Could This Be A Generation Gap?

The Minx “Something We Got” – Of all the obscure music that I’ve ever heard, this ranks among the songs which I feel have been most unjustly neglected. It just seems tremendously unfair to the world at large that a song as joyous and incredibly funky as this could become so rare and mostly forgotten. To the best of my knowledge, this was released as a 45 rpm single on Mercury in 1972, and has been out of print ever since. If you know more about the Minx, or can help me find more of their music, please let me know!

Neil Hamburger – Live In San Francisco, 9/18/2000 – Unlike his official albums, this comedy set by Neil Hamburger was recorded live with a real, non-canned audience. It is sort of interesting to hear how Hamburger goes down with an audience who seem to be mostly in on the joke. At least one layer of irony is removed, but is replaced with witless drunken heckling. It’s not as funny as the records, but it is certainly worth listening to if you’re a fan. In this show, Neil is mixing in old classic routines from his older records with some newer material that would end up on his most recent album, Laugh Out Lord, including the world’s most tasteless and disturbing Julia Roberts joke.

I don’t want to spoil that Julia Roberts joke for you, but I do think that it epitomizes Hamburger’s shtick better than anything else in his discography. The joke is poorly constructed, cruel, senselessly crude, and motivated by nothing more than a desperate desire to be “current” and “edgy” at the expense of his own dignity. The joke itself is not funny, but the idea that a man would tell the joke is hilarious, in a sad sort of way – the implication being that on some deep, dark, level of his psyche, the premise of the joke is something that he has imagined, perhaps even fantasized about. It’s an uncomfortable glimpse into the mind of a truly warped character. (Click here to buy Laugh Out Lord from Amazon.)