00 Notes.txt
LENNY BRUCE
"Togetherness"
Fantasy 7007, 1960
LP rip (128 kbps mono) by Dick Baker, January 2015
1. White Collar Drunks (5:24)
2. The Defiant Ones (4:30, with Eric Miller)
3. The Phone Company (2:14)
4. The Steve Allen Show (4:30)
5. Esther Costello Story (2:38)
6. Bronchitis (1:18)
7. My Trip to Miami (3:55)
8. The Tribunal (3:01)
9. The Palladium (19:32)
10. Our Governors (3:22)
By now it should be apparent that there is a new wind blowing in the fields of
American comedy. No longer must a comedian walk softly in trepidation that he will
step on a corn of society and cause a reaction that will prevent him from working.
It is becoming possible now for us to laugh at our taboos. And with every sharp
Brucian barb, Lenny Bruce makes more impenetrable the iron curtain between the Old and
the New in comedy.
It has been a slow process, but gradually the social milieu in which comedy
operates has crawled out of the sink of despondency in which it rotted during the days
of McCarthy and the Witch hunts. The set-up was not solely the work of those forces;
it had been there all along, inherent in the social niceties observed by all the
"right" comics whose jokes were "acceptable" and whose humorous jabs were okay just as
long as they didn't offend anybody.
The new comics have learned the value of offence. They have restored satire to
its role in social criticism and have restored to the comic monologist the function of
satirizing the entire social scene, a fiery one-liner ready for hypocrisy and pretense
wherever they may be found; in politics, in the church, in society in general and not
just where they may safely be attacked.
It is not only Lenny Bruce's audacity that is admirable (this audacity is just
another of the areas in which his art is akin to that of the jazz musician), it is his
determination to examine all of our mores, all of our day-to-day actions and reactions
as related on radio, TV and in the newspapers (billboards, placards and street
conversation, too) and spotlight mercilessly the difference between what we say and
what we do.
Nowhere, since Sinclair Lewis's "Babbitt" has this been done more dramatically
than in Lenny Bruce's comedy. And you can judge, to some extent, by the cries of
outrage the accuracy of the rifle shot.
Curiously, many people will hold still, even advocate the Bruce wit when it
applies to all but their own prejudices and taboos. But once he gets to you, once you
see the stark reality of our society as he reveals it, your view of life is never the
same, nor is your conversation. Nelson Algren, Bernard Wolfe, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
yes and Sinclair Lewis in another way entirely have all changed our outlook on life
and added to our vocabulary. Lenny Bruce is busy doing exactly the same thing. Who
can ever again hear Lawrence Welk, a sanctimonious revivalist, Peter Lorre, see one of
those warden-jail break bits, a Hitler movie, or view any of the other scenes by which
he lances society's infections in the same manner as before Bruce?
In words of Ira Gitler, President of the Lenny Bruce Fan Club No. 2, "The world
is divided into those who like Lenny Bruce and all those other people." Me, I'm with
Ira.
--Ralph J. Gleason, Pres. Lenny Bruce Fan Club No. 1
Technical advice on cover photo -- Pete Brenig -- Grand Kleagle
Costumes -- Honey Bruce
All routines were recorded during night club performances.
"Lenny shouldn't be allowed in a neighborhood crap game, much less a night club." The
Rounder, Los Angeles Mirror
"If it were not for columnists there would be no show people." Mrs. Abe Greenburg,
L.A. Examiner
"Lenny Bruce is just a fad, a one-time-around freak attraction. Remember you read it
here." Hy Gardner, Syndicated Columnist
"Bad taste personified." Jack O'Brian, NY TV Columnist
"Like hula hoops and calypso the witless Lenny Bruce will have a quick flash before
the public." Leo Schull, "Show Biz"
Variety, 11-17-58: "Bruce, however, makes a mistake in his comedy . . . by attacking
or satirizing so broad a range of subjects that he certainly will antagonize somebody
if he were to play a large enough audience. His material, as it stands, is not for
public performance. He greatly needs discipline and some knowledge of rectitude."
Gary Allyn appears with Lenny Bruce through the courtesy of radio station WMET, Miami,
Fla. Photo by Roger Kallins.
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