The first time I remember seeing Martin Mull was in the late 70's, on some variety show or another. He was already on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman but I didn't watch that, so he wasn't familiar to me. He was just a guy with a guitar who sang a very funny song where he hummed the dirty parts to make it fit for prime time, and then ended up humming the majority of the song. I thought it was a riot. He was promoting an album called Sax and Violins, which I remember almost buying once, before choosing something else..

The next time I saw him was on the hilarious show Fernwood 2Nite, which I DID watch, owing to the fact that I was then allowed to stay up later. His career sped up from there, mainly on TV but also in film, and there's hardly anyone who doesn't know who he is. I remember wondering in the beginning, though, why he didn't do more music.

It turns out that he'd been there and done that. In fact, he released albums and performed in nightclubs throughout the 70's. His act was a combination of stand up comedy banter and humorous songs, competently played. His first album even had Levon Helm from The Band on drums and background vocals!

His live act was a combination of music and patter. He'd basically tell jokes to set up the songs, then do the songs, which were jokes in and of themselves. I kind of doubt that anyone was sneaking recorders into his nightclub shows, but there are a few radio recordings out there, like this one.

This week's selection is from a show at Chicago's Ivanhoe Theater on Febuary 2, 1977, during his tenure on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." It was recorded by WXRT, the greatest radio station in existence. He'd just put out a new record and was talking to the audience about that as well as "MHMH". It sounds like a smallish to medium crowd, and seems to be the second of two shows done that night. It's pretty funny stuff. The cut is more than half talking, and the song, "I'll Hate Myself in the Morning", is short, but as I said, funny stuff.

Here it is!

No one won the contest, which surprised me, but such is life. Since I'm actually mailing out prize discs, I don't feel obligated to make it TOO easy. Besides, as I told O'Tim, it's fair for me to win once in awhile.

Next week: This guitarist turned down an invitation to join the Rolling Stones, so they took his former bass player instead. First to get it gets a copy!