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FM & AM ( 1972 )
Shoot / The Hair Piece / Sex in Commercials / Drugs / Birth Control / Son of Wino / Divorce Game / Ed Sullivan Self Taught / Let’s Make a Deal / The 11 O’Clock News “I got fired last year in Las Vegas, from the Frontier Hotel, for saying “shit” in a town where the big game is called “crap.” ” Carlin’s opening line immediately reveals some of the essential themes of his 70’s work: language, censorship, and his own life. Of all the major American stand-up comedians of the past 30 years (Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Steve Martin, etc), none has been as linguistically-oriented as Carlin, a direction which was used in many forms: by providing countless routines on differences in registers (the hilarious parody of radio DJ’s “Son of Wino,” and his Ed Sullivan-impression are some famous examples), the origin of words, the ambiguity of words/double standards, even the sound of words (“Shit’s a nice word…it’s a friendly, happy…you know…kind of word, handy word…middle class’s never been into shit,” a terrain he’d further explore on his legendary third album, Class Clown). With a knack for finding anomalies, Carlin keeps finding those little habits we’re usually unaware of (and take for granted), dissects them, and shoves them under our noses. Linked to this is of course also the censorship-theme, as Carlin really was fired for using the word “shit” (and “ass”) in Las Vegas (and would get a kick of endlessly repeating those words during his shows, claiming they sounded “nice”). |
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| The title of the album was also deliberately chosen to point out Carlin’s change of direction: (from the liner notes) “I wanted the audience who had heard the first album [Take-Offs and Put-Ons, released in 1967] to know that this was a real transition, so I called the album FM & AM, instead of AM & FM, which is the way those things are always said. FM was where I was heading, because that represented freedom and independence.” Therefore, the more outspoken material is on the first (FM) side of the album, focusing on “Shoot” (“Shit with two o’s”), his own changed image from conventional jokester to counterculture spokesperson (the delightfully rhyming “The Hair Piece”), drug use, and sex in commercials (“A train going into a tunnel, man, you don’t have to Fellini to figure that out”). The AM-side contains less controversial material that gives an idea of his earlier routines, most of which are harmless and quite outdated (but funny) parodies on radio shows, talk shows, news broadcasts (“Paediatrician dies of childhood disease”), etc. FM & AM is a far cry from Carlin’s 90’s shows, which are much more biting (read “venomous”) and socio-critical (read “semi-misanthropic”), but it’s a terrific and funny album, that shows one of the giants of stand-up comedy finding his own niche in mainstream acceptance by introducing themes that weren’t as yet accepted, or even introduced (unless by another innovator called Richard Pryor). The album was awarded a Grammy for “Comedy Album of the Year.” |
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