Eddie Lawrence will always be best remembered for his hit 1956 comedy recording of "The Old Philosopher" and perhaps its many follow-ups. ("...Is that what's bothering you, bunkie?")
In his long career, Lawrence was a Borsht Belt comic, an actor on stage, screen and television, a comedy writer, lyricist, and director.
In the early 1960's he hosted a TV kiddie show in New York, and also provided the voices in several cartoons for Paramount's Famous Studios - - some of which were based on material from his comedy LPs.
He recorded at least seven albums between the mid-fifties and the late-sixties, all of which contained 'Old Philosopher' tracks, as well as many other lunatic monologues and rapid-fire characterizations.
Decades later, he released 'The Jazzy Old Philosopher' in 1994, at the age of 75. It's a CD that came seemingly out of the blue, and other than a few updated cultural references it adheres completely to the form established on his earlier albums. For all I know, he's still lurking out there with more surprises. (keep a good thought)
The pearls from his old LPs that I keep coming back to are his routines of 'The Visitor', which for me conjures up perhaps the image of a brief and precious audience with a beat guru in a smoky coffeehouse.
"More maxims, Max!"
"Adages! Adages!"
For your listening pleasure and further eddie-fication , here's the 'visitor' tracks from two of his late-1950's LPs on the Coral label, plus another favorite.
From 'The Kingdom of Eddie Lawrence'...
Listen to: Eddie Lawrence - The Visitor (click for audio)
Listen to: Eddie Lawrence - The Hi-Fi Blues (click for audio)
...And from 'The (side)Split(ting) Personality of Eddie Lawrence'...
Listen to: Eddie Lawrence - Visitor From Inner Space (click for audio)
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