Vinyl Word: Brother Dave Gardner

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 12th, 2004


Brother Dave Gardner
Ain’t That Weird?
(RCA Victor LSP-2335)

It’s the return of The Vinyl Word! One of our favorite features of the old Like We Care Page was The Vinyl Word, where we would run a vivid color image of a smashing LP cover and, through the liner notes and other info, we’d offer a glimpse into the life of a comedy performer from days gone by or maybe get a slice of standup history!

RCA LSP-2335 is “Ain’t That Weird?” by Brother Dave Gardner, recorded live at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium in Ft. Worth, TX. The album is Copyright 1961 and I dig Brother Dave’s threads! He kinda reminds me of Lord Carrett just a bit. Apparently, this is Brother Dave’s third LP and we just love the liner notes by Joe R. Mills, identified as “Television Editor, The Columbus Post Dispatch.”

In my humble opinion Brother Dave is unique among contemporary entertainers. In an era of comedy when practitioners of the art stand up, stand still and complain, Brother Dave’s spirit is glad.

Brother Dave is a contradiction to the eye as well as to the spirit. He comes on with a High Society front of dazzling and special flair. He is a diamond stickpin in the drab cravat of modern entertainment. Standing before his followers he is a picture of an elegant yesterday. Yet when he talks he talks out beyond tomorrow.

Hmmm… Perhaps Mr. Mills coulda used a couple more commas here or there, but you get the idea!

In spite of the fact that Brother Dave is smoking a cigarette in the pics on the front cover, we gather that he’s a Christian comic. (Tobacco was only demonized by the hardest of hard core Christians back then, well-funded mainstream HealthNazis and the Surgeon General were just waking up to the dangers!) A little further down in the liner notes, Brother Dave himself gushes about college crowds:

When I’m doing a concert to the young, fresh, alert minds of our future leaders, I find it difficult to end a show. I don’t have to stop, slow down or explain. Wherever I go in the regions of the mind, I find that they are right with me, and this confirms my opinion that the mind is beautiful, and when we meet on that plane we all swing.

Hmmm… maybe that’s not just a cigarette! (We hope that Joe Mills won’t mind if we borrow that “diamond stickpin in the drab cravat of modern entertainment” for our own press release!)

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