The World According to Richard Pryor

A couple years ago for the winter holidays, Anne and I sent out cards with silkscreened images of Richard Pryor's face (that you see on the left) with a note on the inside from his Mudbone personna-"Splash a little sunshine on your face!" Not sure how well those cards went over but we liked to imagine them decorating hearths, next to pretty seasonal cards with reindeer and fireplaces and trees and whatnot. We actually used the same image as a decoration for our wedding last year (in 2004, that is). Mr. Pryor passed away this year after a long battle with MS (he joked about this too!) We were sad to hear it, but happy he had graced us with his comedy for a couple decades. As my first posting on this blog, I am putting up twoRP track. The first is the brilliant closing track from his album Bicentennial Ni**er. The second is in the famous Mudbone persona (maybe all those cards will make sense now!) There are so many tracks to choose from but I think these tracks demonstrate well the way that Pryor turned pain (both personal and racial) into the most thoughtful and thought-provoking comedy. Enjoy!