Friday Night Record Party : Cheech & Chong: Various Albums

Cheech & Chong: Big Bambu

1972

Ode Records/Warner Bros. Records / WEA

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Sister Mary Elephant 2. Ralph And Herbie 3. Streets Of New York Or Los Angeles Or San Francisco Or... 4. Rebuttal: Speaker Ashley Roachclip 5. The Continuing Adventures Of Pedro De Pacas And Man 6. The Bust 7. Television Medley a) Tortured Old Man b) Empire Hancock c) Let's Make A Dope Deal d) Unamerican Bandstand

Warning: I wrote this post in about 5 minutes (as opposed to the usual 10 minutes I usually allot myself) and didn't particularly have the time to edit it...So if it reads like shit, just convince yourself it's good or something...

(Boy, am I a straight...I have no idea what any of that stuff on that "High Times" cover means...)

Anyway, I love comedy albums and I have a lot of them...Whenever you go to a record store there's usually tons of 'em and they're always dirt cheap and usually in excellent shape. Thing is, I find them somewhat difficult to discuss...I mean, what am I supposed to do? Type out the jokes? Spoil the punchlines for you?

But the whole concept behind the Friday Night Record Party was to listen to my entire physical record collection in alphabetical order, so I'm not going to make any exceptions...I decided to tackle these the same way I did the various Beatles Greatest Hits Collections I own, and make one big post out of them...

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved Cheech & Chong...I didn't know much about Marijuana back then...From what I could gather it was something you smoked that made you really funny...And I probably got this impression from watching Cheech & Chong movies on TV...To this day I maintain that "Cheech & Chong's Next Movie" is one of the greatest films ever committed to celluloid...

But before the movies they put out a series of comedy records...If you're around my age and had an older sibling, it's pretty much a guarantee there was a Cheech and Chong record buried deep in their smoky bedroom, among the lava lamps and black light posters...

"Big Bambu" was the duo's second album, and the packaging is so conceptually great...

It's designed to look like a giant package of rolling papers with an actual humongous rolling paper included...

...So you can roll your own Cheech-sized spliff...

"Whoah! Quarter Pounder!"

The giant skins even makes their way into the "Television Medley" track...These is the type of thing you don't get in the MP3 age...I wonder if anybody ever actually used the papers...I think the fact that copies of the album that still have them intact are pretty scarce answers my question...

The "Pedro and Man" routine steals the show on the "Big Bambu"...These are the hapless stoner characters that have become synonymous with Cheech and Chong and "The Continuing Adventures Of Pedro De Pacas And Man" plays like a little audio versions of their movies...In this installment Pedro's ride runs out of gas and they encounter a series of coloful characters (all performed by Cheech and Chong) in a vain attempt to get it rolling again...I could listen to this all day.. Hell, I essentuially did..

The "Television Medley" is also a masterstroke...It basically lets us sit in with Pedro and Man as they watch television... "The Tortured Old Man" section is a rough start but I'm always enthralled by the time they get to the "Let's Make a Dope Deal" game show...

You can check it out here...

Cheech and Chong: Los Cochinos

1973

Ode Records/ Warner Bros. Records/ WEA

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Sergeant Stadanko 2. Peter Rooter 3. Up His Nose 4. Pedro and Man at the Drive-In 5. The Strawberry Revival Festival 6. Don't Bug Me 7. Evelyn Woodhead Speed Reading Course 8. Les Morpions 9. Cheborneck 10. White World of Sports 11. Basketball Jones

"Los Cochinos" is their third album and probably the best one I own...This is where you find the famous "Basketball Jones" routine...Which was later made into a popular cartoon short that you can watch below...

This record was legendary on the schoolyard playgrounds as a kid...It seemed like every kid had the "Cheborneck" routine down pat...For all the big laughs on here I often find myself enjoying the smaller moments the best. I particularly love "The Strawberry Revival Festival" which consists of a couple of dope-heads simply arguing about mundane things (such as who spent the pop bottles, who ate the bologna, etc).

The album itself has a cool die-cut cover that looks like a car, and when you take off the outer sleeve...

...you can find their hidden stash of weed!

...you can find their hidden stash of weed! Wheee!

Cheech & Chong: Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album

1974

Ode Records/ Warner Bros. Records/ WEA

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Championship Wrestling 2. The Other Tapes 3. Testimonial by R. Zimmerman 4. Hey Margaret 5. Earache My Eye (featuring Alice Bowie) 6. Wake Up America 7. Black Lassie (A Great American Dog) 8. Wake Up America (Conclusion) 9. The Baby Sitters featuring Pedro & Man 10. The Three Little Pigs 11. Coming Attractions

For some reason I've always been under the impression that this was a parody of John Lennon's "Wedding Album," and its elaborate packaging...

...but it might just be a coincidence...

I love this album art...It has such a grimy, greasy 70's feel that never fails to make me queasy for some reason...My copy also appears to have a big brown stain that appears to be spilled bong water...At least I hope it's bong-water!

"The Wedding Album" gets off to a slow start (the opening wrestling skit being the worst moment) but a few tracks in and they're on a roll... "Hey Margaret" is particularly hilarious...It revolves around Chong watching a porno with his old lady...It doesn't sound like much of a concept, but Tommy Chong really sells this with his performance...Listen for yourself...

This is the album where you'll find the famous "Earache My Eye" song...What a great riff! Forget comedy! This is a great heavy metal song, period! I wish I could convey to you how many teenage hours I spent spinning this song, and the following sketch where Chong argues with his dad probably got the biggest laughs from me today...So let's grab a bag of Funyuns...