the same label as Ike and Tina Turner. Did you ever get to open for Ike at all?

Many times. Fifty times. And ['m_ very disgusted today because Tina Turner as great as she's gotten today. I used to introduce her as the MC at the old California club, I would call her "The Hardest Working Woman in Show Business,” “the cashmere voice of miss Tina Turner,Let's bring her on!", and she's gotten to be a superstar, and she's never requested me to join her, not one time within her life.

a ) RUDY RAY MOORE ALBUM

you had many you inspired Were there any

She doing a big farwell tour now , she could at least get you to open for her!

She has not thought of me and I'm very hurt, and a lot of the other comedians- like those that have copied me, they have never invited me not for one appearance and I am the orginal King of Comedy, still standing!

You are King of the Party record. You are Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite. What was it like recording with the Phantom Surfers?

| enjoyed doing it. [ didn't record with them. i did the pieces that they use and they put it into the record. And they also cared me to Las Vegas Grind at the Gold Coast Hotel and I did introduce them on stage there to a massive 3000 audience.

You introduced Andre Williams as well. Do you remember him from back in the day? Like you were at the Las Vegas Grind there. Do you remember Andre Williams?

Bacon Fat. Yes, I've known Andre for years. He had forgotten me, but he had remembered my work when I introduced him and went backstage.

I interviewed Andre a back Rudy Ray Moore that he was too pretty, that Andre Williams was too pretty to do what you did, he said he was too pretty to be Rudy Ray Moore, and he said, I quote, "I never wanted to be a Rudy Ray Moore because I was too pretty. I'd have been dead. Rudy Ray Moore ‘ooked like the type that tell the

little while and he said

The Late Great LADY REED

truth and not intimidate people. I

couldn't do that. I think Rudy Ray Moore opened the door to the sex message. I think that there could

have been five or six more Rudy Ray Moore's this market would have been discovered earlier had there’ been more Rudy Ray Moore's. Rudy Ray Moore is definitely a pioneer.” But I was curious, he said he was too pretty to do what you did.

Well, he’s an old man now and he still ho's a little bit but he was I guess in the ladies’ eyesight a handsome man. [ will give him that credit. He wasn't bad looking. He wasn't one of them ugly boys.

Was it hard to work yourself into a surf sweat at all, Rudy Ray Moore, to work with the Phantom Surfers?

Uh, no. I enjoyed them because I felt like doing the best that [ could throw out there because they respected me so highly, and they wanted me to be a part of their show, so I gave them my best.

Now when you recorded with Melomite, Melomite Mel, of the Phantom Surfers at King Cotton Studios, you were photographed petting a pig! Rudy Ray Moore petting a pig!

Yes, uh huh. I liked the big old’.... that was some pig too. Oh lord.

Rudy Ray Moore, apparently for

every dirty song Blowfly ,writes, he has to memorize a line of Biblical verse! What do you think about that? I think young man is fabulous with his rendition of “Shittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” . That was the one I liked.

Where did you learn it all, Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite? What's the secret? Is your rhyming based on folklore, like the "Titanic" and the "Signifiying Monkey", some of the pieces you do. Did you learn all this from an old whino?

Yes. It come from the beer joint and liquor store "wineheads," that sit out in front of the liquor store all day and shoot the breeze and tell lies and when { heard them doing it and people would sit there giggling, (makes noise) “cluckcluckclu” all day long, I was already a comedian, and I said, “I should record something like that. 1 wonder if people would laugh if] wasin this yard doing it?” So I got Rico the Wino and carried him to my apartment with my tape recorder and let him recite that

stuff to me. And I went into the studio and recorded it and the rest is history.

Rudy Ray Moore, "The more you wiggle”

The better it feels.

Rudy Ray Moore, "Screw your wig on tighta”

And let me tell you about the little bad notorious mutherfucker called Dolemite.

Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite, You have some amazing album covers. On the cover of many of those

records, you were naked quite a bit. Was it ever stimulating being there with all the ladies on the cover of those records?

Ohhh, well, now you're getting quite personal. Oh! Sorry.

(laughs) You ought to know how easy I'm turned on, which was not hard to do now. Because I got all those naked girls. We worked with it though. We was there for business you know. And the business | mean was to make the album cover. And anything else come about, you know, we put that aside until the album shooting is over. Rudy Ray Moore, always, you were involved with the ladies. is my name...

(silence) Rudy Ray name.... And fuckin’ motherfuckers was her game. How is Queen Bee doing? Queen Bee passed two years ago. Oh I'm sorry to hear that. Aas

She's gone.

She was an amazing character.

Wasn't she? She was my co-partner and star on the road with me. We went many many many places and broke a lot of bread together. Shedded a lot of blood sweat and tears.

you always, always were Queen Bee

Moore, Queen Bee is my

She was

Rudy Ray Moore, “The Human Tornado" has the best beginning of a movie, ever! And that's not just because I'm the Human Serviette either! I love the beginning of the movie when you roll down that embankment. Was that hard to do ?

Like you were totally naked?

Very much hard to do. I was scratched up for two weeks. See, I didn't do the full stunt myself. There was somebody did the beginning of it, but in order to make it look right on film, I had to roll into camera, so they had to use my body. And they put me on that embankment and I rolled down some 50 feet. And { was scratched up.

And you were totally naked. I was thinking your cock there must have been totally ripped up there, Rudy Ray Moore!

(laughs) It was some scene. But I was daring and bold. I did everything I could do to make what I was doing work.

How are you these days? You haven't made any deals with the devil, have you Rudy Ray Moore?

Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-In-Law. | may do another movie. In fact, I'm winding up my movie career. I think I've gotten too old to continue. So I am going to do the "Return of Petey Wheatstraw". That will wind up my movie career.

Rudy Ray Moore, what is the movie you are shooting right now?

"Dolemite: the Millennium"

Can you tell us a little bit about the movie? Is Snoop Doggy Dogg in the movie?

No, but we have Lazie Bones of Bones Thugs 'N’ Harmony. He's in it.

What's the plot line?

It begins with me coming from Africa, after 25 years. I move to Africa and I father two sons there. And my sister calls me and tells me to come home and help her, because the

10

community has gotten bad. And "Dolemite you know how you used to keep the community intact. Come home and help me because they are killing and doing everything.” That's the beginning plot.

Is there much Martial movie?

Yes. | am whupping five at one time!

Rudy Ray Moore, what did you do in the 1980s, were you in Texas at that time? Like you began as a dancer, you did the R and B stuff, you moved to Los Angeles, you did Dolemite,

Arts in the

Rudy Ray Moore , all the comedy stuff. What was happening in the 80's?

In the early part of the 80's 1 was a broke miserable man...f worked two bit jobs trying to live and then along came the 2 Live Crew, they sampled one of my records in 1986, and then I began to comeback after that. That's what I was doing in the 80s, absolutely nothing. But [ was able to live because | always had a great stage act. | could make enough money to survive on, but they were the hard years for me, the 80s.

So the 2 Live Crew were the biggest influence on getting Rudy Ray Moore back in action?

They did a record called “Throw the Dick” that was sampled from my album, “I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing” and the track was "Romeo and Juliet", that they sampled three and a half minutes of, and the rest is history. It got to be a smash hit. And they give me some money, more money than I'd had in a longtime.

Rudy Ray Moore, why should people care about Dolemite and Rudy Ray Moore? Why should people care? Well, I have the love of the people right now. The little people. And whenever [ go out to appear I draw huge crowds of the little people. the people, the natural street people, the natural fun loving people. So they love me. And as long as [ got them, I will always survive, because the power belong to the people.

Well thanks very much, Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite. Keep on rocking in the free world, and doot doola doot

doo...

Thank you.

Actually I was hoping for ‘doot doo," but how about a Dolemite finish? Doot doola doot doo...

Doot doola doot doo, doot doo! (laughs)

(Nardwuar vs. Dolemite” logo by Rundy Iwata)

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2Oth CENTURY FOXX

By Jake Austen. Reviews: Jake Austen (JA) John Battles 3B) Edmund Graye (EG) David Leucinger (DL) James Porter (JP) Harry Young (HY)

Chicago, 1917: Fred G. Sanford (the G. stands for Glenn), not exactly the most honorable fellow, marries Mary Alma in hopes of getting a deferment to avoid the WWI draft. The next year Fred G. Sanford, Jr. is born, and four years later, on the 9" of December, 1922 Jon Elroy Sanford (also known as John, Smiley, 58" Street Red, Chicago Red, and finally, Redd Foxx) ts bom. By the time the little red headed child enters the world, Fred Sr. has abandoned the family for good and Mary has moved back to her mother’s home in St. Lours. Thus began the I-o-n-g hard journey that would bring Amenica's hardest working, most prolific, and (some say) all-time funniest comedian to heights beyond the dreams such humble beginnings usually should allow, and to depths so low that his early years would seem like paradise.

Less than a year after his birth, young Jon Redd and his family moved back to Chicago. His mother supported the boys as best she could working as a domestic for a White Sox exec for 2 dollars a day. The same legendary cheapness that led Shoeless Joe Jackson to accept bribes to throw the World Series forced Mrs. Sanford to throw her boys into the best sttuation she could -- accepting charity to send them away to Catholic School in Milwaukee. It was here that young Redd would see his brother get what child psychologists these days call “negative attention” for acting up, and from that moment on Jon Elroy Sanford would dedicate his life to being the center of attention. After four years their mother sent them back to St. Louis to live with their grandmother, while she stayed in Chicago to work. That act was never forgiven by the boy who would be Foxx, and he became pretty much a badass from then on (meeting a pre- teen Lawanda Page likely didn’t help his manners, either). He was expelled from one St. Louis school on the first day for throwing a book at a teacher. By age thirteen he was back in Chicago, and then the trouble really began.

Awaiting him in the Windy City was DuSable high school and the 58" St. Gang. The former was the savior of many a Black youth in Chicago. The first all Black high school in the city, DuSable (named after the Black explorer who founded Chicago) was an excellent facility that produced many of the figures that shaped Black Chicago in the 20" century. The 58" Street Gang, on the other hand, was a group of common hoodlum delinquents. Redd would put a half-assed effort into each, attending only two semesters of high school, and eventually abandoning his hoodlum crime buddies for hoodlum singing buddies.

By 1939, 16 year old Jon Sanford was singing in “Tramp Bands.” These hobo-attired vocal groups performed on street corners and had an arrangement consisting of guitar, washtub string bass and two singer dancers (of which young Redd was one). They performed Mills Brothers type material, and songs like “Tiger Rag.” After singing with

The Four Hep Cats, Redd found his stride with The Four Bon Bons (“we —

picked that name because Bon Bons were little chocolates.”) and was soon winning local contests. One of the highlights of their Chicago career was performing (with a special dropout’s exemption) in DuSable’s legendary talent show revue, Captain Walter Dyett’s High Jinx, a show which produced such notables as Nat “King” Cole, Dorothy Donnegan and Johnny Hartman.

Not long after the show the Bon Bons hopped a freight train headed towards the promised land of Harlem (via Buffalo and Jersey) and after some adventures with railroad detectives, they found themselves jamming on Uptown street corners. It was there that they were discovered and given a chance to appear on the popular radio show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Billed as The Jump Swinging Six (with a coupla New Yorkers in tow) they performed “Shiek of Araby” and won 2 Prize -- a

week's engagement at the Apollo Theater. After the Apollo they had gigs .

in Brooklyn and New Jersey, but money was tight. When Redd ended up in jail for several months after a dine and ditch at a Chinese restaurant,

half the Bon Bons headed home while he was incarcerated. Thus, when he —

gained his freedom, he was also allowed the unwanted freedom to pursue a solo career.

The next few years were a constant struggle and hustle. He ate soap to avoid the draft, he rolled drunks for money and he shot pool. It was behind the cue stick where he met Malcolm Little (later to be come the revolutionary Malcom X, but at the time a hustler like Redd). Soon they were working side by side in the kitchen of Jimmy’s Chicken Shack,

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sleeping on newspapers on a nearby roof (“Newspapers ts some of the warmest stuff going”). Not the slickest con, he was nabbed for milk stealing and landed back in jail. Luckilly he got out of common crime and got fully into an uncommon scam -- show biz!

Redd (a name he formally began using by this time) had made friends with a number of the stars around New York, and that began to pay off in

1943 when Jo Ann Baker got him his first steady gig emceeing...in Baltimore. Performing for the rough longshoreman (and becoming one during the day), Redd developed his style of blue humor to get a rise out of the audience. Redd’s style came naturally to him, combining perfect timing, delivery and a conversational stroytelling vibe that make clean material sound dirty and dirty maternal sound filthy. His profile was on the rise during the 1940s, and he parlayed the exposure into a brief singing gig with the Buddy Johnson band (Arthur Prysock was the featured vocalist), a semi-fruitful foray as a recording artist (one session singing jump Blues for Savoy - see REDD RECORDS) and even a return to the Apollo stage. His comedy career really came into bloom when he partnered with a comic/dancer he met in Baltimore, Slappy White. As Redd and White they escaped the local scenes and got themselves on the bottom of touring bills. By 1947 they were traveling with Duke, Cab Calloway, Basie and others. They were pulling in $150 each per week, and all they had to do for the money was work 7 days a week, 3 shows a night, plus weekend matinees. The network of venues where Black performers would play for Black audiences was dubbed The Chitlin Circutt, and it was on this circuit that Redd would meet many of the comics he would be associated with later in life, including Don “Bubba” Bexley. Leroy and Skillet, and even his old St. Louis associate Lawanda Page, who long before Aunt Esther days, was actually an exotic dancing beauty!

In 1948 Redd met and married Evelyn Killebrew, a bourgeoisie gal whose father was the George Jefferson of Newark. Off the road at the time, he was making only $5 a night telling jokes at a Jersey bar, so naturally her: daddy wasn't happy. The marnage lasted only until the early fifties, when Queen Dinah Washington arranged for Redd and White to come open for her in Los Angeles. Deciding to relocate to the Golden State after the brief gig was over, he sent for Evelyn, who wouldn’t come. The Redd and. White duo broke up, and Foxx struggled for work, even trying his hand at opening a soul food place. But it was in the LA nightclubs where Foxx would soon become involved in the two longest partnerships of his life.

At the Stadium Club Redd opened for the Harris Sisters, and though his crude style at first offended the girls, after only a year he convinced Betty Jean Hams to marry him, and he adopted her daughter Debreca. His other “mamiage” got its start when he was hired as a comedian at the Brass Rail for $150 a week. The 32-year-old comic already had a f ully developed ego and sense of entitlement. He really believed he was the best in the business, and would walk out on any club that disrespected him. Luckily he hadn't walked out the night Dootsie Williams came to see him perform.

Dootste Williams, a charismatic Black wheeler and dealer, would go on to describe himself as America’s Foremost Authotrity on Humor. He had been running the Dootone label since 1951, mostly concentrating on vocal groups and Doo Wop, as well as fiddler John Creach, who would become “Papa John” in the Woodstock era. He was ready to invest some

wax in comedy, feeling it was his zone since he had released Billy

Mitchell's “Song of the Woodpecker” in 1949 on Blue/Duotone, which he called the first comedy record (few would agree with him). Redd soon

recorded his first live Dooto LP, “Laff of The Party,” for which he would is PKR

later claim he was paid $25. The raunchy LP was a success, soon becoming the biggest party record of all time, and Dootsie signed Redd to a long term contract. Redd’s star was on the rise.

For those unfamiliar with the “Party Record” phenomenon, it involved bawdy comedy records by Black comedians that were sold in Black shops semt-openly, and in select white shops under the counter. In the pre-TV era (and for poor people that lasted well into the “TV age’) listening to these records was a social event, where friends would gather, drink and enjoy the double entendres. Many rent parties were based around Dooto comedy albums.

After the success of “Laff Of The Party,” Dootsie began releasing record after record, including multiple EP packagings of each album, different color vinyl, and “Best Ofs” faster than you could say “Record Collector Scum.” Redd became a national star and his LA engagements at more upscale joints like The Summit Club and the Interlude Club, both on Sunset Boulevard, began to eam him upwards of $750 a week. By 1959 he was playing for white audiences in New York. At his first such engagement, at the Basin St. East , he tried to do a sanitized version of his act to be safe and the crowd demanded he do the dirty stuff. In 1960 he began his Vegas career by playing the Alladin after hours. Redd came to define the Vegas After Hours club, a place where headliners like Sinatra, Sammy Davis and their ilk, as well as anybody who refused to sleep, would go at 2am after the big shows let out. All the while Dooto was releasing new LPs and EPs every couple of months. As his rep rose he started to smell a vinyl rat.

In 1961 Foxx brought suit against Dooto in an effort to cancel his contract, accusing Williams of fraudulent practices, and royalty underpayment. While this suit lingered on Dooto didn't slow down releasing Foxx records despite not having access to the act. The release of out of date, repackaged and poor quality material during that time would come to set the tone for the rest of Foxx’ recording career. In September of °63, after 2 years, 5 months and 10 days in court, Foxx got screwed! Whatever the truth was, the judge was so partial to Williams that it makes one suspect that perhaps there’s something wrong with the LA Judiciary system. Dooto not only got the courts to agree they hadn't underpaid Foxx, they also got a ruling that they'd overpaid, him, and that Redd owed the label $11,000! In addition, not only did Redd have to honor his lengthy contract, but it was extended by the courts to reflect the time Foxx was uncooperative.

But 1963 wasn’t a bad year for Redd. On the contrary, he wanted to break ties with Dooto because opportunities were rich for him. Hugh Downs had seen Redd at the Sugar Hill club in New York, and though he had to tone down his blue streak, Hugh was able to get the 41 year old comic on the “Today” show. “Negro” comedians were starting to break through on TV, with Dick Gregory making strides and Bill Cosby about to make leaps, so with a little sanitizing it made sense that Redd would make it on the small screen

Champtoned by Downs, Johnny Carson and Della Reese, Foxx appeared all over the tube, and in the late 60s and early 70s he appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “Mike Douglas,” “Merv Griffin,” “The Addams Family,” “Mr. Ed,” “Green Acres,” “Here’s Lucy,” “Flip Wilson” (whose career was boosted by Redd pumping him up on Carson) “Dinah Shore,” “ The Name Of The Game,” and the special “A Time For Laughter,” amongst many others. His clean act helped raise the price for his dirty act, as he was soon earning $4,000 per show at the Aladdin in Vegas. And when °67 came and his Dooto contract was over, his recording output exploded.

Foxx got out of his contract cleanly and even a little early after Sinatra decided to sign Foxx to Loma, the Black imprint of his Repnise label, itself an imprint of the mighty Wamer Brothers label. Within 48 hours of

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seeing an impressive Vegas set, the Chairman settled with Dootsie and had a contract with Redd. It was, amazingly, a non-exclusive contract, and Redd was also allowed to release records on King (home of James Brotwn) and a bushel of LPs on his own MF records (MF stood for [Bert] Marks, his partner in the venture, and Foxx). Many of the albums were recorded at Redd’s LA club, which he had opened to have a profitable home base (cutting down on Vegas trips) and to showcase old chitlin circuit and young Black comedians. (see FOX-E-PHEMRA) Redd was living the life, chilling in a $62,500 home in Baldwin Hills, seeing his Loma LP sell 15,000 in the first few weeks (great for a comedy record), and swimming in the indulgences he felt his hard work had earned him, including mountains of cocaine and plenty of women. It seemed like he was on top of the world, but little did he dream that this was a mere drop in the success bucket.

1970 had some lows and highs. On the negative side, his club, which he had put in the hands of crooked and incompetent friends and relatives, burnt down after falling into deep financial holes. This bad business sense he demonstrated in the venture would haunt Redd for the rest of his life. On the up side, Redd appeared in the film, “Cotton Comes To Harlem,” Ossie Davis’ adaptation of Chester Himes novel. His character Uncle Bud, a crafty old urban junkman, caught the eye of Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin. They were riding high with the TV success of “All In The Family” on CBS. That edgy comedy was an adaptation of a Brit-Com, and they were looking to import another English senes about a junkman and his dysfunctional relationship with his son. They had considered several ethnicities, but Redd’s Uncle Bud performance convinced them to go Black, and they never went back.

A mid-season replacement senes, “Sanford and Son” cast Redd as the father and Demond Wilson as the son. The humble set and small cast made for a modest production that could really showcase Redd's appeal. On January 14th, 1972 it debuted, and for the rest of its run it never left the top ten. All of a sudden Redd Foxx was a SUPERSTAR’

The show was not without cntics. Variety compared it to “Amos and Andy”, and in a prominent New York Times piece, “Sanford and Son Is White To The Core” Black scholar Eugenia Collier lambasted the show, making some interesting points (for example, the Black tradition of humor usually involves a common man protaganist, and if any Black junkyard owners actually exist, they would be incredibly exceptional).

Interestingly, cultural critic Donald Bogle has made an argument that completely turns Collier’s thesis around, championing the program as a rare, true Black show.

Bogle may be on the mark here. Though the show’s writers were most! y white (the production credits read like those gold tree leaves with donors names you see at a synagogue) Foxx exerted a huge amount of influence. Though he didn’t have a TV track record, he was making a mil a year at the Hilton in Vegas, so he didn’t need the job, and was in a position to make demands. Even before the show's successful debut he had the juice to name the characters Fred G. Sanford after his brother (not his absentee father of the same name) who had died in 1963, and Lamont after Lamont Ousley, one of the Four Bon Bons. As far as writing goes, in addition to ad libbing his own lines, Redd also contributed to scripts, answering stupid questions about his writing credentials with the snappy answer,

“I've been black longer than anybody here.” Foxx also insisted that no degrading “jive talk” be wnitten into the scripts, which actually closed the door to a number of young black writers whose sample scripts were drenched with Black English. When the show hit, Foxx fully asserted his own aesthetic by stocking the cast with Chitlin’ Circuit buddies, including Lawanda Page, Skillet and Leroy, “Bubba” Bexley, Slappy White and others. Of the older characters that hung with Fred, only Whitman Mayo (Grady) came up as a regular, trained actor.

With great success came great demands....for money! As the show became a smash, Redd’s 10 grand an episode became an insult. He demanded Carol! O° Conner's salary plus a dollar, and a percentage of the show. In 1975 he bitterly walked out for 1/2 a season until the president of NBC gave in to his demands. With a massive cocaine habit, ill-advised generosity, the lure of the Vegas tables and ternble business sense, he actually needed the money. Though he made almost five million dollars in 1975, he also had made the awful mistake of trying to emulate John Johnson's Black-owned Johnson empire of hair care products and publishing. Buying a huge LA building and starting a cosmetics company without knowing much about the buisness was a money pit (see FOXX-E- PHEMERA). He certainly could afford his mansion two doors down from Bob Hope; but the cash, jewelry, cars and extravagant gifts he gave even casual acquaintances were beyond even his massive means. To make matters worse, in 1976 Jean divorced him, getting (amongst much else) his hard fought percentage of “Sanford and Son” in the settlement.

If it was just alimony and business failure haunting Redd maybe he could have kept afloat. But respect was a huge issue as well, and all the bitter negotiations with NBC over the years left him vulnerable to ABC’s offer of a mountain of cash to jump ship. With “Sanford”sull a hit, Redd left at the end of his contract to do a short lived, overly ambitious vanety show on ABC, which was a triumph to the network despite only lasting 9 episodes, because it killed the Sanford and Son juggemaut that had been the competition.

Over the next 15 years he would retum to televison occasionally with little success (See FOXX-TV). His personal life in the 80s was more downs than ups. On the plus side, he settled in Vegas and mamied his third wife Yunchi Chung (a/k/a Joi). It’s interesting that after doing some surprisingly ugly anti-Asian routines on wax, he spent the last years of his life with Asian women and even had an Asian motif wing of his mansion. On the negative side, his family relationships were poor. Many of the relatives he trusted had screwed him in business, he never had forgiven his mother for repeatedly sending him away as a young child, and his father, whom he never met, accidently shot himslef to death, removing any chance of a reconciliation. Artistically he was also troubled. He released fewer records (though Dooto and King continued to issue knockoff albums of old material), his attempt to play Broadway was a bust (See FOXX-E-PHEMERA), and even his popular Vegas concerts were shaky and unpredictable. Billy Crystal once joked on the “Tonight Show” about going to see a Redd Foxx set where the M.C. dramatically announced him, Redd stumbled out, grumbled and then left almost immediately, as the announcer dramatically announced his exit. Foxx was clearly losing focus, and that stemmed form massive financial woes.

By 1983 Redd made millions a year in appearances, but alimony and debt made him declare bankruptcy. By ‘86 he was making 4 million a year in Vezas, but was having problems with the IRS. When his marnage to Joi dissolved, and his coke, gambling and womanizing habits didn't, he soon found himself in a worse position than he could have dreamed of. On November 28, 1989 the IRS swooped in and like stormtroopers and seized all his possessions as Redd stood in the street in his underwear shaking his head. This ugly spectacle was captured and broadcast by TV news cameras. To partially satisfy his elaphantine debt to the agency the IRS auctioned off nearly all of his possessions, including his model T, his uzi,

his Redd Foxx records, his ukele, the watch Elvis gave him, his personal photographs, his Asian room furniture, and everything else. Though he had been paid half a million dollars earlier that year to appear in Eddie Murphy's “Harlem Nights” (See FOXX FILMS/VIDEOS), he had spent it all on partying and didn’t have a penny for Uncle Sam. This humiliation broke Redd’s spint and he became a bitter, angry shell of what he once was, blaming racism, the government and everyone but himself for his predicament.

Eddie Murphy bailed Foxx out, somewhat, by developing a TV show for him and Della Reese, who had good chemistry with Foxx in “Harlem Nights.” “The Royal Family” debuted in September 1991, and was a modest success its first few weeks on the air. On the set on October 11'" Redd was filming an interview with (ironically) “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” when a “Royal Family” staff member insisted, with Robin Leach’s camera’s still rolling, that Redd cut the interview short to come

block some lighting. This was clearly something anyone, or even a sandbag, could do, but the producers must have been wamed to try to keep an upper hand with Redd and keep his spint broken as to avoid NBC's “Sanford” problems. It backfired. Raw footage shows Redd visibly upset at this indignity, muttering, hateful and embarrassed to have this happen in front of the interviewer. He starts breathing heavily and becomes agitated. Moments later he would drop dead from the heart attack initiated by the incident. People thought at first it was a pratfall. It wasn't

Redd never regained consciousness and was declared dead at the hospital at age 68. His new wife of three months, Ka Ho Cho, didn’t have a penny to bury him, and Eddie Murphy had to foot the bill. Redd Foxx went out the way he should have lived, with thousands of people there to show their love, no extravagances spared and the star treatment all around. His talents should have afforded him this his whole life, but his actions and appetites betrayed htm. He sold over 20 million records, was one of the biggest TV stars of the 70s and helped define the traditions of comedy, Vegas and Superstar excess in the 20" century. These days he’s mostly remembered as Fred Sanford (several fine websites honor the TV show and Chris Rock turned down an idiotic proposal to make a “Sanford and Son” movie). But he was so much more. Luckily for history, as one of the most prolific recording and television artists in his field, his huge body of work.can be rediscovered for generations to come.

FOXKOGRAPHY

DISCLAIMER UPON DISCLAIMER: Before I get into the negatives vibes, here are the two biggest reasons | consider the Foxxography a success: 1. Just seeing the mindboggling amount of tides by Redd is a testament to his greatness, and 2. There are beaucoup jokes transcribed in the following pages...if this only serves as a Redd Foxx jokebook this was a worthy, worthy endeavor. Now for the fine print: This task of compiling a list of Redd’s recorded works was an incredibly daunting one, and not merely because of the massive body of work in his catalogue. The real problem comes in the fact that the cheapo labels Redd recorded for threw his recordings out there on wax without rhyme or reason or concern about what stuck and what slid. Many records with different titles contain the same material. Thinking that these would be easily detectable we originally asked the writers to transcribe the first joke on each LP, thinking we could match albums up that way (note to other editors reading this: If you're looking for writers good with deadlines, go for the ones who mention the first joke). Unfortunately, it turned out many records are pastiches, putting together several parts of previously released records, or just shuffling the matenal around. Taking things to the next level, it appears that some companies who got their hands on the recordings of concerts older albums were culled from, got raw recordings of the sets which they reedited with some unreleased material. Complicating matters further, Redd would tell the same jokes on different albums, sometimes in blocks of identical material, often with eerie sameness, sometimes decades apart. And just to throw a digital monkey wrench in, unlike most CD issues which are archivist’s dreams, Redd’s CDs are mostly manufactured cheaply, without liner notes, and sold at truck stops to cross country travelers. They often pad an album that was onginally 26 minutes with 40 minutes from other records, yet keep the original title. Also, very few records actually list the year of release, so a number of the dates here are conjecture. A great deal are culled from accurate sources, the bulk of the remaining ones are from very informed guessing, and a few are just crapshoots. Also, as will be obvious, some writers spent a lot more time than others. But all in all, this should be a pretty amazing read for anyone with an ionterest in one of the most colorful figures in American popular culture. Ladies and gentleman...Redd Foxx...

REDD RECORDS “Let’s Wiggle A Lite Woogie” biw “Lucky Guy” (Savoy/Sav 630, 1946) Redd started his career in vocal combos, and his earliest recordings weren’t in the field of comedy, but rather Jump Blues sides as ‘Redd Foxx with Kenny Watts and His Jumpin’ Buddies.’ Of course, fans of the Treniers and Louis Jordan know Jump can be as close to straight up comedy as any records from the 40s, but Redd’s sides are surprisingly pretty tame. The B side is about Redd’s woman having such bad feet and teeth she can’t go out or talk, whicli makes him lucky. For having so absurd a theme it actually sounds remarkably straightforward. The A side is his most famed of these obscure cuts. It’s a solid rumpshaker that opens with the group singing en masse and then throwing it to Redd who really knows what to do fronting a Jump combo. Often when you'd hear “Fred” sing on “Sanford and Son” you could tell he loved Jazz and Blues, but nothing indicated his actually having a solid voice for it. That's disproved here, as he dexterously goes through these nursery rhyme lyrics and more than holds his own. (JA) “Fine Jelly Blues” biw “Redd Foxx Blues” (Savoy/Sav 631, 1946) I’ve read that Watts and his Buddies were considered fairly pedestrian musicians, but on the Jump cuts I'm pretty satisfied with their performance. These selections and fairly straight Blues, however, and sound more phoned in, but it’s still nice to hear Redd sing about getting him some jelly. Unfortunately he doesn’t really sing about himself on the B-side. (JA) "Shame On You” (Savoy/Sav 645, 1946) This is a pretty great cut with Redd complaining about the woman he brought up from down South disappointing him. You will groove to this and might even make you wish the Swing Dance craze hadn't died out. Most notable about Redd’s Savoy sides is his voice. While some of his early comedy records feature a nasal, sly voice,

these feature a deep, husky, hardly recognizable delivery. (JA)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 1 (Dooto/DTL-214, [also released as Duotone 214] 1955) This breakthrough comedy album on the Dootone label (called Dooto for comedy, Doo Wop was their other forte) established Foxx as the king of party records. Most of the jokes were also released on his 45s, including the classics “The New Soap,” “Sneezes” and “The Race Track.” There's a few extra treats, as well. One would assume that Foxx’ early stuff, without overt profanity and with decades less of the hard living that would temper his 70s and 80s LPs, would be dirty, but not filthy. However, I find this following joke pretty graphic and nasty: “There's a new bikini bathing suit coming out this summer, my uncle invented it...it’s two band aids and a cork!...OK, two corks.” And to make this a real value, Redd does the cover art himself (“Cover By Foxx” in big letters in case you missed it) and though he wasn't gonna make Charles Schulz nervous with his cartoon skills, his self portrait is pretty great. But why the checkered socks? Issued on both black and red vinyl. (JA)

“The New Soap” biw “Song Plugging” (Dooto/385, 1956) The A-side: The new soap is called Fugg. “If you're husband comes home from the coal mine covered in dirt, tell him to go Fugg himself.” This goes on for 3 or 4 minutes. They also make a detergent called Sugg. So “If you can’t Fugg it..you got the idea.” The B Side: He wants to do a couple of pieces he had the pleasure of plugging in New York. Pieces like “Laura,” “Marie” and “Margie”...he was a song plugger back East. He plugged “The Old Gray Mare, (but) She Aint What She Used To Be.” When they asked him to plug “Jim” he quit. (JA)

"The Jackasses" (Dootone 390, 1956) b/w "The Race Track" (Authentic 390, 1956) That's night, two different labels on two different sides---while this certainly doesn't have the allure of 3-D album covers or colored vinyl, it remains an unusual phenomenon. Both sides reveal what a master of double-entendre Redd was. On the top side, he slips in a bit of (inaccurate) autobiography: “I'm from the country, and during the war they made a lot of money at home, and they didn't throw it away on foolish things like food, rent & clothing, they bought something worthwhile...everybody in my hometown bought a jackass! Everybody, I mean EVERY BODY bought a jackass...” (here Redd starts sounding seriously Def Comedy Jam...in 1956!) “... preacher's wife had the biggest ass in town! I know because I rode her big ass all the time! Biggest ass I've ever been on! Sometimes her ass would sweat and I’d slip nght off her big sweaty ass. Hler husband didn’t have such a bad ass himself. I rode his tittle narrow ass once. You can’t nde no bony ass.” Side B was his Redd’s Big Hit, if you could compare an X-rated comedy routine to a Top 10 song. Just like Steve Martin had "Excuse Me,” Richard Pryor had "Mudbone,” and George Carlin was known for the "Seven Dirty Words You Cant Say On Television,” "The Race Track" was Redd's albatross for years (pre-Sanford & Son). He's announcing a racetrack derby featuring three horses: Cold Towel, Pussy Willow, and a dark-horse favorite called My Dick. Of course, these thoroughbreds are being rode by “the greatest jockeys in the world," except that at one point jockey (George) Strapp somehow cancels and can't ride My Dick, so he's replaced by A. Crabb. Arthur Crabb, that is...it gets better from there, but you get the point, right? JP)

Laff Of The Party EP Vol. | (Dootone/215, 1956) Same as the above single, but with a different number and a fancy sleeve that looks like the LP cover. (JA) “The Honeymooners” biw “The Sneezes” (Dootone/397, 1956) A side: His wife and him buy the wrong tickets on the train on their honeymoon, so they're in upper booths across each other. He tells her late at night to come over, “’But Redd how am I gonna get over there,’ [ said ‘Don’t worry I got something you can walk on.” A man in the lower berth said, ‘Yeah, but how is she gonna get back.” B side: He lists the different sneezes: The chocolate sneeze: Hersheee! The confession sneeze: Who-is-she! The barnyard sneeze: Horshiii--- (EG)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 2 (Dooto/DTL-219/Authentic AULP/219, 1956) Redd didn’t start any new Christmas traditions with his tale of the “Brow: Nosed Reindeer,” but I wish he had. Not the powerhouse follow up one would expect from the breakthrough first LP, but there will be more than the single Laff promised at your party if you play this one. It should be noted that already by this album the stage is set for what to expect on 90% of

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Redd LPs to follow: Rather than a single comedy concert (as is somewhat the norm in stand up albums) this is a montage of shows with some slick and some not so slick edits. Also, there is often weird echo added for effect...exactly what effect I have no idea... but definitely for effect. And finally, there is often, and not always, some lady with a cackle so out there you suspect she’s a plant. Then again, maybe she’s just Redd’s #1 Fant You can get the Authentic issue on yellow or black vinyl and the Dooto one on red or black.(WT)

“Beans and Pineapple Sauce” biw “The Army” (Dootone/402, 1956) Where was this recorded, Echo Valley? Or was he playing to 200 people at a thousand. seat auditorium? Two tales excerpted from Laff Of The Party, Vol. 2 and Redd’'s voice is sounding mighty echoey. “Beans” is a random collection of one-liners, with the title coming from the segment where he sees some guy ordering beans and pineapple sauce in a restaurant. When Redd asks the stranger why, the man coolly replies that his wife likes Hawaiian music. The flip side deals with his 1942 army induction, so this gives him pleaty of room to joke about various inductees and their penile shortcomings. The crowd is less polite and stiff than usual for the Dootone records, letting every last guffaw hang out. (JP)

Laff of the Party Vol 2 EP (Dootone/217, 1956) Same as Dootone 402, but somehow has a lower catalog number than the LP. (JA)

Laff of the Party Vol. 3 EP (Authentic/Auet 218, 1957 {1 assume, the same catalog # on Dooto as well}) Here's the jokes: “What you are about to hear...is a lie. My name is Redd Friday. My name is Redd Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. (sissy voice) On Thursday, I'm Phyllis! I'ma dick. I hang out at the Police Station...[ have a ball. I got shot in a bank robbery. I was sitting in my office, looking out my window at the San Francisco Bay Bndge. That's quite a job, my office is in San Bernadino. The teletype ticked away a news message, two bodies had been found in a closet. I went right over, the Sargent was there. I said, ‘Sargent, what is it? Two women, two men, or a man and a woman?’ ‘Shoot, I don’t know, Redd, both their heads are missing!’ Best joke: "I went down to the fish market, [ said, ‘Good moming, Mister, how much do you get for your crabs?’ He said, ‘A dollar each,” I said, ‘Well, shake hands with a millionaire!’ (JB)

“The Two Oars” b/w “The Preacher’s Bicycle” (Dootone/408, 1956) Redd Foxx is not mentioned by name on the label. Highlights: "Me and a LOVELY girl, we were both under the car, trying to see what was wrong, and a guy came by and looked under the car, he said, ‘Hey, buddy! How far is the Old Red Log Inn?’ I said, ‘Go ahead and mind your own business!’” “f've never been on television, cause television's only 8 years old. Now, who wants to be on something 8 years old?” “There was a case going on with this beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL girl. This fella had promised her that he was going to take her to Florida. The fella’s only defense was, he told the Judge, he said, ‘Judge, I didn’t say I was gonna take her to Florida, I said [ was goin’ to TAMPA with her!** (JB)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 3 (Dooto/DTL- 220/Authentic/AULP 220 1956) Though it was originally issued with the standard cartoon “Cover BY Foxx,” look for the later issue with Redd looking pretty confident on the cover of this one, giving the high sign in an impressive red plaid jacket (“it was a “surprise from my wife... got home and it was sitting on the chair’). He's billed on this as “the undisputed King of recorded comedians,” but it’s not the most stellar example of the genre, as there are some awkward, mid laugh edits between jokes. Lots of goodies on here, though: “Confucius say ‘Crowded elevator smell different to midget."” “A woman says to her man, ‘You're getting kind of big, you better diet,’ He said, “Well what color is it now?’” “I just found out that fireman have bigger balls than policemen. You know why? They sell more tickets.” Available in both black and red vinyl.(JA)

“The Dead Jackass” b/w “Women Over Forty” (Dooto/Authentic 411, 1957) (Incidentally, this is my favorite Redd Foxx joke) “One day, in the army, these two soldiers were arguing over a dead body, a dead animal was layin’ there, and one of 'em said it was a mule, and the other one said it was a donkey. So, they had a big argument about what it was, and the Lieutenant came along, they asked the Lieutenant what it was, he said, "IT’S A ASS, BURY IT!’ And, while they were diggin’ a grave for the animal, a guy came

From top. 3 year old Jon/Redd w/ 7 yt old bro Fred G. Santord Je, Redd 3 lz Reda and Slappy White

along and asked the two soldiers, ‘What you all diggin’? A foxhole?’ and one of the soldiers looked up and said, ‘No...”. Another gem: “A guy walked into a bar, sat down, he was thirsty, soon as he sat down, he looked down there at the other end of the bar, was a beautiful chick sittin’ down there, she was all lookin’ good, he looked down at her...his eyes almost leaned out on his cheeks. Bartender said, ‘Now, listen buddy, let's get this straight. That's my girl, so I dont want you to get no ideas.” This guy said, ‘Who, me? I... dont have no ideas...f only came in for a drink! Gimme a piece of beer!’ One more: "Take King Farouk, he’s been ousted as the head of Egypt, and to show us that he's not mad, he's donated a million bucks to have a university

A built in Egypt, on the condition that they named it after

him, "Farouk U.* (JB)

Laff of the Party Vol 4 EP (Dooto/222, 1957) Same as the above single, but with a nice picture sleeve. (JA) "It's Fun To Be Living In The Crazy House” biw "Real Pretty Mama” (Dooto 416, 1957) Once again, Redd Foxx Sings! This is from the period when record

| companies still identified, night there on the label, what |category the song fell under. “Crazy House” ts a ‘novelty jump,” while the backside is branded a “jump

blues.” Both are great uptempo R&B numbers that would sound good on a mixed tape between Wynonie Harris, H-Bomb Ferguson and Roy Brown. That's a hell of a comparison, but for a man known more for telling jokes than singing, he holds his own. Anyone who ever saw the Sanford & Son episodes that featured him dueting with B.B. King, Timmie "Oh Yeah” Rogers, and former Dooto labelmate Scatman Crothers knows that. Redd, for his part, is kicking back on this single...riding the rhythm, shouting the blues, and having the time of his life. Just like Rudy Ray Moore (no, not you, Cosby, sit back down), he could have been a fine blues shouter if he chose to follow that path. And who is that rocking piano player?!? (JP)

“Best of Redd Foxx Pt. 1” b/w “Best of Redd Foxx Pt. 2” (Dooto/418, 1957) Highlights: "A woman says to her husband, ‘I'm down in the dumps, I think I'll buy a new hat. That's what I do when [I'm down in the dumps.’ Husband says, "I was wonderin’ where you get them things!’” “This Indian from my hometown could remember anything at all that ever happened. One guy came to town once, he didn’t believe the Indian was

eget; true. He walked up to the Indian and said, ‘What did

you have for breakfast in 1906?’ The Indian said, "Me have ham and eggs.’ This fella says, Aw, this is a fake, he don't know nothin’. Anybody would have ham

K.., and eggs early in the morning like that.’ So, he went

me away, stayed about 12, 14 years, he came back, and an this Indian was still standing at the train station, selling a gum and pencils, and he walked over to the Indian, he m just wanted to speak to him, cause he hadn’t seen him in

12, 14 years. He walked up to the Indian and said, ‘How’...The Indian said, "Scrambied.’" (JB)

“The House” biw “Sex and Orange Juice” (Dooto/421, 1957)Some of Redd’s “juiciest” bits, with lot’s of shorn jokes “squeezed” onto this one. With plenty of Vitaman C...and the C stands for “C if you can get thru this without blushing.” (EG)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 4 (Dooto/DTL- 227/Authentic/AULP 227, 1957) The least laffs of all

. his famed Laff of the Party LPs, but barnyard humor

enthusiasts wil! dig the tale of the crosseyed rooster. Also revises the famed dead jackass routine. (WT)

Best Of Redd Foxx [also titled Best of

Foxx) Dooto/DTL-234, 1958) I wouldn’t call this the best of Redd Foxx. It features pretty dry jokes told to a fairly sober audience. A highlight is the studio musical number “Fun In The Crazy House,” a mellow jump Blues number. However, I will concede, this album contains one of the few Foxx jokes to baffle me: “My new sponsor is Shampoo. It's called Shampoo because itis. Shampoo takes the sham out and leaves the poo in.” What the hell is he talking about? (EG)

Best Of Foxx EP vol. 1 Pt. 1 (Dooto/232, 1958)

Best Of Foxx EP vol. I Pt. 2 (Dooto/233, 1958) Excerpts from the Best of Foxx LP in nice sleeves. (JA) Laff Of The Party Vol. 7 (Dooto/DTL-236, 1958) No further recommendation for this LP is needed than to let you know it contains the immortal track, “The Exploding Roach.” (Disclaimer: It's unfortunately about the kind of roach you smoke, not the kind you A on, but the title is still my all time Foxx favorite.) (EG)

ie Of The Party Vol. 7EP Pt. 1(Dooto/DTL-231, 1958)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 7EP Pt. 2(Dooto/DTL-235, 1958)Excerpts from the LP (Pt. has the roach gag). Note screwy catalog numbers, I guess they were just

17

releasing stuff fast and furious and order didn’t really matter. (JA)

“Hollywood Playboy” biw “The Dog's Meeting” (Dooto/426, 1958) Redd telis of a new book about “a Hollywood playboy, hates dames, and in the beginning he finds out she’s one of them in the middle he really finds out she’s one of them. Finally he makes her in the end.”

Just For Fun Vol. 4 (Fox/FR 104, 1958?) NOTE: Redd Foxx is not credited by name, nor does his photo appear anywhere on this LP, and the label name "Fox" is spelled with only one "X*. Suill, there's NO mistaking it's Redd Foxx. First Joke: "Seems as though a soldier and a sailor died at the same time, and St. Peter met the both of them at the pearly gates. He looked at the soldier and the sailor, he said, ‘Fellas, | want you to know, this very first day, that if either of you has an unclean or indecent thought, your wings will fall right off.” Just about then, a beautiful angel switched by, and the soldier's wings fell off...He bent down to pick up his wings, and the SAILOR’S wings fell off!" Best Joke (incidentally, the LAST, too): “This old man was sitting on the bus, looking out the window, reading a racing form, and a young girl got on...it was so crowded, she didn’t have nowhere to sit, and he said, ‘I'd like to let you have my seat, but I'm an old man...but I'l tell you what you can do, you cag sit nght down here on my lap. I'm an old man, it don't make no diffe-rence, if you know what I mean.’ She says, "Okay So, she sits down in the old man’s lap, and they started hitting a few bumps downhill, and they bumped about a block and a half, and the old man said, ‘Look here, daughter, [ think you better get up, cause I ain't as old as [ thought | was!’* (JB)

Just For Fun (Fox/FR 107, 1958?) The Fox label obviously is involved in somekinda hinky bizness dealings: either this is a bootleg company, or Dootsie is selling someone the Foxx tapes on the down low. | guess we could assume there's a volume 2 and 3, but the fact that this has a later issue number than volume + made me decide to just list the ones I know exist. (JA) Burlesque Humor EP Vol. 1 (Dooto/237, 1958) Same as the above, but with a nice sleeve. (JA)

Burlesque Humor (Dooto/DTL 249, 1958) The liner notes claim this was “recorded for the most part at Strip City in Hollywood” (interesting already that they admit these are pastiches and not single concerts) but he’s clearly in Chicago for at least some of this, as he makes Wrigley Field and Hlinois references. This record also boasts remarkably unacceptable recording quality, as the first joke actually has the microphone way too low and they turn it up mid joke, and to top that off some woman keeps talking throughout the show. Young Foxx is working an extra nasal voice on this one and opens with a long musical take on “South Of The Border” about cutting a Mexican who cuckolded him. After that long bit the gems are mostly one liners. Two of my faves: A friends advice about a girlfriend who always smokes a cigarette when he wants to kiss her: “Just kiss her between the draws.” “I just wrote a new song, it’s called “Cuddle up a little closer .it's shorter than you think.” “Confucius also say...Man who make love on ground have Piece On Earth.” (JA)

“South Of The Border” biw “The Plastic Surgeon” (Dooto/436, 1958) This one’s a little ruff. A Mexican boarder goes south of Redd's wife’s border and Redd's out to slice and dice him. Not the funniest. but it’s always nice to hear Redd sing. (WT)

“The Dear John Letter” b/w “Honesty Is The Best Policy” (Dooto/453, 1959) The Title Tracks:- “Lotta guys received ‘Dear John’ letters dunng the war, but a fella was in my outfit...He received the dadblamedest ‘Dear John’ letter I ever heard in my life...It read something like this, ‘Dear John, I couldn't wait another day for you, darling...So I mamed your Father! Love, Mother." “I was in New York, it was cold, I was on the subway, and I found a wallet with $538.00 in it..but, | got that HONEST feeling. Now, I know somewhere, somebody needed that $ 538.00, and I believe honesty is the best policy, so 1 put an ad in the paper...in the Memphis Joumal!" (JB)

“The Shoeshine Boy” biw “The Royal Thighs and Others” (Dooto/455, 1959) These are some of the most classic jokes, but because he takes s-0-0-0 I|-o-o-n-g to get to the punchlines, and because of the amount of Space it would take and because of the impact you would lose by not hearing Foxx’s inflections, it seems futile to try to transcribe them. So haw about just the punchlines: “Nobody Can eat that much ice cream!” “What are you doing here, Mr. Castro?” (EG)

The Sidesplitter (Dooto/DTL-253, 1959)On the cover Redd looks like he’s really seriously preaching to bis

crowd, invoking future Dooto labelmate Martin Luther King more than label mate Rudy Ray Moore. While I'm sure he went to a basement party here and there, I'll go out on a limb and say that King was less influenced by Foxx than Moore. Oral sex, gambling and women of questionable morals are the key subjects this time around. (WT)

The Sidesplitter (Fox/FR 109) A knockoff bootleg (I think) of the same album. See Racy Tales (WT)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 8 (Dooto/DTL-265, 1959) Opener: “I'm afraid now it's more BALONEY. Their first Sputnik Russia put up, they sent a dog up in it, or was that the second one? [ know they sent a dog up to the moon, or tried to reach him out in outer space, but the Americans are different, they put a colored fella up there, the only one with enough guts to really wanna go! Everybody's trying to keep it a secret, because America don't want the Russians to know that the jig is up!” Best Joke: It's a toss-up between these two: 1) “You know, you've seen the army helmets, the combat helmet, you have to be very careful, y'see, | work with one in the club every night, and I check it to see that it's cool, cause there's 1001 uses for a army helmet! [ remember one time, General MacBaxter said, ‘Foxx, go down to the hole,’ we were stationed down in equatorial Africa, he said, "Go down to the river bank and get some water for the men to drink, because they can't get down there. Go and get it nght away.’ I said, ‘Okay, General.’ I went down to the water hole and took this combat helmet and went to dip some water up, and just as I went to dip, a crocodile opened up his jaws and said, ‘AAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRR!!!’ That really scared me, cause I'd never seen a crocodile, I turned around, splittin’ back to camp. General says, "Where's the water, Foxx?’ I said, ‘There was a crocodile down there, General, and when I went to dip to get the....,” he said, ‘Where's the water?" [ said, ‘Didn’t I just get through tellin’ you there was a crocodile down there?’ He said, ‘Well, what happened?’ I said, ‘the crocodile snapped at me,’ he said, “Well, listen, the crocodile was only afraid of ya’...I said, ‘Hell, if he was half as afraid of me as I was of him, that water wasn’t fit to drink, no how!" 2) "This one guy went to the store, he wanted to buy a fig leaf so he could go to a party dressed as Adam. So, he tried to buy a fig leaf that was BIG enough to cover up, cause he was sort of...He asked the clerk, ‘Could you find me a fig leaf that's big enough to cover everything?’ The clerk says, ‘I've looked all over the store, and I can't find no fig leaf big enough to

cover you, sir.’ He asked the clerk, “Well, what would @ you suggest?’ Clerk said, ‘Well, if [ was you, I'd just |

throw it across my amm...’” (audience laughter renders HR Foxx inaudible for about 10 seconds) "'Throw it across 9

my arm and go as a filling station!’" (JB)

The Sidesplitter Vol. 2 (Dooto/DTL 270, 1960) Fairly low key performance and audience (At one point he @ tells the too quiet crowd to “Put some sound in your @ laugh...laugh like you're at home cleaning chitlins with & no gloves.) but there’s a few good quickies, including

“You can’t love me the way I want to be loved...on credit” and “The three quickest ways to get news

around...Television, telephone and tell-a-woman.” “IT | worked at one place so rough the bouncers were —% throwing people in.” Lots of fishing and fish jokes, and <9 remarkably, none about vaginal odor! This contains the £ famed, self-explanatory “Mother Frockers and Cork :

Soakers Convention” routine (JA)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. I (Dooto/271, 1960)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. 2 (Dooto 272, 1960)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. 2 (Dooto 273, 1960) Excerpts galore from the LP, “Mother Frockers” is on Vol. 3. JIA)

The New Race Track (also released as Racy Tales) (Dooto/DTL 275, 1960) For a while this was implied that this was the best selling in the Dooto collection (which it couldn't be, “Laff Of The Party” is the Thriller of party albums), and I believe it sold plenty based on the cover alone: A sexy lady in underwear, fishnets and a jockey’s silk hat straddling a cartoonish hobby horse who seems to be enjoying it! Of course, “The Race track” is one of Foxx’ all time classics, where he announces a race with naughty names (jockey A. Crabb is riding horse My Dick). But forget the jokes... let me see that cover again! (WT)

Racy Tales (Fox/FR 110, 1960) I don’t know what the deal was with “Fox” records but this is the same record. Some “Fox” records don’t even have Redd Foxx’ name on the cover. I question the kosherness of these releases, but Dootsie Williams wasn't exactly a rabbi buisnesswise himself, so who knows, he may have been licensing to the bootleggers. Redd didn’t trust him by this point. (JA)

Racy Tales EP Pt. 1 (Dooto 276, and maybe 279 as well?, 1960) Again with the almost naked girl on the horse, and some prime hillbilly, Confucius, and naughty jokes. (WT)

Racy Tales EP Pt. 2 (Dooto 277, 1960) More from the LP, with a picture sleeve. (JA)

Funa (Dooto/DTL 290, 1960) Early on Redd tells the audience, “Let me sit down...that’s better, I feel like Shelly Berman.” That sets the tone for a not particularly raucous, but very solid set that picks up steam modestly as it goes along. Insight into the Foxxian method is revealed as he mumbles at one point, “You notice I don’t have any particular pattern, I just tell stories as I go, I don’t have time for..." Then he tells an unrelated lawyer joke. Hmmmm? On the joke side, here’s a gem: One soldier asks another, “What did you get all those medals for?” “For gunnery.” Well | had it three years age, they didn’t give me none!” (JA)

Funn EP Pt. 1 (Dooto/291, 1960)

Funan EP Pt. 2 (Dooto/292, 1960) Excerpts from this solid album in a fancy sleeve. Part two contains this joke: “I'd like to sing you the theme song for a pregnant ballerina...” (stngs) “I should have danced all night...” (JA)

The Best Laff (Dooto/DTL 291, falso issued as DTL O! for a while...'ll explain why later] 1960) Features an amazing cover photo of an extreme close up of Redd tinted Redd and laughing. The back cover fotos show a dignified Redd, which makes sense as this is a relatively clean album. The long opening. cynical bit about “Childless Couples” basically says that most chldren are drooling idiots who ruin your life. Even his relatively clean stuff has serious edge, for example, the best joke: “I was sitting at one of those lunch counters, they said “We don't serve colored people.’ [ said, “I don’t eat colored people!” This clean album was actually issued to get Foxx a comedy Grammy. The weird alternate issue number was likely an attempt to pretend the dirty records didn't exist. He didn’t win the Grammy, by the way. This is available as a LO” or 12” record. (JA)

Sly Sex (Dooto/DTL 295, 1960) No Foxx on the cover,

just a girl in all red tones. Redd has a good rapport with avery drunk audience, featuring back-talking Black ladies. He opens by explaining “I work in joints where the burlesque girls work. The fellas yell ‘Take it off, take it off.’ One girl was so ugly they hollered ‘Leave iton! Leave it on!’” (EG)

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Sly Sex ep Pt. 1 (Dooto/296, 1960)

Sly Sex ep Pt. 2 (Dooto/297, 1960) Excerpts from the LP in nice sleeves. (JA)

“118 Ways To Make Love” biw “Preganacy Co- operation” (Dooto/458, 1960) Maybe I'm in bad mood, but this shit just dida’t tickle me a bit. (EG)

“Christmas Hard Times” biw “Jaw Resting” (Dootone/464, 1960) The A side starts with little Rodney (his son, who he mentions whenever a joke requires it. He had an adopted daughter, but to my knowledge, no son. He also wasn't in the army as many jokes imply) getting on the pony ride at a department store one December. Problem is, he refuses to get off, despite the warnings of others, so “Santa Claus” strolls over, whispers in his ear, and finally little Rodney jumps off the horse. And what did Santa say? He basically told him to get off that hoss before Rodney gets a broken neck. Not one of his more inspired jokes And if you're making a Xmas mixed tape, be aware that this is followed by three more jokes that have nothing to do with the holidays---two take place in a barroom, one bit of bizarre wordplay involves a “stagnant” (i.e. pregnant) woman who tells the cab driver to take her to the “fraternity (maternity) ward.” (JP)

Have One On Me (Dooto/DTL 298, 1960) Red actually comments early on that, “It's a good laugher here tonight” responding to a particular hearty audience member. He kicks off the show with, “I hate to start off on a sour note, but my neighbor's baby swallowed a .22 caliber bullet today. She took him to the doctor, told him the baby had swallowed a .22 caliber bullet, what can we do? ‘The only thing we can do. Give him half a bottle of castor oil and don't aim him at anybody.’” Later Redd comments, “I stay out to all hours of the afternoon.” (EG)

Have One On Me ep Pt. 1 (Dooto/299, 1960)

Have One On Me ep Pt. 2 (Dooto/200, 1960) Excerpts from the album in nice sleeves, Note that the rapid release of records finally caught up with them and they screwed up the catalogue numbers.

Laffarama (Dooto/DTL 801, 1960) Redd makes lots of jokes about women’s underwear and couture on this one. Not his nastiest, but he was on a roll of confident, hearty albums around this time. I don’t know if I'd call

this a LaffARama, but it's certainly LaffsAPlenty or at the very least LaffTastic. (WT)

Wild Party (Dooto/DTL 804, 1960) First Joke: "I guess some of you fellas were overseas... Maybe some of you were in prison camp, like myself. I was a prisoner of war...although on THIS side!" Best Joke: “I hate to bring up election stories, but a fella had a bet with his secretary, see, she said that Kennedy would win, and he said Nixon would win. He told her, “Look, I'll lay you 12 to I°,she said, “That's good, that’s my lunch hour!* (JB) This Is Foxx (Dooto/DTL 809) 1960) First Joke: "This fella was goin’ to the electnc chair...The warden was standin’ there, talkin’ to him, he said, ‘Now, I'm gonna allow you 5 minutes of grace before the execution’ The condemned mao said, ‘Well, that ain't long, but bring her on anyhow!" Best Joke: “This fella from Chicago, you might have heard of him, his name's ‘Daddy-O." When I was in Chicago, he took his girl out for dinner, y'know, he was goin’ dutch treat. They felt like eatin' Chinese food, so they decided to go down to the famous ‘House of Bong,’ and they were sittin’ there, and they were ordering, so, just to have a little fun, Daddy-O said ‘Bring me some flied lice.’ The waiter left, and he returned with some won ton soup, they ate it, and Daddy-O looked at the waiter again, and said, ‘We want flied lice." This time, the waiter brought back some eggrolls,and Daddy-O screamed out, louder than before, ‘HOW "BOUT THAT FLIED LICE?!t* This time, the Chinese waiter, he walked over to him, he leaned in close to him, and said, ‘Look, can't you pronounce ‘Fned rice,’ you plick?’" Fans of antique furniture will love the cover of the album this came from: Foxx looking dapper, standing in a phone booth, grinning broadly while speaking on a pay phone with a rotary dial, something you t:uch-tone kids don't know about! (For that matter, when's the last time you saw a four-sided phone booth? With the fold-out door?) (JB, JP)

“With My Teeth” “No Teeth’ biw ‘The Fast Driver’\Dootone 460, 1960) First joke: during the war in Germany, a man tells his wife to head for the shelter when the bombs start dropping. His wife says: "Go to the shelter? Wait a minute---] can't find my teeth!" Her husband responds: "You better come on---they ain't throwin’ down no sandwiches!” Best joke: a guy throws a visiting relative out of his apartment, in the middle of an NYC blizzard. *I don't mind when my uncle wears my suits. I didn't even object when he smoked my best cigars! | didn't say nothin’ when he drank my bourbon and borrowed my car every night. But when he sat down at my dinner table and laughed at me with my own teeth, THAT WAS IT!" This extracts from the album of the same name eleven of Redd's most pointed, concise one-liners. Redd is his usual funny self. However, there is one weird distraction you have to listen closely for. on the track marked "The Fast Driver,” while Redd talks about a new automobile ready to hit the market, an engineer added a sound effect of an engine running...and did a bad job of it. It's mixed down low, but it’s there, obviously to amplify the joke, and not really coming off nght. (JP)

This Is Foxx EP Pt. 1 (Dooto/810, 1960)

This Is Foxx EP Pt. 2 (Dooto/811, 1960) Part 2 is the same as the record reviewed above, and [ should note, it features the amazing punchline-is-the-title joke “Mentholated Reefer.” . These are excerpts from the LP with nice covers. (JA)

He’s Funny That Way (Dooto/DT!. 815, 1961) Redd actually looks ashamed on the cover... get that Redd Foxx with a sense of shame. Well, this LP is certainly nothing to feel bad about, as Redd shows no mercy to the church, the bedroom and the cannibal cooking pot. This is about the time Redd stopped recording for Dooto while his lawsuit wa son, but there was a bunch of stuff in the can, | guess. (WT)

He's Funny That Way EP Pt. 1(Dooto/ 816, 1961)

He’s Funny That Way EP Pt. 2(Dooto/ 817, 1961) Part one has all the prime cannibal jokes, so that wins this battle of the eps. (WT

m6

19

Al Jazzville USA (Dooto/DTL 820, 1961) The finer notes imply that this record is Jazzy and unusual because Redd is improvising the act, which is stretching the definition of improv; his repertoire of a million jokes is memorized and rehearsed, so though he doesn't have a set routine mapped out, he certainly is drawing on pre-wnitten material. But improv or not they are good. “What has 1,000 legs and a cherry? 55 strippers and a Tom Collins.” And an Aunt Esther preview with “She was ugleece...looked like a hippopotamus sucking a lime!" (EG) At Jazzville USA EP Pt, 1 (Dooto/821, 1961) Al Jazzville USA EP pt. 2 (Dooto/822, 1961) These are both drawn from the excellent album, but if you bad to pick one, get Vol. 2, if only for the pun “Prune Tang.” Hearty Party Laffs (Dootoo/DTL 828, 1962) Good vibes, good crowd, Redd’s on and it's an overall good record. Top jokes: “There is a difference between war and peace, there's never been a good war.” (I guess if I'd spelled it “piece” it would make more sense, but woulda gave it way) “Fella called a plumber and said ‘IL gotta leak in my basement." Plumber says, ‘Well go ahead.’ A young girl goes to the doctor and he has her take of her blouse, puts the stethoscope on and says, ‘Big Breaths, Big Breaths’ She says, ‘Yeth, and I’m only thixteen!’ (JA) The New Fugg (Dooto/DTL 830, 1962) One of the cleaner joke collections, until he gets to the oldie but badie “Fugg It" and “Sugg It” routine (about a new soap called “Fugg.”). He actually does this joke on the album: “Take my wife... please!” At one point he tells the audience “Laugh like an oatmeal eater.” This is definitely Dootsie Williams scraping the barrel to come up with LPs while Redd was suing him and refusing to record. There’s several segments from different shows here, and on one slice he’s with a very interactive Black audience, and he gets looser. This LP ends with two very straightforward recordings of “Knock Me A Kiss’ and ‘I Lost My Heart Over You’ (simply fisted on the sleeve as “Hit Record,” likely to avoid paying the writers and publishers, who go unlisted). If this was ever a Dootone single I haven't seen it listed anywhere. When Foxx gets his sing on, | always enjoy it. This is a pretty good diverse overall album (JA) Laff Along (Dooto/DTL 832, 1962) This is a fairly clean record, full of “little stories,” “cornballs” and even knock knock jokes! In fact, the dirtiest joke on the entire record is about a lady sheriff who has “the biggest posse” you've ever seen. An interesting note: He pretends to be from the South so he car tell cow poop jokes. Top ticklers: “The doctor who worked on Christine (Jourgensen) is now working at Knotts Berry Farm tuming boysenberries into girsenberries.” “Did you hear about the cow who swallowed a bottle of ink...he moo-ed indigo.” (Redd dedicated that one the Duke Ellington) And finally, a joke that best demonstrates Redd’s odd, brilliant mind to me: “A guard from a lunatic asylum, he rushed up to a farmer, he says ‘Listen, a lunatic escaped, did anybody pass this way?’ Farmer puffed on his corn cob pipe, he looked up slowly, said, ‘What does he look like?’ Guard says, ‘He’s short, thin, weighs about 350 pounds.’ Farmer says, ‘How can somebody short and thin weigh 350

pounds?’ Guard says, ‘Don’t look at me...I told you he }

was crazy!'" (JA)

Crack Up (Dooto/DTL 834, 1963) This shouldn't be one of my favorites, with its dated jokes (Kruschev an4 Adam Clayton Powell references fly early on) and th. very unusual Un-Foxx-like Moms Mabley-esque nasa delivery...but it is. The young voice indicates this had been in the vaults a good long time. as the lawsuit was just wrapping up and new recordings weren't yet

disputes over loot and rights to the back catalogue, Redd was actually gaining some renown for a cleaner act during this era. As Redd's star rose over the next decade with movies and “Sanford” Dooto would continue to unleash recordings of older material, much of it guite familiar sounding. Ptenty of Foxx chestnuts on this one. Interestingly, this was supposed to br called “Cleanies But Goodies.” (EG)

Both Sides (Loma/LS 5901, (Warner Brothers 5901 in New Zealand] 1967) Though Dooto would sul! release stuff they had in the can, Redd was taking a giant step for Party records by releasing overground smut on Warner Brothers/Reprise (under their ghetto label, Loma) at Frank Sinatra's urging. I at first was shocked that Redd’s major iabel records contained reissued Dooto sides, but that proved to not be the case... he just repeated some of his old matenal! in the same order and it sounded extremely similar. I mean, the delivery is eerily similar, but he mentions Viet Nam in his army jokes that use dto mention WWII (General to Foxx: Why are you running? Foxx: Because I can't fly!) Best joke has a reverend in the jungle being chased by alion "So he decided he couldn't outrun the lion, so he got on his knees to pray. And it was silent. He opens his eyes, the lion is doing the same thing. The reverend says, * I didn't know lions prayed.’ The lion said, ‘You praying, I'm saying my grace, ‘cause I'm gonna eat you up!” Notable here is that, though he does a good job, Redd is not taking this album any more seriously than any of his previous ones. Major label just meant he expected to get paid, not that he should polish his act. (EG)

On The Loose (Loma!/Wamer Brothers'LS 5905, 1967) Though the sleeve promises, “This time is his funniest on record” (7) what's most “impressive” here is how a major label release has as crappy, or worse, standards as the labels that released Foxx LPs on the down low. Sample joke: A little boy who's just learning to pee in the toilet “just got on the edge, and the seat fell on him, so he goes crying to his mother, ‘Kiss it, kiss it, and make it well!’ She says, “Shut up, dammit, you're getting more like your father every day!" (EG)

Redd Foxx-“Live” In Las Vegas (Loma/LS 5906, 1967) Frank Sinatra probably wanted more Vegas, less LA on these albums. Better recording than his first Loma LPs, but just as nasty material, perhaps even filthier. Recorded at the Aladdin. (WT)

Laff Your Head Off (MF/RF 1, 1967’'CD, Encore 501!4- 2) Redd's album’s on his own MF label are for the most part recorded live at the Redd Foxx Club in LA (some of Pryor’s albums are recorded there too, he may have had a low grade recording system permanently set up) and what you get is a Black audience (you can hear them talking back) and some edgier, more political acial humor He recalls a racist white telling him, “A

me wife Joi, Redd w/2nd wife Betty, A King his queen and a wildcard, Redd w

his guardian angel Della Reese. Left: Redd and Sammy

*-

available to Dootsie Williams. In addition to having af

dramatic cover designed to look like it’s exploding, this fi

also won me over as soon as Redd opens the set by attacking a heckler who interrupts his Kruschev bit. Before the more typical, “I wouldn't come down to where you work and move your mop and greasy rag,” he lets loose this snappy answer to stupid heckling: “I could shut you up permanently, but my zipper’s stuck!” Ooovcoohhhh! (EG)

Fuany Stuff (Dooto/DTL 835, 1963) Do you think the woman that howls with hyena like laughter on the Redd record is a plant? Not that the jokes aren’t great, or like the audience needs much prompting. But, c’mon, there are laugh breaks as long or longer than the jokes on this one. “French women know how to hold their liquor...by the ears!” “If you want to keep a baby quiet...give it a warm bottle of glue.” Fave moment: He admonishes one couple, “You don’t laugh, see, it’s hard to record a smile.” (JA)

Naughties but Goodies (Dooto/DTL 838, 1965) The records aren't coming as fast and furious as they once did. In fact, though Dooto won in court against Foxx in

crowd, invoking future Dooto labelmate Martin Luther King more than label mate Rudy Ray Moore. While I’m sure he went to a basement party here and there, I'll go out on a limb and say that King was less influenced by Foxx than Moore. Oral sex, gambling and women of questionable morals are the key subjects this time around. (WT)

The Sidesplitter (Fox/FR 109) A knockoff bootleg (1 think) of the same album. See Racy Tales (WT)

Laff Of The Party Vol. 8 (Dooto/DTL-265, 1959) Opener: “I'm afraid now it's more BALONEY. Their first Sputnik Russia put up, they sent a dog up in it, or was that the second one? I know they sent a dog up to the moon, or tried to reach him out in outer space, but the Americans are different, they put a colored fella up there, the only one with enough guts to really wanna go! Everybody's trying to keep it a secret, because America dont want the Russians to know that the jig is up! Best Joke: It’s a toss-up between these two: 1) “You know, you've seen the army helmets, the combat helmet, you have to be very careful, y'see, I work with one in the club every night, and I check it to see that it’s cool, cause there's 1001 uses for a army helmet! 1 remember one time, General MacBaxter said, ‘Foxx, go down to the hole,” we were stationed down in equatonal Africa, he said, ‘Go down to the river bank and get some water for the men to drink, because they can't get down there. Go and get it right away.’ I said, ‘Okay, General.” I went down to the water hole and took this combat helmet and went to dip some water up, and just as I went to dip, a crocodile opened up his jaws and said, ‘AAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRR!!!’ That really scared me, cause I'd never seen a crocodile, I turned around, splittin’ back to camp. General says, "Where's the water, Foxx?’ I said, ‘There was a crocodile down there, General, and when I went to dip to get the....,” he said, ‘Where's the water?’ I said, ‘Didn't I just get through tellin’ you there was a crocodile down there?’ He said, ‘Well, what happened?’ I said, ‘the crocodile snapped at me,’ he said, ‘Well, listen, the crocodile was only afraid of ya’...I said, ‘Hell, if he was half as afraid of me as I was of him, that water wasn't fit to drink, no how!" 2) "This one guy went to the store, he wanted to buy a fig leaf so he could go to a party dressed as Adam. So, he tried to buy a fig leaf that was BIG enough to cover up, cause he was sort of...He asked the clerk, ‘Could you find me a fig leaf that’s big enough to cover everything?’ The clerk says, ‘I've looked all over the store, and I can't find no fig leaf big enough to cover you, sir.’ He asked the clerk, ‘Well, what would

you suggest?’ Clerk said, “Well, if I was you, I'd just | throw it across my arm...’” (audience laughter renders JM Foxx inaudible for about 10 seconds) "’Throw it across @&

my arm and go as a filling station!’” (JB)

The Sidesplitter Vol. 2 (Dooto/DTL 270, 1960) Fairly

low key performance and audience (At one point he § tells the too quiet crowd to “Put some sound in your @ laugh...laugh like you're at home cleaning chitlins with f&

no gloves.”) but there’s a few good quickies, including “You can’t love me the way I want to be loved...on credit” and “The three quickest ways to get news

around...Television, telephone and tell-a-woman.” “I. worked at one place so rough the bouncers were throwing people in.” Lots of fishing and fish jokes, and HAy \ remarkably, none about vaginal odor! This contains the 43.

famed, self-explanatory “Mother Frockers and Cork :

Soakers Convention” routine (JA)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. 1 (Dooto/271, 1960)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. 2 (Dooto 272, 1960)

The Sidesplitter EP Vol. 2 Pt. 2(Dooto 273, 1960)

Excerpts galore from the LP, “Mother Frockers” is on

Vol. 3. (JA)

The New Race Track (also released as Racy Tales)

(Dooto/DTL 275, 1960) For a while this was implied that this was the best selling ia the Dooto collection (which it couldn't be, “Laff Of The Party” is the

~~

wat

Racy Tales EP Pt. | (Dooto 276, and maybe 279 as well?, 1960) Again with the almost naked girl on the horse, and some prime hillbilly, Confucius, and naughty jokes. (WT)

Racy Tales EP Pt, 2 (Dooto 277, 1960) More from the LP, with a picture sleeve. (JA)

Funan (Dooto/DTL 290, 1960) Early on Redd tells the audience, “Let me sit down...that’s better, I feel like Shelly Berman.” That sets the tone for a not particularly raucous, but very solid set that picks up steam modestly as it goes along. Insight into the Foxxian method is revealed as he mumbles at one point, “You notice | don't have any particular pattern, I just tell stones as I go, I don’t have time for...” Then he tells an unrelated lawyer joke. Hmmmm? On the joke side, here’s a gem: One soldier asks another, “What did you get all those medals for?” “For gunnery.” Well ! had it three years age, they didn’t give me none!" (JA)

Fuan EP Pt. 1 (Dooto/291, 1960)

Funn EP Pt. 2 (Dooto/292, 1960) Excerpts from this solid album in a fancy sleeve. Part two contains this joke: “I'd like to sing you the theme song for a pregnant ballerina...” (sings) “I should have danced ail night...” (JA)

The Best Laff (Dooto/DTL 291, [also issued as DTL O01 for a while...['ll explain why later] 1960) Features an amazing cover photo of an extreme close up of Redd tinted Redd and laughing. The back cover fotos show a dignified Redd, which makes sense as this is a relatively clean album. The long opening, cynical bit about “Childless Couples” basically says that most chidren are drooling tdiots who ruin your life. Even his relatively clean stuff has serous edge, for example, the best joke: “I was sitting at one of those lunch counters, they said “We don't serve colored people.’ [ said, “I don’t eat colored people!” This clean album was actually issued to get Foxx a comedy Grammy. The weird alternate issue number was likely an attempt to pretend the dirty records didn't exist. He didn't win the Grammy, by the way. This is available as a 10°’ or 12” record. (JA)

Sly Sex (Dooto/DTL 295, 1960) No Foxx on the cover,

just a girl in all red tones. Redd has a good rapport with avery drunk audience, featuring back-talking Black ladies. He opens by explaining “I work in joints where the burlesque girls work. The fellas yell “Take it off, take it off.’ One girl was so ugly they hollered ‘Leave iton! Leave it on!’” (EG)

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Sly Sex ep Pt. 1 (Dooto/296, 1960)

Sly Sex ep Pt. 2 (Dooto/297, 1960) Excerpts from the LP in nice sleeves. (JA)

“118 Ways To Make Love” biw “Preganacy Co- operation” (Dooto/458, 1960) Maybe I'm in bad mood, but this shit just didn’t tickle me a bit. (EG)

“Christmas Hard Times” biw “Jaw Resting” (Dootone/464, 1960) The A side starts with little Rodney (his son, who he mentions whenever a joke requires it. He had an adopted daughter, but to my knowledge, no son. He also wasn't in the army as many jokes imply) getting on the pony ride at a department store one December. Problem is, he refuses to get off, despite the warnings of others, so "Santa Claus” strolls over, whispers in his ear, and finally little Rodney jumps off the horse. And what did Santa say? He basically told him to get off that hoss before Rodney gets a broken neck. Not one of his more inspired jokes. And if you're making a Xmas mixed tape, be aware thal this is followed by three more jokes that have nothing to do with the holidays---two take place in a barroom, one bit of bizarre wordplay involves a “stagnant” (1.e. pregnant) woman who tells the cab driver to take her to the “fraternity (matemity) ward." (JP)

Have One On Me (Dooto/DTL 298, 1960) Red actually comments early on that, “It's a good laugher here tonight” responding to a particular hearty audience member. He kicks off the show with, “I hate to start off on a sour note, but my neighbor's baby swallowed a .22 caliber bullet today. She took him to the doctor, told him the baby had swallowed a .22 caliber bullet, what can we do? ‘The only thing we can do. Give him half a bottle of castor oil and don’t aim him at anybody.’” Later Redd comments, “I stay out to all hours of the afternoon.” (EG)

Have One On Me ep Pt. I (Dooto/299, 1960)

Have One On Me ep Pt. 2 (Dooto/200, 1960) Excerpts from the album in nice sleeves. Note that the rapid release of records finally caught up with them and they screwed up the catalogue numbers.

Laffarama (Dooto/DTL 801, 1960) Redd makes lots of jokes about women's underwear and couture on this one. Not his nastiest, but he was on a roll of confident, hearty albums around this time. I don't know if I'd call

Thriller of party albums), and I believe it sold plenty based on the cover alone: A sexy lady in underwear, fishnets and a jockey’s silk hat straddling a cartoonish hobby horse who seems to be enjoying it! Of course, “The Race track” is one of Foxx’ all time classics, where he announces a race with naughty names (jockey A. Crabb is riding horse My Dick). But forget the jokes...let me see that cover again!

Racy Tales (Fox/FR 110, 1960) I don’t know what the deal was with “Fox” records but this is the same record. Some “Fox” records don’t even have Redd Foxx’ name ayn on the cover. I question the koshemess of these SS ee 2) releases, but Dootsie Williams wasn't exactly a rabbi | 7 A ~ buisnesswise himself, so who knows, he may have been RE licensing to the bootleggers. Redd didn't trust him by ... | BE

this point. (JA) Redd and Dootsie “Dooto Records” Williams in happier times

18

this a LaffARama, but it’s certainly LaffsAPlenty or at the very least LaffTastic. (WT)

Wild Party (Dooto/DTL 804, 1960) First Joke: “I guess some of you fellas were overseas... Maybe some of you were in prison camp, like myself. 1 was a prisoner of war...although on TH/S side!" Best Joke: “I hate to bring up election stories, but a fella had a bet with his secretary, see, she said that Kennedy would win, and he said Nixon would win. He told her, “Look, I'll lay you 12 to 1*,she said, “That's good, that's my lunch hour!" (JB) This Is Foxx (Dooto/DTL 809) 1960) First Joke: "Thts fella was goin’ to the electric chair...The warden was standin’ there, talkin’ to him, he said, ‘Now, I'm gonna allow you 5 minutes of grace before the execution’ The condemned man said, ‘Well, that ain't long, but bring her on anyhow!" Best Joke: "This fella from Chicago, you might have heard of him, his name's ‘Daddy-O.’ When I was in Chicago, he took his girl out for dinner, y'know, he was goin’ dutch treat. They felt like eatin’ Chinese food, so they decided to go down to the famous ‘House of Bong,’ and they were sittin’ there, and they were ordering, so, just to have a little fun, Daddy-O said ‘Bring me some flied lice.’ The waiter left, and he retumed with some won ton soup, they ate it, and Daddy-O looked at the waiter again, and said, ‘We want flied lice.’ This time, the waiter brought back some eggrolls,and Daddy-O screamed out, louder than before, ‘HOW ‘BOUT THAT FLIED LICE?!!" This time, the Chinese waiter, he walked over to him, he ieaned in close to him, and said, ‘Look, can't you pronounce ‘Fned rice,’ you plick?’” Fans of antique furniture will love the cover of the album this came from: Foxx looking dapper, standing in a phone booth, grinning broadly while speaking on a pay phone with a rotary dial, something you t:uch-tone kids don't know about! (For that matter, when's the last time you saw a four-sided phone booth? With the fold-out door?) (JB, JP)

“With Afy Teeth” “No Teeth’ b/w ‘The Fast Driver’(Dootone 460, 1960) First joke: during the war in Germany, a man tells his wife to head for the shelter when the bombs start dropping. His wife says: "Go to the shelter? Wait a minute---I can't find my teeth!" Her husband responds: "You better come on---they ain't throwin’ down no sandwiches!" Best joke: a guy throws a visiting relative out of his apartment, tn the middle of an NYC blizzard. “I don't mind when my uncle wears my suits. I didn’t even object when he smoked my best cigars! I didn't say nothin’ when he drank my bourbon and borrowed my car every night. But when he sat down at my dinner table and laughed at me with my own teeth, THAT WAS IT!" This extracts from the album of the same name eleven of Redd'‘s most pointed, concise one-liners. Redd is his usual funny self. However,- there is one weird distraction you have to listen closely for. on the track marked “The Fast Driver,” while Redd talks about a new automobile ready to hit the market, an engineer added a sound effect of an engine running...and did a bad job of it. It’s mixed down low, but it's there, obviously to amplify the joke, and not really coming off right. (JP)

This Is Foxx EP Pt. 1 (Dooto/810, 1960)

This Is Foxx EP Pt. 2 (Dooto/811, 1960) Part 2 is the same as the record reviewed above, and I should note, it features the amazing punchline-is-the-title joke “Mentholated Reefer.” . These are excerpts from the LP with nice covers. (JA)

He's Funny That Way (Dooto/DT!L 815, 1961) Redd actually looks ashamed on the cover... get that Redd Foxx with a sense of shame. Well, this LP is certainly nothing to feel bad about, as Redd shows no mercy to the church, the bedroom and the cannibal cooking pot. This is about the time Redd stopped recording for Dooto while his lawsuit wa son, but there was a bunch of stuff in the can, I guess. (WT)

He's Funny That Way EP Pt. 1(Dooto/ 816, 1961)

He’s Funay That Way EP Pt. 2(Dooto/ 817, 1961) Part one has all the prime cannibal jokes, so that wins this battle of the eps. (WT

At Jazzville USA (Dooto/DTL 820, 1961) The liner notes imply that this record is Jazzy and unusual because Redd is improvising the act, which is stretching the definition of improv; his repertoire of a million jokes is memorized and rehearsed, so though he doesn't have a set routine mapped out, he certainly is drawing on pre-written material. But improv or not they are good. “What has 1,000 legs and a cherry? 55 strippers and a Tom Collins.” And an Aunt Esther preview with “She was ugleeee...looked like a hippopotamus sucking a lime!” (EG) At Jazzville USA EP Pt. 1 (Dooto/821, 1961) Al Jazzville USA EP pt. 2 (Dooto/822, 1961) These are both drawn from the excellent album, but if you had to pick one, get Vol. 2, if only for the pun “Prune Tang.” Hearty Party Laffs (Dootoo/DTL 828, 1962) Good vibes, good crowd, Redd's on and it’s an overall good record. Top jokes: “There is a difference between war and peace, there's never been a good war.” (I guess if I'd spelled it “piece” it would make more sense, but woulda gave it way) “Fella called a plumber and said “{ gotta leak in my basement.’ Plumber says, ‘Well go ahead.’ A young girl goes to the doctor and he has her take of her blouse, puts the stethoscope on and says, ‘Big Breaths, Big Breaths’ She says, *Yeth, and I'm only thixteen!" (JA) The New Fugg (Dooto/DTL 830, 1962) One of the cleaner joke collections, until he gets to the oldie but badie “Fugg It” and “Sugg It” routine (about a new soap called “Fugg."’). He actually does this joke on the album: “Take my wife...please!” At one point he tells the audience “Laugh like an oatmeal eater.” This is definitely Dootsie Williams scraping the barrel to come up with LPs while Redd was suing him and refusing to record. There’s several segments from different shows here, and on one slice he’s with a very interactive Black audience, and he gets looser. This LP ends with two very straightforward recordings of “Knock Me A Kiss’ and ‘I Lost My Heart Over You’ (simply listed on the sleeve as “Hit Record,” likely to avoid paying the writers and publishers, who go unlisted). If this was ever a Dootone single ] haven't seen it listed anywhere. When Foxx gets his sing on, | always enjoy it. This is a pretty good diverse overall album (JA) Laff Along (Dooto/DTL 832, 1962) This is a fairly clean record, full of “little stories,” “cornballs” and even knock knock jokes! In fact, the dirtiest joke on the entire record is about a lady sheriff who has “the biggest posse" you've ever seen. An interesting note: He pretends to be from the South so he can tell cow poop jokes. Top ticklers: “The doctor who worked on Christine (Jourgensen) is now working at Knotts Berry Farm tuming boysenberries into girsenberries.” “Did you hear about the cow who swallowed a bottle of ink...he moo-ed indigo.” (Redd dedicated that one the Duke Ellington) And finally, a joke that best demonstrates Redd’s odd, brilliant mind to me: “A guard from a lunatic asylum, he rushed up to a farmer, he says ‘Listen, a lunatic escaped, did anybody pass this way?’ Farmer puffed on his corn cob pipe, he looked up slowly, said, ‘What does he look like?’ Guard says, ‘He's short, thin, weighs about 350 pounds.” Farmer says, ‘How can somebody short and thin weigh 350

pounds?’ Guard says, ‘Don't look at me...I told you he ;

was crazy!"” (JA)

Crack Up (Dooto/DTL 834, 1963) This shouldn't be one of my favorites, with its dated jokes (Kruschev an4 Adam Clayton Powell references fly early on) and th. very unusual Un-Foxx-like Moms Mabley-esque nasa delivery... but it is. The young voice indicates this had been in the vaults a good long time. as the lawsuit was just wrapping up and new recordings weren't yet

disputes over loot and rights to the back catalogue, Redd was actually gaining some renown for a cleaner act dunng this era. As Redd’s star rose over the next decade with movies and “Sanford” Dooto would continue to uoleash recordings of older material, much of it quite familiar sounding. Plenty of Foxx chestnuts on this one. Interestingly, this was supposed to br called “Cleanies But Goodies.” (EG)

Both Sides (Loma/LS 5901, [Wamer Brothers 5901 in New Zealand) 1967) Though Dooto would still release stuff they had in the can, Redd was taking a giant step for Party records by releasing overground smut on Warner Brothers/Reprise (under their ghetto label, Loma) at Frank Sinatra's urging. I at first was shocked that Redd's major label records contained reissued Dooto sides, but that proved to not be the case... he just repeated some of his old matenal tn the same order and it sounded extremely similar. I mean, the delivery is eerily similar, but he mentions Viet Nam in his army jokes that use dto mention WWII (General to Foxx: Why are you running? Foxx: Because I can't fly!) Best joke has a reverend in the jungle being chased by alion "So he decided he couldn't outrun the lion, so he got on his knees to pray. And it was silent. He opens his eyes, the lion is doing the same thing. The reverend says, * I didn't know lions prayed.” The lion said, ‘You praying, I'm saying my grace, ‘cause I’m gonna eal you up!” Notable here is that, though he does a good job, Redd is not taking this album any more senously than any of his previous ones. Major label just meant he expected to get paid, not that he should polish his act. (EG)

On The Loose (Loma/Wamer Brothers'LS 5905, 1967) Though the sleeve promises, “This time is his funniest on record” (7) what's most “impressive” here is how a major label release has as crappy. or worse, standards as the labels that released Foxx LPs on the down low. Sample joke: A little boy who's just learning to pee in the toilet “just got on the edge, and the seat fell on him, so he goes crying to his mother, ‘Kiss it, kiss it, and make it well!’ She says, ‘Shut up, dammit, you're getting more like your father every day!"” (EG)

Redd Foxx-“Live” In Las Vegas (Loma/LS 5906, 1967) Frank Sinatra probably wanted more Vegas, less LA on these albums. Better recording than his first Loma LPs, but just as nasty material, perhaps even filthier. Recorded at the Aladdin. (WT)

Laff Your Head Off (MF/RF 1, 1967'CD, Encore 5014- 2) Redd’s album’s on his own MF label are for the most part recorded live at the Redd Foxx Club in LA (some of Pryor’s albums are recorded there too, he may have had a low grade recording system permanently set up) and what you get is a Black audience (you can hear them talking back) and some edgier, more political racial humor He recalls a racist white telling him, “A

King his queen and a wildcard, Redd w his guardian angel Detla Reese. Left

available to Dootsie Williams. In addition to having af

dramatic cover designed to look like it’s exploding, this ¥

also won me over as soon as Redd opens the set by attacking a heckler who interrupts his Kruschev bit. Before the more typical, “I wouldn't come down to where you work and move your mop and greasy rag,” he lets loose this snappy answer to stupid heckling: “I could shut you up permanently, but my zipper’s stuck!” Ooovoooohhhh! (EG)

Funny Stuff (Dooto/DTL 835, 1963) Do you think the woman that howls with hyena like laughter on the Redd record is a plant? Not that the jokes aren't great, or like the audience needs much prompting. But, c’mon, there are laugh breaks as long or longer than the jokes on this one. “French women know how to hold their liquor...by the ears!” “If you want to keep a baby quict...give it a warm bottle of glue.” Fave moment: He admonishes one couple, “You don’t laugh, see, it’s hard to record a smile." (JA)

Naughties but Goodies (Dooto/DTL 838, 1965) The records aren’t coming as fast and furious as they once did. In fact, though Dooto won in court against Foxx in

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1 +<e colored mammy raised me, I nursed at a colored mammy’s breast."" Redd’s response: “You're lucky, I didn’t get to a white one til I was 22.” He responds to the double standards of whites, whose daughters were getting covert illegal abortions, but who still criticize that blacks “have illegitimate babies. They do, but they have them.” He even explains that he doesn’t march “because I don't have reinforced cranium...(they come to my door) and say, ‘Go down to Mississippi, see what you can do?’ I can see what I can do from here.” On the less progressive tip “Cannibals, our cousins...they don't like broccoli, asparagus...they like kneecaps.” Available on both black and red vinyl.(WT)

Laff Your Ass Off (MF/RF2, 1967) Though the crowd is ready, Redd is on autopilot for side 1, running through 100 short jokes you heard 10 times before on previous records. Side two is more interesting, as Redd jokes about being in the movies, “An all Negro Western, it'l! be the first time the Indians win.” Then sort of seriously says he wants to be in movies and play Bill Cosby's father. Another good one: “I can trace my family back to Coltumbus...Georgia!” Available on both black and red vinyl. (JA)

At Home (MF/RF-3, 1967) This record features the Redd Foxx Club on the cover and Redd really is at home on ‘t, messing with a well oiled audience. He tells someone to “sit in the back, don’t mess up my record with an ‘oooh!’" Then before going at a girl in the audience he promises, “We'll edit this out of the record.” There's a million great jokes on this one, here's a few: “If you had a big green ball in this hand and a big green ball in the other hand what would you have? The Jotly Green giant in a hell of a fix.” “I'm white...this is a freckle.” “How do you keep an elephant from stampeding...cut off his stam-peter!” (JA)

A Whole Lot Of Soul (MF/RF 4, 1967) Another quickie, poorly recorded, at Foxx’ own club. (EG) Foxx-A-Delic - Live In Las Vegas (Loma/LS 5908, 1968) This may not be the best Redd Foxx album (OK, it definitely isn’t the best Redd Foxx album) but it is quite possibly the best Redd Foxx album cover...a super psychedelic affair with some serious acid punch. Redd wasn't seally an acid freak, he was a coke head, but coke art never really caught on in album design. (EG)

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Adults Only (Dooto/DTL 840, 1968) In the mid 60s Redd moved from LA clubs to Vegas showrooms, was making guest appearances on TV talk shows, was releasing major label albums, was gaining a large white audience and was getting paid in 4 digit increments for @ night’s work (as opposed to the far less lucrative chitlin’ circuit gigs). I note that to point out that though he hadn't broken through on “Sanford and Son” yet, he was now a national crossover success, which is what prompted Dooto, now a much slower moving entity, to cep up packaging Foxx material. This is an unremarkable, but nonetheless, typically hilarious slab of vinyl. Itcertainly wasn't a contemporary recording at the time, however. (EG) At His Best (MFI/RF 5, 1968) This album is more one- liner driven than some of Foxx's other recordings - with the usual focus on race and sex. A portion of the recordings were made in San Francisco, and Foxx takes his jabs - conducting the audience in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat” - “first, the ladies...now, the men...now, the | others.” He also asks, "What is the difference between | Cheerios and Queerios? They don't sell Queens - they just eat each other." In his story segments, Foxx

B delivers recollections of a stripper who did a hard split

(“took 45 minutes to break the suction") to his recycled “broken hand” tale to movie roles for Blacks. This album also includes Foxx's gem, "The Horse Race” (A/K/A “The Race Track’). But it's one-liners that drive the record. “What's the difference between a pickpocket and a Peeping Tom? A pickpocket snatches watches." One line brings race and sex together in Foxx eloquence: "I don't care what color you are - when you go home and put the light out, it becomes a matter of who washed." (DL)

Doin’ His Own Thing (MF/RF 6, 1968) A typical MF record - - badly recorded stuff, likely done at the Redd Foxx club (where I'd guess he set up a raggedy, but permanent, recording system), and a ton of jokes he’s told on previous records. Aside from “At Home” which proudly displays the Foxx Club at night, the first few batches of MF LPs all have the same cover (a cartoon/photo portrait designed by Redd himself) in different color variations, by the wav. (EG)

Say lt Like It Is (MFI/RF 7, 1968) A good portion of the album is typical Foxx hokum - from couples tallying bedroom setbacks to requests of dying winos to feeling up Long Island ducks to riding the preacher's wife's ass. Some of the jokes are pretty familiar-sounding...or at least quite predictable. But a segment on side two is a pointed commentary on the plight of Blacks in the mid- 1960s. Foxx recalls the story of a black man found in a Mississippi pond with more than 600 pounds of chains around him. “And the sheriff who investigated said, ‘ain't it like a negro to steal more chains than he can carry.” Just as sharp was Foxx relating a helicopter flight by LBJ over the Okefenokee swamp. “He saw two white men in a Criss-Craft pulling two black men on water skis behind them.” As Foxx tells it, the president flies down to congratulate them for doing their part for integration. After LBJ takes off. says Foxx, “one of them turned to the other and said, ‘I don’t know who that tall guy was, but he sure don't know nothing ‘bout crocodile hunting.'” (DL)

Is Sex Here To Stay (MFIRF 8, 1968/Encore CD) Farmers daughter, naughty preachers and other well wom maternal gets the Foxxy treatment. Raw, and not one of his best, but how bad is that? (EG)

Where It’s At (MF/RF 9, 1968) Have I mentioned that most of the MF records have a Foxx drawn cover with a pghoto of his head attached to a cartoon body with a fancy jacket and clutching a cigarette? Well, have you heard this one? “What do you call a sissy in the deep South? A homosexua-awl” (sounds like y'all) How about “How does a French girl hold her liquor... by the ears!” (EG)

Huffin And A Puffin (MFIRF 10, 1968)Like all MEF records, not the top recordings, but :t still contains this “quickie”: “A girls legs are her best friends, but even the best of friends must part." (WT)

f Am Curious Black (MFI/RF 11, 1968) This album suffers from two things - first, a disjointed flow - segments of recordings from at least three shows (Chicago, Los Angeles, and perhaps New York) are lumped together. Second, the audience at the first two shows wasn't very responsive. “Don't make me come out and cut one of y'all,” he challenges one group. The toptcs range from tight capri pants to Foxx’s experiences in the boxing ring and in the military (he notably avoided any commentary on Vietnam) to “Fuge Soap” to driving drunk to a “what if” scenario in nuclear war - the three integration scenarios are even More curious in hindsight: one has the three survivors as

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Rock Hudson, Lena Horne, and Dorothy Kilgallen; another has Liberace, Johnny Mathis, and Sonny Liston. In addition to homosexuals, Foxx also takes shots at Puerto Ricans and fellow “negros.” But he lands a good dirty one-liner at the start of side 2. “Did you ever stop to think that if the Pilgrims hunted bobcats instead of turkeys we'd be eating pussy for Thanksgivin g?” (DL)

Three Or Four Times A Day (MF/RF 12, 1969 Encore 5008-2) “Some guy wrote in a magazine, ‘All Negros carry knives.” That's a lie, my brother’s been ca tag an icepick for twenty years.” And Redd told that joke for twenty years. (WT)

Mr. Hot Pants (MF/RF 13, 1969) Despite being one of his best titles, this is one of his unfunniest records. Note: This may give some insight into the screwy bulk release schedule of MF. Some copies of this and the next release, “Hot Flashes” have the labels and covers screwed up, so the right record is in the sleeve, but with the wrong label glued to it. Since there were no track listings it didn’t matter much(EG)

Hot Flashes (MF/RF 14, 1969) This moming I[ had a huge stack of Foxx records to listen to and this is the last one in the stack. Had it been the first I might be more chatty, but at this point let me just say that a stack of Foxx records has the same effect as a hit of acid, This one is typical of his MF catalogue in spotty quality, but if takjen correctly it invokes a Dali painting. (EG)

Up Against The Wall (Wamer Bros.-Seven Arts/WS 1771, 1969) First joke: a fairly long one about an elderly couple sitting in their home, frail and sickly, listening to a faith healer on the radio, who asks his audience to lay one hand on a body part that needs fixing. The wife lays one hand on the radio and the other on her heart, gently singing “Wade In The Water." The husband lays one hand on the radio and the other on his crotch, loudly singing "Wade In The Water.” The wife shoots back, “He sez he can HEAL, not raise the dead!" Best joke: about the travelling preacher in town for a revival meeting. After spending a few days at the home of one of the sisters, he praises her with big, five-dollar words that she can't quite understand. In her own colorful way, she replies: "You are a real world beater, a strong repeater, you can do it neater and more completer with less peter than any preacher ever been here.” After wading through several small label albums on Dooto, this has to be one of the better-recorded Redd Foxx albums out there, without all that cheap echo that caused his voice to float to the ceiling. Side one is devoted primarily to unlikely, drawn-out shaggy-dog stories, but it's worth it to get to the punchlines---only Redd Foxx could maintain your interest that long. The shorter jokes dominate side two- --"sign in the cat house window: out to lunch. Beat it!",..two gays about to leave a bar: “Let's blow this joint!" "Okay, you take the women..." As rock writer R. Meltzer once pointed out, on the jokes where no one laughs (“this isn't poetry, it's more prose...and cons..."), he doesn't resort to are-you-out-there-I-can-hear-you- breathing gags like most of those old vaudevillians would, he just presses on to the next joke. Either this was a brave move on Foxx's part to expose his failures, or maybe someone at Wamers wasn't paying attention. He also gets in a great bit about southern dialects towards the end of the first side (no, the tracks are not banded or titled). The liner notes, written by one "Michael Jackson"(!), play off of what we'd now call baby-boomer nostalgia: "Those of you who listened to him ten years ago, behind closed doors and hoping your parents wouldn't find out, have grown up. It is your duty to pass the word along: that the Foxx is alive and well and better than ever.” The copy I'm reviewing has a bonus set of liners, a personal note scribbled on the inner sleeve: “"Honey---Play this album on headphones you'll like it wake me around 6:00-6:30--Frankie. PS. One ts already on - it's good.” (JP)

Jokes | Can’t Tell On Television (Dooto/DTL 845, 1969) This could have been called “Jokes I've Been Telling Since Before They invented Television.” Note that this isn’t a Sanford cash in (yet) but a reference to Redd’s breaking through to the Tonight Show and daytime talk show circuit. (EG)

Shed House Humor (Dooto/846, 1969) Even the cover is recycled here, from the “Burlesque Humor” LP. But if you thought Dootsie Williams was gonna run out of material, hold onto your hat, because in a few years he’s gonna do so much recycling that he deserves an Al Gore Enviormentalist award. (WT)

Favorite Party Jokes (Dooto DTL 847, 1969) This gem opens with a limenck: “There was a young lady named Ransom/Who was loved three times in a hansom/When she asked for more, she heard a voice from the Noor/My name is Simpson, not Samson.” With that

poem Redd had successfully conquered every field of humor save the cut-in record. (JA)

Restricted (MF/RF 15, 1970) Redd does achieve levels of nastiness and profanity that he pussyfooted around in the 50s and early 60s, but for the most part he sounds more tired than inspired here. (WT)

Bare Facts (King/KSD 1072, 1970) Foxx found himself at the outset of the decade that would bring him into the mainstream on the home of James Brown, King Records. Of course, King also had a Country division, and as far as I can figure, their previous experience with releasing comedy records (other than a Kermit Shaffer “Bloopers” album) was with Homer and Jethro, the Weird Al Yankovics of the Hillbilly set. Lack of expenence didn’t hurt, though, as they did these albums nght, meaning wrong! By that I mean, they followed the Dooto model, quantity over quality! Three LPs were released like lightning, they were recorded budget mindedly in Foxx’s own (rowdy, awesome) Redd Foxx Club, and in a move abandoned by Dooto early, they were willing to put nearly naked people on the covers. Consequently, this is one of his funniest albums in years. All hail the KING! (WT)

Pass The Apple Eve (King/KSD 1073, 1970) Classic cover with a half naked Foxx and a half naked lady in caveman clothes (you know, Adam = and Eve...cavemen?) with Redd holding a huge club you know where. He opens with, “I work in Las Vegas, | see whites sitting out in the sun half the day trying to get some color...[ need sun like Custer needed one more Indian...when you go home and put the light out there's no color...it becomes a matter of who washed.” Andon the less peaceful tip, “(People always say) Don’t call me no Negro, don't cal! me black, don’t call me no nigger, don’t call me colored. I don’t give a damn what you call me, just don’t put your hands on me. It’s hard to apologize drawing your knife from someone's throat.” (EG)

fn A Nutshell (King/KSD 1074, 1970) This record contains a clue as to why Redd's audiences laugh at anything. At one point he asks the time and the response is “14 minutes to 2." (Of course he responds with a zinger, “Do we have a white opimon?”) First Joke: “Whatchoo fellas doin’ here? Why don't you go about a mile down, where all the broads are butt- nekkid?" (Male Voice: “Later!*) “Oh, you're going there later? Surprising, you don't stop there first, while they were fresh! You'll have to wear your gas mask when YOU get there!" Best Joke: I was there, in W.W.IL...One enemy threw a hand grenade, it exploded and tore my face away.....A team of doctors grafted skin, grafted some more skin, made me a new face. I don't know where they got the meat from, but every time [ get tired, my JAWS wanna sit down!” Runners ups: "Jews didn’t kiil Jesus, Black people BEGGED him to death.” "GOT to hate something! I hate a goddamn midget AND okra! I catch a midget eatin’ okra, I'll put my foot in his ass!". (JB)

Special DJ. Programming Album Rated A-OK for Airplay (King/K-RF-10 Promotional, 1970) You can't biame them for trying, can you? In the pre Howard Stern era, not much chance, though. (WT)

Matinee Idol (King/KS-1135, 1971) Recorded at the (by the release of this record, burt down) Redd Foxx club (he makes lots of jokes about the white and black sections...the black up front) this album, though it still features some 50s jokes, was definitely a new (at the time) recording. We know this because he says, “Shit” a lot (“I'm 48...shit, Pil feel like a damned fool standing up in this hole and saying ‘Doo doo!’") There's ludicrous piano accompaniment, and whenever Redd talks about the Chinese (which he does with a lot of vehemence: “I told the waiter...come here Ping Pong, should | eat this...or did 17") the pianist plays ridiculous Chinese stereotype melodies. Some interesting gems: ~A woman sees her husband coming out of the flonst, she tells her girlfried, ‘He’s got three dozen roses, I’m gonna have to keep my legs up in the air three days.’ Her girlfriend says, ‘Why don’t you get a vase?’ “Jesus knows you're in here drinking...he can see through the ceiling like Clark Kent.” “If you don't believe there's lazy, white niggers watch ‘Hee Haw!” The Eminen line about ‘How you gonna breast feed me mom, you ain't got no tits?’ is almost verbatim from this record. Perhaps my all time favonte Redd joke: “Little boy comes back from school and says ‘Mommy I can spell!’ Mother says ‘Honey, you've only been in school one day, but go ahead.’ He says °F!" Mother says, ‘Oh no, don’t tell me some dirty... taught my boy that dirty word already. I know what's coming,’ she says ‘Go ahead honey,’ He says ‘U!" She says *F-U...1 know what it is, How can people be so rotten, go ahead

honey.’ He says ‘C!" ‘Oh heavens F-U-C, it’s gotta be the word! Go ahead and finish it, get it over with!’ He says ‘F!' Mother says (relieved) ‘F.U-C-F?... That's wonderful honey, what does it spell?’ “FUCK!” Notably, these post Dooto LPs are the first to really have “shit” and the very spare “Fuck” on them. Not the total barrage of nasties let loose on his later masterpiece, You Got To Watch Your Ass, but a long way from the entire joke being that he was almost getting away with cursing (Fugg soap, anyone?). He jokes about hiding money from the government, thus the IRS might have heard this album. I love the cover of this, a still of him as Uncle Bud from “Cototn Comes To Harlem,” looking thoughtful. (JA)

Sanford and Son (RCA/LPM-4739, 1972) Much like the successful All in The Family LPs this is actual dialogue from the soundtrack of the TV show. Awesomely, it also features Quincy Jones’ amazing theme song. Most of the audio comes from the first few episodes, which makes sense. Usually pilots and early shows are awkward, but Sanford and Son’s case the earlier episodes are far better written and much more time has been spent on them. Lots of hilarious stuff, but one of my fave routines is about a hat Lamont gives as a gift. Lamont: See that F.S. on the sweatband? Fred: What's that? Lamont: What's that? That's your tnitials pop. what did you think it was? Fred: Well, it's on the sweatband, F.S. could have meant ‘For Sweatin’.”” “Lamont: (My fiancee’s) old man woks in the post office. He's in charge of a window. Fred: I bet he’s in charge of ail the windows, cleanin’ em!” There's also some “Fiddler On The Roof” jokes the Jewish writers were probably really into. Notably this record was pressed in “Dynaflex” vinyl... meaning cheap assed thin funny elastic vinyl, a real recording industry scam that didn’t last long. (JA)

Sanford and Foxx (Dooto/DTL 853, 1972) First joke: "All you folks who applauded, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart...if you didn't applaud, I'd like to wish you severe chest pains” Best joke: The fact that Dooto actually decided to release this lukewarm builshit to capitalize on Sanford & Son. Redd Foxx was known as the filthy, under-the-counter comedian whom kids used to sneak and listen to when their parents weren't in. Is it any wonder that the first record of his to make Billboard’s Top 200 album charts (#198)featured all- clean material, dredged up from the Dooto vaults? Lord, is this the best that label owner Dootsie Williams could do? Of course, the TV show helped, but you'd never know from Sanford & Foxx that this was the first man to use the word “nigger” on prime time TV, the matenal is so tame. It's not the fact that it's all non-dirty material that bothers me, it's just that (A) This fact is only mentioned in passing in the liner notes, and (B) You don't have to use cuss words to be funny, but these jokes just don't have any edge. On this LP, Redd comes off as just another hack comedian, rhapsodizing about funny things that happened on the way to the theater. Advising young men on how to get over with the ladies, Redd offers this solution: "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.” And that's the joke, foiks! Even in the fifties (when this must have been recorded), this probably sounded tried, tested and tired, although the laughing audience obviously disagreed with me. The continuity is weird...during “Television,” he brings up his (imaginary) son Rodney, and on the next track (“Xmas Hardtimes") he intros Rodney again, as if we didn’t hear him the first time. I guess Dooto wanted this out on the market so quick, they didn't stop to think how one joke would flow into the other. Speaking of continuity and flow, the jokes have these boss 50's striptease R&B instrumentals playing behind them, with the song titles listed on the back ("You Got Me Reeling.” “Tonky Honk,* "How Can I Go On,” "Booze Blues," “So What")---was this South Central saxman (and Dooto artist) Chuck Higgins? The LP begins with one of these instros, over which a voice intones: “INTRODUCING SANFORD & FOXX BY REDD FOXX!" You Also Get: a classy red-and-orange cover featuring a painting of Fred Sanford and Redd Foxx giving each other the evil eye; a fine-print back cover disclaimer that none of the material was taken from the TV show; and an ad for other $5.99 elpees in the Dooto catalog, including Richard & Willie (foulmouthed ventsloquist,act, not to be confused with Willie Tyler & Lester), Rudy Ray Moore (early stuff repackaged, ala Sanford & Foxx); Scatman Crothers (all jokes, no songs); and Forbidden Black Tales by the Third World Theater (Dooto's answer to the Last Poets?). (JP)

And All That Jazz (Dooto/85-4, 1972) Another obvious repackaging to cash in on Sanford success. The drawing on the cover of an old raggedy man must have

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confused peole who heard the young guy on the vinyl. At this point Foxx has become a superstar on TV, so anyone with access to Foxx recordings lets loose with quantity and quickness. (WT)

The Best of Redd Foxx (Longines/DW-94409/MF 101, 1972) This is stuff they already released (I think it's from “At His Best” but cheaply repackaged (in a B&W cover layed out on a xerox machine) as “America’s Newest TV Star” and “Rated G-General Audiences.” And the G stands for, ‘you’re a Goddam fool if you think this is appropriate for general audiences, sucka. (EG)

The Very Best of Redd Foxx (MF 102, 1972) More of the same, but with amore professional looking red and white (as opposed to black and white) cover. Way to reinvest!(EG)

The Best of Redd Foxx (Quality {Ontano}/sv 1879, 1972) This record is most notable for cashing in on Sanford by being (as it states boldly and hugely on the cover) “Rated G-For General Audiences.” Tamer (though still harsh and suggestive) Dooto stuff like “Childless Couples” and “War Veterans” abound. Same as Best of (Longines/MF 101) I think. (EG)

The Best of Redd Foxx Vol. 2 (Quality {Ontano}/sv 1899, 1972) This is the same as MF 102, “The Very Best of...” (EG)

Dirty Redd (Dooto/858, 1973) Weirdest cover of them all. Redd appears to be dressed a Snidely Whiplash in a top hat, handlebar moustache and a cape, but it appears to be doctored, so maybe he never posed like this What the hell is going on? Super oldies including “Jackass” and “Mother Frockers. (WT)

Funky Tales From A Dirty Old Junkman (Dooto/DTL 860/1974) Yet another repackaging of decades old material made to fit in with the Sanford and Son success. If you have a half dozen Dooto records, you've likely heard most of this material before. (WT)

Superstar (MF/RF 16, 1974) First Joke: A guy came into a nightclub one night, he was in the bar, he had about 14, 20 drinks, and he got half-drunk(!). He said, "If the furniture business don't get no better, I'm gonna lose my ass!" Bartender leaned over and said, “Look, buddy, this is a respectable place, you don't use that language in here. We have ladies sitting around the bar and at the tables having a few cocktails, don't say that in here!" A little while passed, he had three or four more drinks, he said, “If the furniture business don’t get no better, I'm gonna lose my ass!" Bartender grabbed him, walked him outside, and a chick jumped down from the bar and said, “Why are you putting him outside? His business is almost like mine! If the ASS business don't get no better, I'm gonna lose my FURNITURE!!" Best Joke: There was a guy, worked in an office building. He came out of the restroom, he had a key, you know...most of 'em don't have a key. He had the key, he was walking back to his office, and his secretary said, "Your front door is open.” He looked all around, hell, he didn't know what she was talkin’ about, so, he backed up, and she said, “Your front door is open,” so he says, "Ohhhh! How awful...Tell me, when you saw it, did you see that West Pointer standing at attention?” She said, "Hell, not I saw a disabled veteran sittin’ on two duffel bags!" (JB)

Spice Can Be Nice (MF/RF 17, 1974/CD Encore 5004, 1999) The CD version combines stuff with the Laff Your Ass Off record. Redd sounds a little tired and it’s not the most electric audience. Nonetheless, he manages to be the most offensive he can be quick, getting gays. Chinese, women, and little people offended in minutes. “There was a queer going to the chair, the warden said, ‘What's your last request’ “Can I blow the fuse.’ Confucius once said (in Chinese voice), ‘Impossible to rape woman, woman run much faster with dress up than man with pants down...of course, that was before the zipper.” “If it's anything I hate it's a goddam midget. I understand hate, you must hate something. Don't fight a midget unless you've done some previous midget fighting cause if a midget bites you, you in trouble!” (EG)

Strictly For Adults (MF/RF 18, 1974) I would like to note that MF Records has some MFing badly recorded records! That said, this baby (with a Sanford inspired cover) contains these nuggets: “What's a bar stool? What Davy Crockett stepped in!” “Hey baby, how do you get into those tight pants? You could try buying me a dnnk.’” (EG)

Black ‘n’ Blue (MF/RF 19, 1974) More really badly recorded MF stuff. (EG)

Elizabeth I’m Coming (MF/RF 20, 1975) Can you say “Cash in?” There are absolutely nothing here you haven't heard before...or maybe it just seems that way. (EG)

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Redd 7§ (MF/RF 21, 1975) An especially crappy sounding LP, with some average material. “Do you know what a humdinger is? A girl who starts to hum every time she sees a dinger.” (EG)

Best Of Redd Foxx (Royalty Tapes/X-65, 19757) This 8-Track broke while | was listening to it, but I was laughing when it broke. (EG)

You Gotta Wash Your Ass (Atlanti/ SD 18157, 1975) First joke: "Thank you very much if you applauded for me...if you didn’t applaud, [ hope your dog dies!" Best joke: Throw a dart and you'd pick one, but I'll go with the title track: “If you're here today with someone you love, be considerate of your mate. Care. Worry about their feelings. The most important thing you must do in a romance or love affair---when you love someone, YOU GOT TO WASH YOUR ASS. I dont mean your whole ass, | mean your ASS HOLE!" The fun starts before you put the album on, and I mean that literally. First, there's that infamous cover, with Redd standing next to a horse's rear end while holding up the tail. The title is printed on the right, effectively censoring the horse’s asshole, and Redd is making one of those contorted, squinty-eyed faces he'd use on Sanford & Son whenever he was confronted with a bad smell or an ugly woman. And then, on the back, the joke titles are so efxplicit they nearly spoil the punchlines, but only Wesley Willis' entire catalog equals You Gotta Wash Your Ass as far as humorous track listings go. Dig: “Economy Is Bad---Nigger Tried To Rob Me Night Before Last,” "Ugly Kids In New York,” "I Said S---", "Think Back When You Were Tellin’ Those Nigger Stories,” "A Hog Ain't No Uglier Than A Cow,” "Let Me Stop Foolin’ Around And Start My Act,” “Threw Up In The Face Bowl,” "You Gonna Feel Like A Fool Dyin’ In The Hospital For Nothin'’,” “Cancer Better Not F--- With My Body”---get the picture? Stil, you need to hear this album, because Redd’s delivery is on the one! The cover blurb tells us that this is Redd’s first LP in twelve years (conveniently forgetting the albums on Wamer Bros. and King and MF that came in between). And although Redd is considered the granddaddy of dirty comedy albums, it should be noted that up until now, he had been cruising by on sheer innuendo. It took (first) Rudy Ray Moore and (then) Richard Pryor to introduce balls-out cuss words on albums---Redd, being the guy who more or less moved black comedy out of the vaudeville era, wasn't about to let any younger generations pass him by. For starters, he didn't record this at some sedate supper club in Los Angeles---instead, he did this one at the far rowdier Apollo Theater in New York. I'd guess that between this fact and the changing times, he's now referring openly to what he used to hint at, throwing around words like "nigger" and “shit" as if he invented them. As legend has it, the Apollo audience isn't exactly the most polite, so six tracks here are labeled “Hecklers--- Audience Participation,” and Redd never lets the crowd get the last word: “you look as beautiful now as you did in 1941," “rest your lips because you got a long night ahead of you,” etc. At one point, someone in the audience makes a reference to his TV son: "Where's Lamont?" Redd: “At your mammy's!* And he must be the only person who could stand onstage at the Apollo and conduct a sing-along on “Row Row Row Your Boat": "SING ALONG, GODDAMMIT!!!" Elsewhere, he tells various noisy audience members to go "Hut A White Act,” calming them down by ordering them to "Put Your Spear Back." He does a great discourse on the word “shit,” and he also riffs on the changed meaning of the word "funky”*: "When I was a kid, funky didn't have anything to do with music! Funky was grandma's bloomers! Funky was grandpa's long draws...with the nicotine stain in the back...when he had sneezed and got snuff in ‘em...that was funky!" And there are times when you can just see him making that squinty face on the cover, when he tosses off lines like "ug-leee,” “sheecit,” "gat-DAMN!,” “funkehbh!” One line about interracial romance cut so deep, it made the "Words Of The Week" column in Jet: “I LOVE black women. You see me with a white woman, I'm holdia' her for the po-lice! ‘Course, I'm no idiot---I prefer Raquel Welch over (then N.Y. congresswoman) Shirley Chisholm!” Some people point out that Redd Foxx At Home is the elpee where he breaks loose from the stale nightclub jokes and comes on with full-steam vitriol, but my vote goes toward Wash Your. This is the bitter, scratchy-voiced junkman we got to know through Sanford & Son not those Dooto LP's that exploited the TV show. In the early seventies, there was a whole new invasion of comics that toyed with msque words the way late-60's musicians used to mess with notes and chords. Redd stepped back from the record-making

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game, sized up the competition, then came out with one of his finest albums ever, reaching #87 on Billboard's LP charts, a place where Redd's appearances were precious and few. (JP) : f You Got To Wash Your Asspromo 7” (Atlantic EP/PR250, 1975) Programming teasers off the album. It’s the same on both sides. (WT)

| Ain’t Lied Yet(Laff A 203, 1978/reissue Polygram/518842 1994) Laff Records found tapes somewhere, got rights somehow, and put out some fucked up LPs. That said, they were awfully dedicated to the cheapo novelty record market, and these aren’t of lower quality than many Foxx albums (though it seems they crank the echo on some of these, maybe a clue to the origins of the tapes...the microphone was hidden in Foxx’ liquor glass?) Poems, jokes and rants galore mark this one, and if you can laugh at the “pun” “Kiss Urass Goodbye” you will love this one. NOTE: Read James Porter's review of “I Ain’t Lied Yet!’ because apparently this is the same album.(WT) Uncensored (Laff A 210 1980/reissue Polygram 528061) This was released around 1980 and the CD is from 1995...but I’m guessing by the Sugar Ray Robinson joke that it was an older recording, don't you think? “If the pilgrims and Indians had ate cat we'd all be eating pussy on Thanksgiving.” And I guess Joe Lewis lithsped. (JA)

“World War Il,” “Hero Politics” biw “You've Got To Live Friends” (Gusto GT4-2252, 1981) King, the once respectable label that was the home of The Godfather of Soul eventually ended up in the slippery hands of the Gusto label, masters of the truck stop knockoff cassette format. Thus, bigger shysters than previously (which is ASTOUNDING) had the Foxx legacy in their paws. This 45 is repackaging of ancient material (WWII jokes in the 80s?) they would release over the years, culminating in the ubiquitous “Live and Dirty” senes. This single was still being sold through their catalogue when Nirvana was at their peak, by the way. (HY, JA) X-Rated Volume I (King/Gusto, SK-751, 1982)This isn’t the mighty King of the past, but rather the knockoff label Gusto that prepared cheapos for truck stops and instant cut out type bins in 5 and dimes. This all seems to be late 60s/early 70s material, so at least it’s not from £956, give them that much credit. (WT) X-Rated Volume 2 (King/Gusto, SK-752, 1982) See Volume |

X-Rated Volume 3 (King/Gusto, SK-753, 1982) See Volume 1

X-Rated Volume 4 (King/Gusto, SK-754, 1982) First Joke: Last week a guy wrote in to a magazine saying black prostitutes are filling the streets of Amenca...it’s true...because there’s so many $100 white tricks in the streets of America. Get them off the streets and our girls will come home and take $5 like they used to.” Another winner: An old woman tells her husband, “John you fly is open.” “Well if it wont get up it sure wont get out.” (EG)

X-Rated Volume S$ (King/Gusto, SK-755, 1982) See Vol. 1

X-Rated Volume 6(King/Gusto, SK-756, 1982) See Vol.

| Everything’s Big (Laff A 228, 1983) First joke: "we ali set, folks, we want you to enjoy yourself, this is a colored place!" Best joke: see review of 1969's “Up Against The Wall.” Apparently, this is a revamped version of “Up Against The Wall.”” This wasn’t the first time the geniuses at Laff ripped off the bigwigs at arner Bros.---Richard Pryor's “Black Ben The Blacksmith” (one of Chris Rock's favorite LP's!) borrowed liberally from oot only Pryor's self-titled debut on Warner's sister label Reprise (1969), but his interludes from the Wattstax soundtrack as well. The difference is that Laff did a better editing job with Foxx’'s album, and there's even some racier bits that I don’t remember from the Warners album (like that throwaway line about composer Stephen Foster being a "fag"). In typical tacky Laff fashion, the cover was the usual flea-market portrait by Rhonda Voo (sometimes ID'ed as “Rhonda Klapper®---she's not identified here at all, but I've seen enough Ala/Laff covers to know her work). On the front, Redd is drawn nestled between a woman's breasts, looking bappy to be there. On the back, he's being squashed by those same mammaries. This cover makes that black velvet “nude woman" portrait that Fred Sanford's buddy Grady bought for his daughter and son-in-law on Sanford & Son look like Mona Lisa. And, when it first hit the marketplace, the price was just as cheap: $5.99! This wasn't on a sticker, mind you, this was printed right on the jacket as part of the art! Did Foxx ever see a cent frem this? And even though the Wamers version was better engineered,

Laff's edition has that same “fuzzy bootleg” quality that defined Foxx's old Dooto sides. If you live in Chicago, be aware that the Jazz Record Mart has thousands of sealed copies of this album, pnced to move at $2.99-- despite the tacky trappings, “Everything's Big” is a bargain on any label, recommended for has of killer comedy. This is apparently the same material as “I Ain't Lied Yet,” by the way.(JP)

Live In 85 (Reddy Freddy RF Ot, 1985) Between TV shows and starting to get into financial trouble, this was hopefully a means to generate some income. Raw and gruff as you'd expect, with his spirit not yet completely broken, Redd is not in top form here. This is the only moderately funny Redd seen on the “Plain Brown Wrapper” video. I assume Reddy Freddy was a label he put out himself, because the single he released on the tail of this was a vanity project if ever there was one.(WT)

“Tui Fruitti” biw "Pussy Footin'" (Reddy Freddy 0145, 1985) If Redd had lived long enough to see the swing/lounge revival, and then released this record, he would have had a whole new audience waiting for him. Then again, Milt Trenier is on a similar musical trip, and his Chicago club was forced to close nght when that trend was gaining speed, three years ago, so who knows? Anyway, now that all the trendies ditched their swing dance lessons for salsa, this single sounds good no matter what the new phase is. First, "Tutti Fruitti* is not the Little Richard/Pat Boone wailer but an older tune written by Slim Gaillard and Doris Fisher. Second, both songs (Redd himself wrote the B-side, which is not as naughty as the title suggests) aren't the more frantic jump-blues he was doing thirty years before, but rather more conventional jazz with a blues tint, somewhere between Joe Williams and Jimmy Witherspoon. His voice had grown more gravelly over the years---all that nightlife was starting to tell on him---but he could still project at the mic with a raw authority that can't be bought. (However, his jokes were starting to lose their bite, as evidenced by a live video released around this time.) Redd is all up in that microphone with a peculiar fervor (you can hear him spitting out his consonants), and the A-side has nice leisurely piano and sax solos. In addition, there's a tasty guitar on "Pussy Footin'’...Herb Ellis, is that you? (Herb was featured on that Christmas 1975 Sanford & Son, playing guitar as Redd sang Mel Torme's “Christmas Song,” a/k/a "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire.") Although Jet ran a bref blurb on this lost classic when released, this 45 fell through the cracks and, realistically speaking, probably sounded dated by jazz standards, let alone the pop/soul world. This wasn't going to unseat “We Are The World” from the charts, but in terms of pure aesthetic musical worth, Redd came out in the lead. (JP)

Live & Dirty Vol. 1 (Richmond/2152, Cassette, 1994? CD 1995) The most easy to find and cheapest senes of available Foxx recordings are the Live and Dirty casseties (CDs, too, but I’ve never seen those). Available at every truck stop in Amenica, these bad boys were all “Recorded Live In An LA Nightclub” (I assume the Redd Foxx Club” due to the crappy recording) and feature cheapo graphics, photos that range from the 50s thru the 80s and always less than 28 minutes of material. They're all kinda funny, but I like this one the best. (WT)

Live & Dirty Vol. 2 (Richmond/2162, Cassette 1994?, CD 1995) This one features Sanford era Fred on the cover, but subtract a decade or so for the recording (I think). The worst part of these ts that if you buy it at the truck stop for a road trip they're over before you use a 1/4 tank of gas. So buy at least 4 volumes at each stop. (WT)

Live & Dirty VoL 3 (Richmond/2174, Cassette 19947, CD 1996) Non-pork eaters, Mexicans, Custer and the unfortunately named Oral Roberts are Foxx’ victims this time around, and he posits why he shoulda been president. Couldn't have been much different than Bill. (WT)

Live & Dirty Vol. 4 (Richmond/2178, Cassette 1994?, CD 1996) There's some Dooto era jokes her but I'm pretty sure these are from the Redd Foxx club in the MF era or later. Sull, if anyone was doing Eisenhower and Adam Clayton Powell jokes too late it woulda been Foxx! (WT)

Live & Dirty Vol. 5 (Richmond/2245, Cassette 19947, CD 1996) This cheapo features 25 or so minutes of chuckles on such subjects as black inventors, white women and Nicaragua. And pimps. (WT)

Live & Dirty VoL 6 (Richmond/2274, Cassette 19947, CD 1996) More of the same.(WT)

Live At The Apollo (Jewel/Paula/Sue) This truck stop tape has perhaps my fave truck stop knockoff cover

art...an almost Warner Brothersesque cartoon illustration (WT)

The Best Of Redd Foxx (Truck Stop/TSP 31, 1995) As you may guess, this is not actually a “Best Of” but just one average nightclub performance, with piano accompaniment and a modest, buzzed audience. If you're an easily offended Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Pilgrim or one legged whore you might wanna avoid this one. (WT)

The Best of Redd Foxx(Good Time Productions, 1996?) This is the same thing as the Truck Stop CD with slightly different packaging. Note that despite 20 track listings, only 1 tack on your CD player shows up. (WT) The Best Of Redd Foxx (Capitol, 34657, 1997) This sounds like it’s from the mysterious Laff sources, which is funny, seeing how a major label is getting the cheapest recordings. The famed “Mother Frockers & Cork Soakers” convention joke is here, as well as other

gems.

Best Of Redd Foxx: Comedy Stew (Columbia/65107, 1997) This is one of the few Best Of's that’s actually compiled of his better material from good records. Classics like “New Fugg,” “Jackasses,” and some prime cannibal jokes are the highlights. (WT)

Very Best Of Redd Foxx: Fugg It!! (Loud/1625, 1998) Good cover art and a great collection of Dooto stuff, with midget, pussy and Confucius jokes galore. (WT) Living On Credit (Encore, 1998?) Encore released CDs, with few notes and new cheapo ant, that features King and maybe MF and maybe Dooto matenal, it’s hard to tell. Like all Encore releases this one jumps decade to decade, ungracefully editing together parts of concerts from very differing eras. On one bit he'll say, “What the f...Aed[” but on another “No shit, folks.” Some stuff sounds like Dooto era and on some he references being in movies (so that would be the 70s). In fact, there’s a 5 minute segment that I heard appear on several other Encore CDs. Best jokes: “Laugh out loud, you're up North now.” “What’s the difference between a pickpocket and a peeping tom? A pickpocket snatches watches...”’ (WT)

Confucius (Encore 5021, 19987) Raucus crowd on some of this one, really rowdy and he’s with them. Like all Encore “reissues” this awkwardly pastes together several sessions, but the meat of this is a rawly recorded rowdy set from LA, I assume at Foxx’ own club. It's funny that the spare liner notes boast of “digitally remastered versions,” it couldn’ta sounded worse if it was taped on a Tonemaster cassette! He's not too kind to the gays on this one (Example: One says to another that he’s pregnant, the other responds (in Foxx fey voice) “Who's the father?” “How should | know, I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.” “St. Louis, bom and bred there...don’t know where I was buttered.” “You know what a humdinger is, that’s a girl who starts to hum everytime she sees a dinger.” he then starts his orgasmic humming and the crowd falls out. May not be the funniest Foxx release, but no doubt this captures a raw Foxx club expenence as well as any. (WT)

Talking Trash (Encore International,1998?) This is about the 10th Encore CD I've listend to and I don’t think there was one segment I didn’t hear on all the other ones. They're budget priced though! (WT) Prejudice (Encore, 19987) More of the same for this budget reissues. By the way, I have no idea when these came out, or even if 1998 is a good guess. (WT)

Too Hip For The Room (Encore 5021, 1998?) The encore releases take material from the MF releases and some earlier and jater sources, and arranges them in several minute segments to make CD length . I mention that especially with this one, because after listening to a bunch of their releases I think I've heard every minute of this CD broken up over the other dozen. Stl! some good stuff. “Only one thing kept. me out of college...high school!” “There were some rumors in the paper that I married my wife because her uncle died and left her $25,000 cash. I swear to you I would have marred her no matter who left it to her.” CWT) Whiutle, Fiddle and Diddle (Encore International 5008- 2, 1998?) If you have a Jot of Redd Foxx records you've probobly heard every joke on this joke compilation, but they're still funnoy...with the extra bonus of hearing his voice go from nasal to gravel without warming. “You ever meet Wilt The Stilt? You got to meet him, it’s unbelievable. I stood up to shake his hand and looked him nght in the zipper. Too bad girls aren't that tall, it would make dancing better.” “Ever tell you about his chick, she had sneezes, almost like when you have hiccups, ternble. She went to the doctor and said, “Doctor I have these sneezes, and every time I sneeze I have a climax.’ He said, ‘Well

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what are you doing about it?’ ‘Sniffing pepper...achoo, achoo, achoo.'”

XX COMPILATIO P R American Comedy Box Set 1915-1994: Bui Seriously (Rhino/716!7, 1995) This box set runs the gamut from Andy Griffith's corny football routine nasty Redd Foxx and Pryor cuts. It runs the gamut from comics that think they're smart, but are dumb and unfunny (Capitol Steps) to the ostensibly dumb but brilliant Cheech and Chong. Overall four discs of amazing breadth. (WT) The Battle Of Sex (wiHattie Noel) (Dooto/DTL 836) This record is set up as a theoretical Battle between Hamttie Noel and Redd (of course they're not really head to head trading off jokes, but the concept is there). There was a point when Dooto claimed Hattie's LPs were outselling both Foxx and Moms Mabley, which is hard to believe. Noel, who performed with Eddie Cantor in an earlier era, has a Mabley-esque voice. with a little less gravel and a little more “oomph,” but doesn't have the Moms’ magic or timeing. As far as battling Redd, it's no contest. Not that Redd would hita lady.. (WT) The Best Party Fun aka Best of Fun (Dooto:DTL 274) A tired hooker on a strange piece of furniture with an empty champagne glass gives you a not too intriguing come hither look on the cover. The strangeness ain t hurt by the fact that she-has large stuffed rabbit with a champagne bottle seemingly acting as her pimp. The album features “Redd Foxx and other favorites™...1f Sloppy Daniels, Dave tumer asnd George Kirby are, in fact, your other favorites. Foxx, of course, wins the Battle of the Burlesque, with some of the bits off his 45s and an almost ready for TV “Beatmk Knight Of The Round Table” number. But George Kirby comes through with some impressive delivery and wnting. And Dave Tumer wears funny teeth. (WT) Comedy Classics (Era/BU 3890) Really funny stuff from Foxx, Dangerfield, Carlin, Abbott and Costello. Burns and Allen and more. (JA) Comedy Roots (w/Richard and Willie) (Laff 197, 1977) The Redd side includes such chestnuts as the tale of the lost Fakawi Indian tribe (“Where the Fakawi?’’) and R&W say “Nigger” a lot and comment on “Roots. © There is a pretty good Redd joke on this one about the nurse who got fired because she does every backwards. “She puts salt in the coffee, cream in the eggs. The doctor told her to prick a guy's boil.”’ (JA) Down and Dirty (w/Richard Pryor) (Laff 184, 1976) Like all Laff albums this has pretty inferior material, but nice low budget cover art of them as jokers in a black players poker hand. (WT) Dillinger Four/Pinhead Gunpowder split single (Adeline 007/2000) The A side of this punk single features a Foxx sample between tracks, telling a crowd to “relax. get drunk tonight, throw up in a cab." Hooked On Comedy (Laff, 1981,) Simply genius: After Hooked on Classics and Stars On 45 had Disco- ish hits by making medleys of famous songs/pieces. Laff cashed tn with a dance record that set famous punchlines of their famous roster (Foxx included) to a disco beat. This ts the kind of forward thinking that got Laff on the charts in the 80s with Kip Adotta! (JA) The Journey Continues: Celebrate Black Music (1997) This 4 CD set is likely the only compilation featunng Foxx and Boyz I] Men and Method Man and the Dazz Band. (EG) Just For Laughs (w/Flip Wilson, Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby) (Scepter, 19727) Scepter did all kinds of weird compilations and this is no exception, but in retrospect its a pretty amazing sampling of divergent styles of popular Black comedy. (WT) Laughin’ At The Blues(w/Dusty Fletcher) (Savoy Jazz SJL E181, 1987) This presents for the first time on LP the Savoy Jump Blues tracks Foxx recorded in 46. They give him top billing and have nice young pictures of him, but most of the tracks are by Dusty “Open The Door Richard” Fletcher, and those are more straight

comedy than Foxx’. Interesting to note on the Fletcher tracks, almost al! his material is about fairly horrifying subjects: abject poverty, extreme alcoholism, spousal beating, homicide and other rib ticklers. There's definitely lessons in the complexity of the Black comic tradition here, but that's for another discography. (JA) Legends of Comedy (Laff, reissued on Uproar/3666, 1996) Basically, no one knows where Laff got the rights or found the material, but they had the B-list Foxx, Pryor, George Carlin and Rusty Warren tracks, and Slappy White and Lawanda Page stuff (which in some ways are their A matenal) stuff appears on this album as well. You wont feel like you got a great deal if you buy this at any price, but if you're a historian... (WT)

Loose Cannon Comedy Classics Sampler (CD, wi! Richard Pryor) Laff material, with Pryor trax from “Supernigger,” and “Wizard of Comedy,” and some raw Foxx stuff. CWT) Pryor Goes Foxx Hunting (w/Richard PryorKLaff A 170, 1975) Richard Pryor had ups and downs and on one of his downs he signed on with Laff, the cheapo label that tried to make a Rudy Ray out of Mantan Moreland. Pryor and Laff weren't on good terms for long, and when the smoked cleared he was out of a contract, so to speak, but they had the nights to release what they had on him any which way, including some of his worst, badly recorded and ancient material. They slapped this one together, and surprisingly Redd comes out way on top due to the crap on the Pryor cuts, Crappy Redd cuts are par for the course and he still can persevere. On the album cover Redd and Richard are gunos.(WT) Queer To The Core! (Quick Nuts/02-69, 1999) This underground bootleg CD reissues some interesting gay themed novelty and documentary records. It also features a very funny Redd Foxx routine where he tells the audience to yell out the names of celebrities and he'll tell them if they're gay or not. The audience yells out (bleeped) names [incidently, that’s the only bleeps you'll ever hear on a Redd record] avd Redd responds in a gravelly, deadpan, “Fag!” after each one. Then someone says, Redd Foxx,” to which he reponds, “Lesbian!” (WT) Redd and White (w/Slappy White) (LaffiA175, 1975) The cover art is a high school quality drawing (Redd’s drawings aren't high school quality...he never went to class in high school so he’s a bniliant ‘outsider artist’ as far as I'm concerned) and the joke quality ain’t gonna knock your socks off either. Though they're not actually together on this, it’s interesting that cheapo Laff would address the historical relationship between Foxx and White, two old time comrades. (WT) Redd Foxx and Slappy White (Encore/5005, 19997) I assume this CD is the preceding record, padded witb extra Foxx stuff. JA) Rock The House-The Birth Of Rock & Roll Vol 4 (German import double CD) Features the Foxx Jump Blues number “Let's Wiggle A Little Woogie.” (WT) T.K. Kirkland Presents From Back In The Day: The Best Of Laff (Loud/ 1624, 1998) Back In The Day: Selections From The Repeat Relativity Releases (Loud) Redd, Lawanda and the great Mantan Moreland let loose with some of their best (worst?), and most ndiculous, material. The fact that this stuff is still available on a digital format in the 21st century astounds me. But as Mantan would say, “That's not my finger!” The second title is a sampler from this that also has stuff from the “Fugg It" CD. (JA) Zingers From Hollywood Squares (Event EV 6903, 1974) Jokes from celbrity contestants on Hollywood Squares include Foxx answering the question “Are most stolen cars recovered?” with the line “I had mine recovered in zebra,” (JA) FONXESQUE RECORDINGS Buck Clarke Quintet (Argo/LPS 4007, 1961) This features a musical tribute, in spelling at least, ‘Darben The Redd Foxx.” This track also appears on James Moody record.(EG) Citizens Bloopers (Commonwealth NU 9340/1977) If anything could be less funny than a CB radio themed comedy album, it would be a white person doing a Redd Foxx/Sanford imitation (His handle is “Junkey, because junk is the key to my buisness”) that has the punchline of Fred G. getting killed by a train. Ha. Ha. (JA) Moms Mabley “Onstage'\Chess 1447, 1961) Moms Mabley “I got somethin’ to tell you!” (Chess 1479, 1963) Redd’s liner notes call her the “Funniest woman in the world!” He also points out that upside down “MOMS” is spelled “WOWS.” Very Foxxian logic. And he’s nght on all counts. (JA) Rudy Ray Moore - Does Jokes & Satire Made Famous By Redd Foxx (KenUKST-018, 19) The cover art features Roman columns with classical busts of Foxx

and Dolemite both looking at a photo of Rudy. On the album Rudy “covers” some of Foxx’ famous Dooto routines, including “The Race Track,” “The Jack- Ass” and other Foxx faves. Obviously he doesn't have Foxx’ delivery or verbal dexterity on some of the wordplay stuff, but c'mon, give him credit for trying... 4 comedy cover album...a strange concept, indeed. (WT) Freeman and Murray °S'T™ (Laff, 19737) This was the interracial) comedy duo that were regulars on “Sonny and Cher.” Redd contributes liner notes. (WT) Ray Scott “The Prayer” (Checker, CK-3017, 1971) Ray Scott “The Prayer” 45 (Checker, 1971) Ray might not be a household name, but he had star time working for him here as his prayers he’s preaching on the album cover came true when Redd Foxx wrote material for him (particular the title single) and Andre “Mr. Rhythm” Williams produced! A little Foxx and Andre flavor prevails. (WT) Richard and Willie “The Race Track” (Dooto 848, 1968) A cover of Foxx’ famous bit is the centerpiece of this LP by everyone's 2nd favorite black vebtriloquist act. Dap “Sugar” Willie “Dap Sugar Willie From North Philly” (Philadelphia International, 1976) Dap played Lenny the hustler on “Good Times," and he must have been on “Sanford and Son” at some point. This is an amazing record with “Sugar” doing stand up with a seriously solid funk band playing behind him. One fan of this record told me he’d hoped the band would put out an album without Mr. Willie. More importantly for us, there's, a nice photo of Foxx and Willie, plus Foxx’ liner notes, on the sleeve. (WT) BONUS FOXXESQUE RECORD: Billy Allyn “Earthy Myrth” (Dooto/DTL 826) Dooto actually had the nerve to advertise this as “Funnier than Foxx.”” No wonder Redd sued. BONUS CONFUSION BUSTER: Laff of the Party Vol. 5 is Leroy “Sloppy” Daniels and Vol. 6 is Hattie Noel, that's why they're not in the Redd Records section FOXXY FILMS & VIDEOS Cotton Comes To Harlem (1970) Ossie Davis’ brilliant film ended up having more stylistically (although not financially) to do with birthing Blaxploitation than Sweet Sweetback Badass Song (which is usually credited as the daddy of the genre). A very funny, exciting and engaging adaptation of a Chester Himes novel, this movie beautifully utilizes both Harlem and Foxx. Redd plays Uncle Bud, a junk dealer tn the middle of some complicated wheelings and dealings, and this set the table for Sanford and Son. The final gag has way more to do with Rudy Ray Moore party records than Foxx party records, however.(JA) Norman Is That You? (1976) Re-released in a snazzier package recently, this movie available on video (and bizarrely shot on video...when exactly was that acceptable for a theatrical film?) tells the tale of Foxx discovering his son, played by Michael Warren, the UCLA baskethbal! star turned actor (Hill Street Blues, The Kid Who Loved Christmas) is queer as a three dollar bill. Lots of unsensitive jokes leading to a feel- good, “Gays OK!” ending. Based on a Broadway flop, this gem also stars Pearl Bailey, Waylon Flowers and his fag-hag puppet Madame, and for the heteros and drag queens alike, Blaxploitation amazon Tamara Dobson. (WT) Redd Foxx in A Plain Brown Wrapper aka “VIDEO IN A PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER"(1983) Two concerts of Redd in a strange suit doing strange, nasty jokes. He's on a big stage, with a giant crowd that’s totally on his side, and always the pro, Redd delivers, but I think it's fair to say that his spint is kinda broken by this point. The A&E Biography uses this for footage. Grayhog video announced plans to repackage and distribute this as “Redd Foxx-A Comedy Classic” in 2000. (WT) Dirty Dirty Jokes (1984) AKA “More Video In A Plain Brown Wrapper,” Foxx hosts such upstanding citizens as Andrew “Dice” Clay and Howard