THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY LINER NOTES

Sir Richard Buckley, Lord of Flip Manor, Royal Holiness of the Far-Out and Prophet of the Hip. His original, hip, angry, beat comic style ushered the age of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, et al. His act was a performance of his brand of "religion" - the Church of the Living Swing.

Lord Buckley was a hipster before that term became overused. He performed sometimes in tails, sometimes in a sweater, often reciting Biblical stories in hip jargon and discussing various celebrities from Confucious to Christ, for Nero to Scrooge. He took his stage name, a self-dubbed knighthood because of his height and his regal bearing. Lord Buckley was a frequent guest on the "Ed Sullivan Show" during the '50s, imparting his messages to national audiences. There were many run-ins with the law, however, because of his penchant for rather strong (by the standards of the era) language in his club act and for spicing up his "service" with a pair of belly-dancers. Prior to his death at 54, in November 1969, Buckley had been credited with helping repeal New York's cabaret law requiring all entertainers to be fingerprinted.

His lordship's recording of Shakespeare-for-the-hip represents a distinctive brand of humor to round out this survey of comedy. The musicians backing Lord Buckley include jazz greats Milt Bernhardt on trombone, Ted Nash on tenor sax and Benny Carter on clarinet.

Alvin H. Marill