Comments on: Remembering Richard

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:41:10 +0000

Echo boomers may never understand, there was no boomer onus on hard dope in the decade across the end of the 60s and the front of the 70s. In fact, if you were–like Richard–a zeitgeist antenna, you HAD to dig into it–there was no other way to understand what the smartest and most lively people you knew were into. It took some years of watching friends screw up real, real, badly, to get the message that the shit was bad news. And then of course if you were one of those predisposed to it, none of the bad news mattered in the slightest–nothing mattered but the Jones. If it started to cost your job, your spouse, or all your money, you could drag yourself clean. But if you were not restricted by things that you just could not let yourself lose–somebody like Richard, say, whose whole thing was to be unrestricted, well–he’d've had to go to the moon to get free.

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:06:18 +0000

I went round and round, too, in the day. Took a late 70s first-born to shame me clean–and it wasn’t easy. Had to move, and sever the old crowd utterly. A psychiatrist friend–much later–who treats incarcerateds for the state/county, thinks it’s genetic as well as behavioral–that the genetic may hide behind the behavioral result–through the generations, that anyone will get hooked on the hard stuff with enough useage, but most can come clean and go on, with any incentive to do so. However, some percentage, one in five maybe, can’t take one single hit ofthe hard stuff, coke, speed, junk, without lodging a permanent 24/7 hunger for a return experience–for life. This, I think, is part of what Shrinkwrapped is talking about.

By: triticale

triticale — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:12:41 +0000

ShrinkWrapped has succinctly explained why there are three or four rails left in the gram of coca blanca I bought back in July. It’s nice, real nice, but it isn’t special.

By: larry

larry — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:35:59 +0000

Wonderful, Roger. Thanks so much for confirming what I always suspected: With all his warts, Richard was still one of the good ones. R. I. P., Richard.

It takes some doing to break out of a heritage like his. Most of us can’t do it without medical, 12-step, G-d’s or all of the above’s help. If he was clean and sober the last 20 years, I’m sure he knew some peace and was an inspiration to many around him.

By: Charlie (Colorado)

Charlie (Colorado) — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:27:25 +0000

Markus, it happens that I was listening to Fresh Air this morning doing reminiscences of Richard Pryor; one of them was talking to him about the MS. Terry Gross asked him what he did for amusement at a time when he said he couldn’t move his arms and legs well, and he answered “Basing.”

In any case, anyone with substance problems knows that being sober for twenty years isn’t as important as being sober for the rest of the day.

(I’d also suggest that ShrinkWrapped and Neo have rather better credentials in substance abuse than you’re giving them credit for.)

By: markus

markus — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:27:19 +0000

neoneo — thanks for the correction. I am curious if he was able to get clean and stay clean for the last twenty plus years…I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

My point was that coke users can get clean and move on to illustrious futures. Classic examples of course are POTUS 42 and POTUS 43.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 17:43:40 +0000

I think this is one of the best reminiscences about Pryor, the one that captures my impressions, as well–although I certainly only knew him from his performances.

To me, the guy was incredibly funny and gifted, but it was his intense vulnerability that combined with all that–and a sort of bravado–that made him uniquely moving, as well as funny. Here’s my take on him.

And marcus, you may want to revise your comments (although I won’t sit on a hot stove until you do). Pryor died not from MS, but from a heart attack.

He had early heart disease–and in fact, a heart attack he had when quite young was subject matter for one of his old comedy routines. It is well known that cocaine use can and often does damage the heart. So one can conclude that it’s at least a good possibility in Pryor’s case that his cocaine use was related to his death.

By: Sandy P

Sandy P — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:17:04 +0000

I remember seeing him on TV, maybe Flip Wilson, when I was a kid.

He was dressed as a preacher w/a white afro, IIRC.

“I want you to dig down deep and come up w/the bread.”

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 03:40:58 +0000

Thank goodness no ignorant tone-deaf clods have sullied this elegiac thread, as well as Richard’s memory, with any smart-ass sarcastic miss-the-point know-nothing attempts at sarcasm. “Lost”, to anyone with an iota of sensitivity, means more than, “Hey, where’s my house at?”

By: Steven55

Steven55 — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 02:41:07 +0000

I too was acquainted with Richard Pryor. In the late 70s I worked at a club in Denver called Ebbetts Field. Richard did maybe three 4- or 5-day stints at the club, two shows per night. I was a bartender/bouncer/doorman. All of us who worked there found Richard, when he was offstage, to be a real sweet guy–polite, soft-spoken, self-effacing, shy, friendly. He clearly enjoyed hanging out with the staff–waitresses and bartenders. Then he’d go onstage and he became very dangerous…and funny. Our audiences were all black; the staff was all white. This made for some–how shall I say–”interesting” experiences whilst serving in my capacity as a bouncer/doorman. Richard could be downright incendiary on stage, much more so than he was in his concert movies, since white people were a primary target of his his humor and wrath (which were one and the same). He was also be fairly merciless and hilarious when talking about himself and blacks; but it was the honky jokes that really got the audience riled–and the staff, er, nervous. Then, when he’d finished his performance, he’d come offstage and hang out with us and he was just the nicest guy. And at the end of every stint he tipped the staff a couple hundred dollars–a lot of money in the 70s. I can’t remember any other muscian or comedian who appeared at the club doing that.

Go with God, Richard.