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Black and blue: The rise of the riotous Richard Pryor

Paradigm puncher ... Is It Something I Said? hits 40

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By 1966, he was getting quite a few little spots on some serious TV shows – such as those hosted by Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. On Griffin’s show he finally got to meet his teenage hero, one Jerry Lewis.

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But just as Las Vegas and a gentle waltz into the middle-of-the-road big time beckoned, Pryor suddenly rebelled. He’d already had a little trouble with clubs run by the mob, something he later turned into laughs:

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And then, one night in late 1967, after walking onstage before a blue-rinse crowd at Vegas’ Aladdin Hotel, Pryor took a look around before simply announcing: "What the fuck am I doing here?" He then walked straight off the stage.

From that point on, his act would contain profanities – as well as increasingly radical views and conspicuous use of the n-word – and his new "badass" show soon developed a cult following. Revolution was then in the air and Pryor’s jive-talking "language of the streets" soon got him signed to Warners’ Dove / Reprise label.

His eponymous debut album didn’t set the world alight, though, and as the 1960s ended he moved to Berkeley, California to hang out with Black Panthers and other counter-culture radicals.

Quitting Reprise for the small, independent Laff Records led to his Craps album, which sold respectably but, again, was no breakthrough set. However, his profile went up considerably after he appeared in the Wattstax movie of 1973, a black music documentary that allowed him to crack jokes about race relations, riots and music.

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'Hands up!' Pryor on stage at Wattstax. Source: Stax Records/Fantasy Inc

He then signed to the once-legendary Stax label for his That Nigger’s Crazy album. It was a critical success and it won him a Grammy and, when re-released on Reprise, it went platinum. These sales mostly came after his commercial breakthrough set the following year with ... Is It Something I Said?, which, with the full might of Warners behind it, sold millions.

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