Sam Kinison's third album, 1990s
Leader of the Banned, was the comedian's last before dying two years later in a car crash. The first half of the album features a half-hour of
standup comedy recorded at
Bally's in Las Vegas, NV.
"Jerry's Bastard Kid" offers a few chuckles when
Kinison brings out
Doug Bady, a member of his "Outlaws of Comedy" entourage, to criticize
Jerry Lewis' annual MDA telethons for their lack of results.
"Casual Users of Terrorism" offers a few tantalizing political remarks. On
"Phone Call from Hell," Kinison supposedly places a real call to berate an audience member's unfaithful ex-girlfriend. For the second half of
Banned,
Kinison, who thought of himself as a "
rock & roll comic" -- he had some success in 1988 with a
novelty version of
the Troggs'
"Wild Thing" -- took this perception to extremes with his own
hair metal versions of
Cheap Trick's
"Gonna Raise Hell," Mountain's
"Mississippi Queen," the Rolling Stones'
"Under My Thumb," and
AC/DC's
"Highway to Hell." He sings all four songs.
Kinison alters the lyrics of
"Mississippi Queen" and turns it into a
novelty number, but the other three are "serious" covers. Many of
Kinison's
rock star pals perform on these remakes, including
Eddie Money,
House of Lords'
Lanny Cordola and
Chuck Wright,
Mountain's
Leslie West,
Poison's
C.C. DeVille,
Bon Jovi's
David Bryan,
Quiet Riot and
Whitesnake's
Rudy Sarzo,
Dweezil Zappa,
Guns N' Roses'
Slash,
Dio's
Jimmy Bain, and
Cinderella's
Fred Coury. ~ Bret Adams