Lenny Bruce : Let The Buyer Beware (6-CD) - CD Box Sets (2004) - Sony BMG Music/Shout Entertainment : OLDIES.com

Product Description:

Considering what an enormous impact Lenny Bruce had on modern social mores, satire, politics, and entertainment, it's surprising that a box set of his material didn't appear until nearly four decades after his 1966 death. LET THE BUYER BEWARE presents six discs' worth of Bruce at his best. Shockingly, it consists predominantly of previously unreleased recordings. For as much fine Bruce work as there is on previous releases, the mercurial, spontaneous nature of his art was such that even the performances that had fallen through the cracks, as on this set, were masterpieces in and of themselves.

Listening to Bruce's humanistic but uncompromising skewering of everything from legal and moral hypocrisy to jazz musicians and fellow comedians, it also becomes apparent how much craftsmanship actually went into his free-wheeling style. Many of the routines heard here exist in different forms on other Bruce albums, and comparisons reveal the masterful manner in which Bruce would branch off and experiment even within a predetermined framework. While some of the references may sound dated to 21st-century ears, the incisive themes and expert comic technique in abundance on LET THE BUYER BEWARE make it clear why Bruce remains an iconoclastic legend.

Entertainment Reviews:

Entertainment Weekly - p.180

"[T]he definitive audio-biography of Bruce as a revolutionary craftsman and antic wit."

Down Beat - pp.80-1

5 stars out of 5 - "Bruce challenged contentment, especially when polished in the gloss of hypocrisy. He spoke the language of jazz in his monologues, which were more like free-form satirical essays and psychodramas laced with Yiddish slang than standup bits."

Tracks of Disc 1:

1.Are There Any Niggers Here Tonight?
2.The Clap
3.Lenny On Comedy Pt. 1
4.On Third Shows
5.Father Flotsky's Triumph
6.Lima, Ohio
7.Introduction To "The Palladium"/Annie Ross/What Was I Talking About?
8.The Palladium
9.Explanation Of Frank Dell And Bullets
10.Censorship On The Steve Allen Show
11.Taking Requests/Hip Diseases
12.The Lawrence Welk Story
13.How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties (with Eric Miller)
14.Gotta Split
15.Lenny On Playboy's Penthouse (with Hugh Hefner & Nat "King" Cole)

Tracks of Disc 2:

1.Testing The Sony Microphone
2.Lenny On Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts (with Arthur Godfrey & Sally Marr)
3.Critics/Club Owners
4.Monster Routine With Hecklers
5.I've Never Been In Love Before
6.Religions Inc.
7.Lenny Interview (with Studs Terkel)
8.Airplane Glue
9.The Phone Company
10.My Trip To Miami
11.Psycho Doctors/Faye Bainter/Jack Paar
12.Ike, Sherm & Nick
13.Non Skeddo Flies Again

Tracks of Disc 3:

1.Working Carnegie Hall
2.Point Of View
3.Christ And Moses
4.Spanish Harlem
5.The Joke
6.Pretty Bizarre Show
7.Dirty Toilet/Bad Early Toilet Training
8.If Your Body Is Dirty, The Fault Lies With The Manufacturer
9.What Should Be/What Is
10.C.E. Hocksey Letters/My Father Solomon Osterow
11.Come Is A VerbTo Is A Preposition
12.Blah Blah Blah
13.Dick Tracy Is An Orthodox Jew
14.Milton Berle/Dykes/Homosexuality
15.Cops/Where The Heat Are
16.Going To Court/Wear A Blue Suit
17.S.F. Gossip/Jewish & Goyish/Cat Downstairs Taping Show
18.The Phantom
19.Would You Want Your Sister To Marry One Of Them?
20.Chick Singer With A Gimmick
21.Billy Graham Is Not Qualified
22.Touch It Once
23.The Black Cat/Get Stuffed/Why Did You Lie To Me?
24.Closing/Will Rogers Quote
25.Lawrence Welk The Hipster
26.Hubert's Museum

Tracks of Disc 4:

1.I Just Do It And That's All
2.Ruby The Robot
3.Mort Sahl, Shelley Berman, Jack Parr, Joey Bishop & Phyllis Diller/The Reason I Wear The Coat
4.Why The Breakfast Show
5.The Meaning Of Obscenity Pt. 1/Drew Pearson's A Son Of A Bitch
6.Norman Rockwell/The Jazz Scene
7.The Word Or The Act/We Fucked Their Mothers For Chocolate Bars
8.Jimmy Hoffa/Castro & Cuba
9.Thank You Mask Man
10.Dangerous Drugs/Marijuana
11.Jews Killed Christ
12.Marilyn Monroe/Narcotics Vs. Juice
13.You Don't Remember Me, Do You?/You're So Classic...Smoking A Cigar
14.Kennedys/Jonathan Winters
15.W.C. Fields The Anti-Semite/Hookers On Record
16.The Meaning Of Obscenity Pt. 2
17.San Francisco Bust/Judge Entrapment
18.The Act Is Kissin' & Huggin'
19.Las Vegas Pt. 1/Johnny Mathis
20.I'll Show You How Prejudiced You Are
21.Corrupt Cities/Chicago Schtarkers/Shelley Berman
22.Audience Banter/Why Doesn't He Do The Bits On The Records?
23.Lenny On Comedy Pt. 2
24.Snot
25.The Nerve Of Faggots
26.Hooker That Balled The President
27.Divorce/Get Even/Stag Movies Vs. King Of Kings
28.Norman Thomas/Filipinos/Midgets
29.Las Vegas Pt. 2/Pearl Bailey
30.Australia
31.Bela Lugosi & Wallace Beery/Entrancing Transylvania/Herb Caen
32.The Warning (with Long Island Police Officer)