By: D. Ribel "Die Hard Steeler"

D. Ribel "Die Hard Steeler" — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:42:10 +0000

Be Careful 0

By: R. Collins

R. Collins — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:13:20 +0000

A breakdown re: the differences between “No Pryor Restraint” and previous Pryor collections I am the co-producer of “No Pryor Restraint: Life In Concert.” I also co-produced the previous Pryor sets, “…And It’s Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968-1992)” (2000), “The Anthology (1968-1992)” (2002), and “Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974)” (2005).The first Pryor box, “…And It’s Deep Too!,” has been out of print for several years. About two years ago, Shout! Factory asked me to co-produce another Pryor box to fill the void. At that point, the only thing that had been decided upon was that the new box would include all three concert films on DVD. (“…And It’s Deep Too!” was devoid of video content altogether.) The biggest challenge for me was to include enough quality “new” material to entice someone who’d already bought the first box to fork over for the new one. I also set out to avoid plundering “…And It’s Deep Too!” too badly because I didn’t want those who own it to feel that they wasted their money the first time around if they purchased the new box. And then we considered those who completely missed out on “…And It’s Deep Too!,” so we sought out to make “No Pryor Restraint” a more than worthy substitute.So here’s what we did… Recordings from all of Pryor’s Warner Bros. albums are represented on this package, most of them very liberally, along with the best of the previously unreleased material that first appeared on “…And It’s Deep Too!” In addition to that, much of the early material that was included on the 2-CD follow-up, “Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974),” appears here as well. (“…And It’s Deep Too!” and “Evolution/Revolution” only have one track in common. The former covers his Warner Bros. recordings only. The latter includes many routines that made their way on various albums released by the Laff label, including the “Craps (After Hours)” album in its entirety, plus a large quantity of unreleased material from that period. So “No Pryor Restraint” combines lots of “…And It’s Deep Too!” and “Evolution/Revolution” tracks in one package for the first time, thereby painting a more complete picture of Pryor’s stand-up career.) On top of that, “No Pryor Restraint” itself includes almost two hours’ worth of previously unreleased audio recordings. (I literally auditioned about 120 hours’ worth of recordings from Pryor’s personal archives, and honed it down to the best and most interesting 120 minutes. That’s considerably more previously unreleased material than was included on “…And It’s Deep Too!”) Lastly, it features the previously mentioned concert films–”Live In Concert,” “Live On The Sunset Strip,” and “Here And Now”–on DVD. Add to that the deluxe packaging, which includes a 60-page book of liner notes, rare photos, etc.Doing the math, there is nearly four hours’ worth of audio material–half of which is previously unreleased–that is on this set, but is NOT on “…And It’s Deep Too!,” plus three concert films on DVD. There is also about three hours’ worth of material that appears on “…And It’s Deep, Too!” that is not replicated here, audio-wise (though some of the missing audio bits that appeared on the previous box pop up in different performances on the new set’s concert DVDs). Also consider the fact that, even though “…And It’s Deep Too!” had nine CDs, and “No Pryor Restraint” “only” has seven, the total playing time of the audio discs in the new box is about one hour longer than that of its predecessor. That’s because most of the CDs in the first box were less than 45 minutes long each, and most of the CDs in the new box are at least 70 minutes each.One more thing… Most of the previously unreleased material that was included on “…And It’s Deep Too!” was relegated to its own disc. (We didn’t want to mess with the integrity of Pryor’s original albums, which were featured in their entirety.) On “No Pryor Restraint,” which is an in-depth compilation as opposed to a collection of albums, we decided to take more liberties, and chronologically intersperse the theretofore unreleased material from “…And It’s Deep Too!” and “Evolution/Revolution,” plus the “new” “No Pryor Restraint” material, with the official master recordings that were released back in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. That way, the listener can clearly hear Pryor’s comedy evolve in a linear fashion, and it’s a fascinating journey. That also meant that the standard I set for the “new” material was very high. Taken together, it’s a much different and more revealing listen than the first box, despite the unavoidable overlap in material.At the end, I had leftover scraps from lots of different gigs of Pryor ad libbing and dealing with hecklers. None of it would aesthetically fit within the other “new” bits, so, instead of them winding up on the cutting room floor, I thought that it would be a good idea to create a montage of the funnier, more interesting moments as a bonus track.I’m also…

Comments on: No Pryor Restraint: Life In Concert (7 CD/ 2DVD)

By: D. Ribel "Die Hard Steeler"

By: R. Collins