In
addition to my vinyl LP record collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes as well. This is an entry about one of
them that is for sale on eBay (see link below). Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.
~ ~ ~
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
41 years ago today, on November 6, 1973, Murray Roman was killed in a car crash. I hear you asking, "Who in the hell is Murray Roman?"
Murray Roman was an American stand-up comedian born on March 8, 1929. His style and material was considered to be similar to
Lenny Bruce. Roman was also a writer on the
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
and, as part of the Comedy Hour writing team, won an Emmy for his work
in 1969. His most noted sketch was "The Honey House," which mocked the
syrupy 1968 hit song
Honey, by
Bobby Goldsboro.
The skit featured a tour of the house where Honey (the fictional subject of the song) had lived
and died, conducted with suitable melodrama by her husband, played first
by Tom Smothers and then by Dick.
Bob Einstein and Murray would occasionally write sketches together.
Tommy Smothers recalls, "He [Roman]
didn't write so well - he talked his writing. I hired him as a writer
on the show [because] good comedians were always pretty good writers ...
and he was a pretty good writer. Most of his gift was sitting in the
writer meetings and throwing one-liners out against the material. That's
how he'd find his stuff ... but the reason I hired him was because of
that album."
A Blind Man's Movie
Out of Control was Roman's first comedy album;
A Blind Man's Movie was his second. The
vinyl LP record format (
remember that?) of
A Blind Man's Movie
is remembered for its avant-garde design meant to demonstrate the look
of “a blind man’s movie. ” The front and back covers are completely
blank – covered in black, as is the album’s
gatefold. Of course, they could not do that for the boxed
reel-to-reel tape version.
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
Murray Roman on TV
Roman made one appearance on "
The Tonight Show" with
Johnny Carson. He had a role on a 1966 episode of
Batman which was known for its
upbeat theme music, composed by
Neal Hefti,
and camp moral lessons which included championing the importance of
using seat belts, doing homework, eating vegetables and drinking milk.
Kind of incongruous considering the risqué tone of his monologues. He
appeared in the season two episodes "Hizzonner the Penguin" and
"Dizzoner the Penguin" on November 2 and 3, 1966, in a story that
revolved around The Penguin running for mayor of Gotham City. Roman
played a Penguin minion named E.G. Trendek. The episode also had
Paul Revere and The Raiders playing at a "Penguin for Mayor" rally.
Roman had small television roles for about two years.
Batman was followed by a part on
ABC Stage 67 (broadcasting in the autumn of 1966). The
Emmy Award
winning series had a different format each week - sometimes as a
variety show, sometimes a teleplay, occasionally a talk show. This
particular episode featured a drama called "On the Flip Side" written by
Robert Emmett, a former writer for the satirical "That Was the Week
That Was" (
see link below). It featured Roman
as a hippie named Hairy Eddy Hopkin. He acted alongside Ricky Nelson and
the program had a score by Burt Bacharach. The year finished up with
Roman taping an episode of "That Girl" in which he played a bowling alley
manager. He was on
The Rat Patrol, on March 4, 1968, and the Fairytale episode of the
The Monkees show on January 8 of 1968.
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
The album was produced by David Briggs & Murray Roman
Produced by David Briggs & Murray Roman
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
ok, the contents (note I don't say music)
As with his first album,
Movie is a fusion (
or collision) of music, stand up comedy and weird effects; there are snippets of music mixed with the
monologues. There is a version of the song,
Shake,
by
Otis Redding and a song by
The Chambers Brothers. To
hear what his shtick was all about there are links, at the bottom, to some
of the tracks from
Blind Man's Movie on YouTube.
Murray Roman ~
A Blind Man's Movie
Tracklist:
Side 1:
A1 Chicks
A2 Snow White
A3 The War
A4 Ralph
A5 Transplants
A6 Cuba
A7 Black People
Side 2:
B1 Black Sambo Pancakes
B2 Strip Bust
B3 Fuzz
B4 Theology
Label: Tetragrammaton Records – X 120
Format:
reel-to-reel tape
Country: US
Released: Jume 1969
Genre: Non-Music
Style: Comedy
Murray Roman Discography:
Out of Control
You Can't Beat People Up And Have Them Say I Love You
A Blind Man's Movie
Busted
Backtrack 13 (You Can't Beat People Up And Have Them Say I Love You)
A Blind Man's Movie on YouTube:
Murray Roman ~ A Blind Man's Movie, reel-to-reel tape is for sale on eBay
other reel-to-reel tapes on eBay
