The album’s highlight is Carlin’s classic comparison between “Baseball and Football,” already a fan favorite at the time, considering the audience’s enthusiastic reaction to its mention. His mastery of language is on full display as he compares the pastoral, 19th century pastime with the technological, 20th century endeavor.
“Cars and Driving” is the largest track at 18 minutes, covering an assortment of different jokes that fit under the theme, from bumper stickers he’s created to the difficulty of driving someone else’s car as well as the observation that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. His bit on the fragility of radio knobs is dated, but listeners should remember that this album was previously released on one of those black and round wax discs called “vinyl.”
Not that it matters to the enjoyment of the material, but the track titles aren’t completely accurate. Carlin offers up “The Prayer” but then other related religious material spills into “First Leftfielders,” the first of four tracks identified as “leftfielders” that appear to be a catchall for unrelated material. Later, Carlin asks for “A Moment of Silence” for “43 retarded Bolivian senior citizens who lost their lives this morning in a roller coaster accident outside of La Paz, Bolivia.” He then talks about the awkwardness of those moments, which starts “Second Leftfielders.”
Carlin On Campus closes with “An Incomplete List of Impolite Words,” an expansion of the seven words you can never say on television to over five minutes of crudeness, an invaluable compendium for future linguists and teenagers before the Internet was able to catalog them. Nothing I could write would top it, so this review closes with it as well:
Article comments