Comedy Stars As Classic Rock Stars.

 With an excellent HBO documentary on George Carlin, George Carlin's American Dream, out now, I thought it would be a good idea to look back at a paragraph I wrote the day after George Carlin died which was 6/22/08.  I haven't changed a word of this write-up.  Comedy stars as Classic Rock stars.

  They were Rock stars and are now our version of Classic Rock. Those 70's comedians that not only sold out concerts but sold records. They went Top 20, they went Gold, they even had hit singles. This was the era of Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Cheech & Chong and George Carlin. Carlin's heart finally gave out at age 71, but the boundaries he pushed in his early 70's material was like a band or singer pushing the boundaries that we now revel in. There was a time when comedy records occupied a place on the upper reaches of the album chart. You don't get that anymore. The comedy albums made now barely make a blip sales wise, if they are even released at all. But that was our Classic Rock era-the 70's. And George Carlin was one of our favorite Classic Rock artists.