American history doesn't get any funnier than this this album.
Posted on 11/27/2011 6:12:01 PM PST by EveningStar
Stan Freberg is a pop culture icon, and that is not an overstatement. For 67 of his 85 years, he has entertained us with radio shows, TV puppets, satirical commercials, animation voiceovers, hit records and an album musical, "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume One."
Freberg shows no signs of slowing down.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
“Hey, I’m da fire breathing dragon! I see ya got one of dem new forty-five caliber swords.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Ha, ha, ha, you slay me!”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
- “Sir George and the Dragonet”
Go to the corner of 4th and caterpillar and step on it!
Love his “Great Pretender.” (”You play that cling-cling-cling jazz — or you don’t get PAID tonight!” *cling cling cling cling cling*)
Here at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yGjRKsVMcw
Remember Stan?
One of my childhood heroes from “Time for Beany” on KTLA in Los Angeles in the fifties.
American history doesn't get any funnier than this this album.
Great chops, great pipes, etc.
(with Latin accent)
I turn on Elvis Presley and my daughter screams
I fear she have a nervous breakdown cause of heem
I wonder as he weegle waggle to dey beat
As a boy he must have had a loose bicycle seat
Oh, tel-ay-vee-shun, tel-ay-vee-shun (I’m sick of eet)
Tel-ay-vee-shun, tel-ay-vee-shun...
Face the Funnies: One of the funniest albums ever made.
http://www.allmusic.com/album/face-the-funnies-r234453
God bless him! Last year he and his wife were at Comicon. Even though she encouraged me to talk with him, I was (for once) speechless! His shows are frequently on Sirius Radio Classics — including one last week where he was an advertising exec who turned into a werewolf at night.
I used to receive his “When Radio Was” (I think that was the name of his golden-age of radio show) over the actual radio airwaves when I lived in Seattle.
I really miss that show and wish I could receive it now in PA. It was a great mix of old radio.
His late-era radio show (from around 1957, I believe) was short-lived, but incredibly funny. I’m someone who almost NEVER laughs out loud, but there were a number of skits in that radio series that just made me convulse in laughter. I had the shows on cassette tapes, and listened to them when I was in high-school. They were re-issued on cd’s a few years back.
To add... I recall one skit which was a parody of sorts of “Twelve O’Clock High,” the well-known film about the pressure and tensions of bomber-pilots in WW2, always wondering whether they’d make it back to base alive and such. However, Freberg’s skit was not about pilots, but instead Good Humor Men, and their frayed nerves and tensions, before embarking on one of their runs, selling popsicles to neighborhood kids. Hilarious satire.
I was working in radio when volume one was released. It was considered so subversive that when our night jock played it for a few times a bunch of angry “patriots” showed up at the studio, and the police had to escort him out after his shift. Lots of folks took offense at Stan “making fun of American history”, and Stan is a liberal, but I always thought the premise of the album, namely “what would have happened if the founding fathers had today’s attitudes” fit pretty well with conservative principles.
His 1957 radio show included some sketches, like “Elderly Man River” that can be applied to today’s P.C., sensible shoes lobby.
And, Green Christmas would warm the heart of most conservative Christians.
That’s good to know. I honestly think working and having fun keeps you alive and vigorous in your old age.
The ‘57 show was a CBS summer replacement that started out fully sponsored, but ended up unsponsored by the end of summer. Funny thing was, in coming years, many advertisers would sign a contract that gave Stan complete creative control if he’d produce a commercial for them. He’d produce the spot, hand it in, and their sole choice was whether to air it or not. For anybody who’s ever had to work with a room full of ad agency people, that’s a pleasant fantasy.
Stan did his Pittsburgh Paint commercial at Television City in Hollywood. When I worked there years later, the guys still talked about him. He’d book a studio early in the evening, the crew would assemble, then he’d phone in, say his muse still hadn’t spoken up, and tell the crew to come back in a few hours. Finally, early in the a.m., they’d get something done. Lots of OT, the crew loved him.
I think I’d be speechless too. He’s one of my idols.
Speaking of ads, one his campaigns that didn’t work out so well was for a west coast commuter airline called Pacific Airlines (not to be confused with PSA). Stan decided to try to appeal to a new customer base, those with a fear of flying. His display ad had a headline that read, “Hey There, You With the Sweat in Your Palms”. The ad ran, and the phones stopped ringing. Turns out, nobody wants to fly with an airline that thinks the possibility of crashing is funny. Who knew?
Love his “Great Pretender.”
___________________________
Great skit!
“It was terrible. He breathed fire on me. He boined me awready!”
Green Chri$tma$ is also great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSPGJ5-XAcM Here are some of my fave lines:
CRATCHET: Well, I was just going to send cards out showing the three wise men following the Star of Bethlehem.
SCROOGE: I get it! And they’re bearing your spices! Now that’s perfect!
CRATCHET: No, no... no product in it. I was just going to say, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men. Period!”
VOICES: MUMBLING IN BACKGROUND
MAN: Well, that’s a peculiar slogan!
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