Favorite album – Day 3 – 30 Day Smothers Brothers Challenge

There were a total of 12 albums released. During the 60’s, 11. Years later, in 1988, a “Best Of”. And all of them I love to bits. But which one is my favorite?

There’s two.

Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers

This one which is pretty much like it sounds: a compilation of routines from their albums that are tops. I got the cassette version as a birthday present from a family friend. I don’t remember any other birthday presents I got that year.

It was also my first foray into hearing them. I listened to that a lot. Brought it with me a few months later when I had jaw surgery. Since my whole head was wrapped up in bandages and my eyes swollen, watching tv was out of the question, so I brought things to listen to, this album being one of them. My jaw was also tightly rubber-banded shut to hold things in place, and I couldn’t laugh the regular way. When I wanted to laugh, all that energy had to go somewhere and I convulsed with laughter which shook the hospital bed, and I made weird sounds since I couldn’t move my head. The nurses probably wondered if I was ok 😂.

This is the tracklist of what’s on the cassette version:

• Tom Dooley
• Chocolate
• Laredo
• The Saga Of John Henry
• Gnus
• Crabs Walk Sideways
• Mediocre Fred
• Mom Always Liked You Best
• You Can Call Me Stupid
• Jenny Brown
• The Military Lovers
• I Talk To The Trees
• Hangman
• Michael, Row The Boat Ashore

I later saw my local library had the CD version which had more routines on it. Needless to say, I checked that out several times until I bought my own copy.

And then at some point I bought the vinyl version. Because that’s the kind of fan I am 🤓

I definitely would recommend this album if you are a new fan.

But it’s easy to say a “Best of” album as a favorite.

The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion

That summer of 1989 I was home recovering from jaw surgery, and my mom mentions that she thinks she has a Smothers Brothers record somewhere.

“Really?!? WHERE?!?”

“Oh, it’s somewhere in the steam trunk”

Although I had my own records when I was little (Sesame Street, Disney, Beach Boys, Elton John), I don’t remember my parents listening to their records. I remember listening to their 8-tracks many many times, and my own. But in ’89 I went through their record collection (Sgt Pepper! Including the sheet of cut-outs!), and lo-and-behold I found the Purple Onion album.

It was a good thing I didn’t know about mom having this record when I was little, because otherwise it would have gone the way of my own records… which is probably why they weren’t brought out often! 😂

Below, my daughter listening to the album on our (then) brand new record player. I am hoping to get a better player later on, because the one I have is 😒.

I love this album, partly for sentimental reasons, but also because it has great balance of routines and songs. One of them, “They Call The Wind Maria”, is my favorite song they sing straight (2nd half of track 4). It has a comedic intro, but once they start singing, they sing it straight.

“Down in the Valley” is also performed straight (again, right after a comedic intro, but this time it’s how people come up to them and question whether or not they are really brothers and if their real name is Smothers 🤣).

And from this album I heard about the famous folk song “Tom Dooley” (track 7) that I had previously never heard of. It was the only routine that I was familiar with, it being the first track from the “The Best of” album. I loved Tom’s intro saying that another group (that I had equally hadn’t heard of – The Kingston Trio) had stolen the song from his brother. I started to listen to the Trio because of this.

Sidenote – Tom Dooley was based on a real person who (according to legend) was innocently hung for the death of his lover. You can begin you rabbit hole journey of the song here, here, and here.

In reality, Tom and Dick would often credit The Kingston Trio for opening the doors to their, and many others, popularity.

Back on track

Below is the playlist of the whole Purple Onion album:

The reasons why this is my favorite boils down to a great balance of straight singing and comedic routines, both done superbly.

A couple factoids I learned many years later from David Bianculli’s excellent 2009 book “Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” that

1. This was all the material they had at the time.
2. Dickie wasn’t established as the straight man yet.
3. Only the opening routine was recorded at the Purple Onion. Due to technical issues, the other recordings from that performance were scrapped . Most of the album was recorded at the Tidelands Club.

Afterthought – I should have put this part of the challenge after I went through all their albums. Oh well 🙃