Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years

Before he was doubling over audience members with profanity-laced sketches and stories, thus igniting a comic revolution, Richard Pryor was a young joke man struggling with his identity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Pryor transformed himself from a nonthreatening, middlebrow comic to a controversial, X-rated sensation, and in turn forever transformed the landscape of comedy in the process. For the first time, those contrasting worlds have been brought together on Evolution/Revolution: Early Years (1966-1974), a 2-CD set chronicling the groundbreaking metamorphosis that predated Pryor's 1974 breakthrough album, That Nigger's Crazy.

Richard Pryor was many things to many people: a bigot, a troublemaker, and drug abuser. He was also the most influential comedian of the latter half of the 20th century. This marvelously compiled 2-CD, 65-track compilation contains selections from his self-titled debut LP, the obscure Craps, and previously unreleased live dates. This collection captures his metamorphosis from a conventional comic to the artist we know today. On the first disc, when you hear tracks like "Peoria," "Improv, Pt. 1" and "Playboy Club," he sounds more like Bill Cosby. But the second disc tracks like "Wattstax Monologue," "Whorehouse, Pts. 1-2," and the brilliant "Wino & Junkie," feature his insightful, profanity-based humor, which truly reflected his ghetto upbringing and the racial climate of the 1960s. His monologue on "Black Films," where he imitates jazz drummer Tony Williams's rhythms, brilliantly highlights his incredible improvisational skills unmatched by anyone today. --Eugene Holley, Jr.