Monday, December 21, 2020

Lenny & Squiggy present Lenny and the Squigtones

(Casablanca, 1979) With David Lander's recent passing I just wanted to take the opportunity to note that this record is FUNNY AS F-word! Musical comedy rarely is good music or good comedy, and this is both.  Watching Laverne and Shirley showcased brief glimpses of the pure funniness of these two guys, but it had to adhere to the sitcom writers' needs, so to hear them in character have space to riff and craft jokes and mouth off at a heckler and be longform hilarious is wonderful. Lander and Michael McKean  developed chemistry with their longstanding comedy group The Credibility Gap (which also featured Harry Shearer, so it's surprising that the Squigtones feature Nigel Tufnel in the band and not the other Tap-per), and in the era of comedians as rock stars this just made sense, and shoulda been a bigger hit. The most memorable song is "Night After Night," an anti-monogamy ode which they did on the show  (and which opens with Lander's legendary, "This song is called 'Night After Night,' and it's about two nights in a row").But the funniest thing on here is "Squiggy's Wedding Day," a 50s parody with a manic Squiggy rattling off his celebrity guest list, with Lenny's feelings hurt because he is not on it ("you're teed off because I didn't invite you to  a song?"). Comedy gold! If only there was a Dr. Demento in the imaginary 50s!

No comments:

Post a Comment