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SneakersStreet FootballWater Bottle, TheChristmas TimeGiant, TheOops!Lone Ranger, TheRalph JamesonMedicMy Pet RhinocerosHalf ManRigor MortisNeanderthal Man, TheT.V. FootballSeattleTrack List
SneakersStreet FootballWater Bottle, TheChristmas TimeGiant, TheOops!Lone Ranger, TheRalph JamesonMedicMy Pet RhinocerosHalf ManRigor MortisNeanderthal Man, TheT.V. FootballSeattleAlbum Notes
Liner Note Author: Allan Sherman.
Recording information: Mr. Kelly's, Chicago, IL.
Photographer: Ed Thrasher.
"I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD," like Cosby's debut, RIGHT, is made up entirely of short pieces, but by the time he made this, his fourth album for Warner Brothers, he had developed his delivery to a much greater degree. As a result, the short pieces here are more effective than his earlier material, as he works in a more intimate, understated style to put across the various characters that populate his world. Cosby's drawn-out stories about his Philadelphia upbringing were becoming his trademark, and on his previous album two such stories, "Tonsils" and "Chicken Heart" clocked in at over ten minutes each.
I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD opens with a suite of vignettes about kid stuff that includes "Sneakers," "Street Football," "The Water Bottle," "Christmas," and "The Giant." The last of these is a riff about Cosby's dad that would blossom into the epic monologue "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With" on the album of the same name. Elsewhere, Cosby takes on the Wolfman, Tonto and the Lone Ranger (and an irate Silver), and a handful of slightly more grown-up topics--like owning a rhinoceros.
