Comedy Record Album Design Part 2 - The party record
“Party records were albums that people would play at night after the kids went to bed, records you weren’t supposed to have. They weren’t on the shelves at record stores. You would have to ask for them, then they would reach under the counter and put them in a paper bag. It was almost like you were doing a drug deal!”
Laff Records was the label that really cemented the party record genre in the 60s. Comedians recorded on this blue comedy label included: Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page – along with Pipe Layin Dan, Tina Dixon, Skillet & Leroy, and Richard & Willie (a ventriloquist who was described as "Pryor with a dummy"). George Carlin recorded his album, Killer Carlin, on Laff Records.
Integral to the success of the Party Record in the late 1960s was the influence of a mysterious x-rated band by the name of Snatch and the Poontangs, in fact made up of father and son musical legends, Johnny and Shuggie Otis. The release of the filthy folk law psychedelic rock record in 1969 ushered in the rediscovery of traditional african american story telling and jokes, which Rudy Ray Moore aka The Dolemite, would find great success with in the mid 1970s. The Johnny Otis band also promoted and appeared with acts such as Skillet & Leroy.
Party records helped to integrate the stand-up comedy scene. The label worked with black comics who were touring through the chitlin’ circuit. These comedians were ignored by larger record labels. Party records provided that these comedians were wildly popular.- that might otherwise slip through the cracks at a major label.
The album covers, shot mostly by Bud Fraker and Dominic Belmonte, often weren’t even visible. Like the display of pornography at the time, the records were sometimes sold wrapped in brown paper and the words: “For Adults Only.” Often, the covers had photos of topless women with the nipples covered with stickers which you peel off.
Meanwhile, the back cover had liner notes written in a brilliant carny barker style sales pitch; often written by Shelby Meadows Ashford, who was originally the record label's bookkeeper:
“A parade of clowns and jesters…so, like it or lump it, hate or hump it…your lights are gonna be blinking bright over this risqué disc…Blackfolk taught Whitefolk how to dance and then they taught Whitefolk to LAFF…spend another XXX filled evening with another XXX filled album.
