Richard Pryor, Richard Pryor’s Greatest Hits (1977)
Some things can be good – or great – without you necessarily wanting to engage with them all that often. I collect Richard Pryor records. I don’t collect Richard Pryor films. But I have all his audio recordings. I’ve seen most of his films and all of his stand-up specials and his TV shows and I’ll trawl the YouTube hub now and then for bits and pieces and obscurities – the appearances at Roasts, etc. I read his (sad) autobiography. But I almost never listen to this album – I doubt I could these days. Some comedy works, some almost manages to not even date, some is possibly most remarkable because of how brutal it has become due to its datedness/dating. And then there is some comedy that’s just not meant to be listened to anymore, not if you’d been through it – worked through it, grown up with it, or grown with it at least (maybe groaned with it too sometimes). And this is an example for me. I’ll probably never accurately/adequately explain why I could never do away with this record (particularly since I no longer play it). But I do at least know that I’ll never do away with this record. (And that it’s unlikely I’ll ever play it right through ever again).

Sample Track: Mudbone – Little Feets

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown