Live: San Francisco 1966

AMG Review of Live: San Francisco 1966

Al Campbell
All Music Guide

This is the soundtrack to director John Magnuson's 1966 film that captured Lenny Bruce in his penultimate appearance at San Francisco's Basin Street West. An equally fascinating and depressing document, this is a rare look at Bruce as an artist persecuted for his logical approach concerning law enforcement, race, sex, and, especially, religion. In the age of ADD where most "comedy discs" have 20 tracks, the bits are under two minutes, and derivative commentary with clever titles like "The Worst Dentist I've Been To," "Car Alarms," and "Find the Smell" predominates, it's imperative to keep Lenny Bruce's material readily available as an antidote to the aforementioned. Both the DVD and CD are available on Koch.