But, he also had a wife and a child and a level of normalcy that left him out of the "Behind The Music"/"E! True Hollywood Story" exposes. Carlin wasn’t calcified, he was positively alive. And even though we loved his greatest hits, we always wanted to hear his new stuff. He was more consistent than the Stones, even though he worked just as long. If you look at Carlin’s track record, it’s akin to the Beatles’. Carlin’s talent lay in his insight, in questioning what the fuck was going on through humor. I love Richard, but their acts were different. You might say he was secondary to Richard Pryor. He wasn’t the voice of a generation, he’d hate that description, rather he was the trusted observer, removed, sitting on high, taking the pulse of a nation. And George Carlin’s legend was cemented from the seventies to the nineties. Frank’s legend was cemented over and over again, from the forties to the sixties. Then again, we don’t reevaluate Sinatra based on his final tours. Maybe his health was affecting his talent. I must say, in the recent one, George was a bit off his game.
I’d like to agree with this, if you’re sui generis, if you’re making a difference, can you play any role but yourself? The obituaries are saying it was his choice.
#WALMART GEORGE CARLIN CDS TV#
They have vigils, TV reports, whenever they execute another inmate.įrom a distance, it looked like George couldn’t break through into TV or movies. God, that would generate ratings! Begging the question, would executives put ANYTHING on television if it delivered ratings? In the years since, Carlin seems a seer. Do I really need it? Is my identity really rolled up in my possessions?Īnd then there was the Friday night executions. As someone addicted to my stuff, I think of George’s words whenever I debate throwing something away. Baseball is a pastoral game…Īnd what about the routine about STUFF? Buying stuff, hoarding stuff, moving stuff. Isn’t that an interesting thought? An Earth without people? Instead of thinking about whether your kids will get cancer, think of human beings going the way of dinosaurs.Īnd, of course, the difference between football and baseball… Sudden death and extra innings. George said the planet’s been around for millions of years, it will survive. I think of Carlin’s routine every time I hear people pontificate about the environment. Carlin was much more than jokes, he actually inspired people to think, to question. A harmless gentleman, but that’s just the point… Dane’s about jokes. Cable TV killed live comedy and while everybody with a modicum of talent looked to star in, or write for, a sitcom, today’s generation was subjected to the inanities of Dane Cook. The only comedian doing this today is Chris Rock. Carlin was the first to look at our screwed up world and question it. I don’t want to hassle Jerry here, he admits it. Seinfeld’s observational comedy? That’s all derived from Carlin.
Quoted ad infinitum from his Little David records. Sure, he was about ten or fifteen years older than his new audience, but he was seen as one of them. When he exploded in the seventies it wasn’t news, but the preordained success of someone who worked hard, bucking the system to ultimately be successful in another system, that of youth culture. Playing second was Connecticut’s biggest local act, NAIF, the North Atlantic Invasion Force, but in the middle, on around nine, was the performance I truly remember. Actually, I saw Carmine Appice a couple of weeks back at the Kenny Chesney show. One of those five act extravaganzas like the one featuring the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, the Soul Survivors and…that I went to at Fairfield University the fall before. I can’t remember whether it was ’67 or ’68, but around seven o’clock on a Sunday evening, with school still in session, my parents dropped me off at Sacred Heart University for a concert. Once he gave up trying to please their parents and just said what he felt on the inside. George Carlin didn’t tell jokes, he specialized in the TRUTH! And one thing the baby boomers recognized was the truth. He didn’t depend on favors from singers, and he had a gold-selling record career. Oh, the Borscht Belt comedians preceded him, but George wasn’t a member of that club, hell, he wasn’t even Jewish.
You get an agent to book the gig, you drive to the venue from your house, you do your show and you take ALL THE MONEY! As I watched him stride the stage with his mic, I thought what a great job this was. The last time I saw George Carlin was at the Universal Amphitheatre.
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