• AllMyVinyl #154
• Band: George Carlin
• Album Title: Killer Carlin
• Release Date: ? 1981
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: MAYBE Record Cellar in Philadelphia
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Spotify ]

I have long stated that there’s three pillars of comedy that make up my sense of humor.  One of them is Monty Python.  A second is Weird Al Yankovic.  The third one is George Carlin.   I’m old enough to remember George Carlin on the first episode of Saturday Night Live way back in 1975 – that was the first time I heard him, and thought he was super funny (especially at an age I probably shouldn’t have been listening to Carlin).  However, I was young enough that I couldn’t afford to buy anything he put out, not that I’m sure my mom would have liked that at that age.  :)

However, I finally picked up my first Carlin album – that was 1981’s “A Place For My Stuff” (on cassette, which I still have in 2025).  It was funny as hell, and I loved it.  Right after that I went and bought this one on vinyl – “Killer Carlin”, as I was in a record store and saw it.   I thought “Cool!  Liked that last one, I’ll like this”.  That was my entire thought process.  If you look at my picture of the vinyl I got way back then..  I paid just $2.99 for it.  However, had I had the tools then that I have now, I probably wouldn’t have bought this, because it’s not a standard George Carlin album.

You see this is a re-release of an album that was released a long time ago.  It was originally recorded way back in 1960.  It was George Carlin, but 60’s Carlin is nothing like the Carlin of the 70’s and later on.  It also was recorded with George’s comedy partner at the time, Jack Burns. Even then it had a weird time – it wasn’t released until 1963, and bore the title “Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight”.  The title was funny, because it wasn’t recorded there, it was recorded at a club in Hollywood.  But Burns and Carlin had broken up as a partnership.  My research shows that the album’s rights reverted to Carlin to release as a “George Carlin” album, which as I understand it is why I have what I have.

But before we get to “Killer Carlin”, the album was re-released once in 1972 as “The Original George Carlin”, and then again in 1981 as “Killer Carlin” – that title comes from one of the tracks on the original album.  The 1981 Killer Carlin version was later re-released on CD in 1995 as well – so this material is well traveled. Speaking of tracks – each release has different track listings.  They’re rearranged, and some have different names, but since I only own the 1981 version, I can’t confirm if all the tracks on the prior release are the same material just with a different name, or is new material.  My guess is just renamed tracks, but I can’t prove that sitting here in 2025.  The Wikipedia link I have on this page details the various track listings if you’re curious.

Given this is a comedy album, I’m not bothering with track by track listings like I do with music albums.  That’s partially because comedy is a hard thing to write as to WHY something is funny.  What I find funny, you may not, so I’m not gonna bother with that.  Some of this is funny, most of it I actually find boring.   The entire thing is short, about 33 mins long – definitely borne of a different era.

It’s also one of just two Carlin albums I own on vinyl.  Nearly all of the other Carlin I own (and I have nearly all of it) is on cassette tape or CD.  But this one is an outlier, and one of the few things I own that I regret buying.  It’s not actively BAD, but it does not have the vibe of anything else he’s put out – even the other 60’s solo album of his I own – that one is more clean, but still feels like a “George Carlin album” – this one does not.

This is very old and VERY OOP (but I did find it on Spotify), and honestly I’m not surprised it’s not easily available. It might be the least enjoyable George Carlin recording I own.