Like his comedic predecessor Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor’s recordings are difficult to listen to these days with the knowledge of his disastrous later years in life. At the time of these recordings which bookend his career, Pryor was considered the anti-Cosby, reflecting a new attitude that was hipper, rougher and in your face aggressive, slightly watered down later on when he became the star of a TV show. These two albums, released in 1968 and 1994 respectively, are like Nike missiles of the comedic counter culture.
Neither one has aged well. The two disc debut includes 21 bonus “tracks” but all of the routines come across as bawdy improvs. What seemed cool and “progressive” feels like a pair of wide whale cords with a white belt on the first album, with the last one having Pryor essentially rant on various topics that may may have seemed “cutting edge” back then, but cause a lot of wincing now. Like most 70s movies, it has not aged well, not nearly as well as Cosby, in spite of the baggage.