''Richard Pryor'' is the debut album of comedian Richard Pryor. It was recorded live in 1968 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. Gary Burden, an American artist, designed the

album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...

which was nominated for

Best Album Cover The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer(s), unless the performer is also the art dire ...

at the

12th Annual Grammy Awards The 12th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 11, 1970. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1969. Award winners *Record of the Year **Bones Howe (producer) & The 5th Dimension for " Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" * Album o ...

Track listing

Album cover

Gary Burden, who designed the album cover, said Pryor wanted to do something "kind of rootsy" for the cover. Burden thought "roots" for Pryor would be some kind of tribal or African thing, so he got authentic African artifacts and weapons that fit the idea of a "tribal bushman.. Pryor said he knew of a cave right near his home in Beverly Hills that would be an ideal location for the shoot. Burden found charred sticks from a previous fire, and Pryor donned the necklace, belt, and the authentic brass nose ring, and posed with the bow and arrow for the cover. After seeing the photos, and how primitive Pryor looked in them, Burden thought they had the look of ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

''. Burden then enlisted his friend Rick Griffin to do artwork that resembled their magazine border, which made the cover look "totally real, like a cover of National Geographic." Burden said that as a result of the cover, he received two letters: "One was a letter from the National Geographic Society’s attorneys offering to sue me for defaming their publication. The second letter was a Grammy nomination for the best album cover." The album was later re-issued with a modified cover; the yellow border was intact, but the inner border of oak and olive leaves was replaced with the Statue of Liberty in what appears to be a lined ruler.

Review

In Scott Saul's book, ''Becoming Richard Pryor'', Saul opined that in 1968 when Pryor was performing at the Troubadour; "he invented a style that was as far-out as

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

and as defiant as

H. Rap Brown Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (born Hubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943), formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a civil rights activist, black separatist, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...

, and was catalyzed by the fusion of the two movements. On the one hand, the freewheeling ethic of the counterculture shaded Richard’s act with irony, making his more political moves seem provisional and subject to revision. On the other, the militancy of the Black Power movement sharpened his zaniness, giving it a point: his improvisations could cut you open with their poignancy or shock you with their bitterness."

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1968 debut albums 1968 live albums Reprise Records live albums 1960s comedy albums 1960s spoken word albums Live comedy albums Spoken word albums by American artists Albums recorded at the Troubadour Richard Pryor live albums Stand-up comedy albums