Illegal, Immoral and Fattening by Flo & Eddie (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Illegal, Immoral and Fattening

Group name: Flo & Eddie

Year: 1975

Number of discs: one

Label: Columbia Records

Collection: Selman

Distinguishing characteristics:

Stamped on back of album: DEMONSTRATION / Not For Sale

Scratched into side one of LP: PAL 33554-1A

Scratched into side two of LP: PBL 33554 1A

Buy it on Amazon: $54.55

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of Flo & Eddie, either collectively or individually.

What I expected

I guess rock?

What it was actually like

This was not actually a rock record in the sense of being primarily about music; in fact it was a comedy record, or maybe novelty, but the point is that it was full of jokes that mostly were not funny at all. Some of them were moderately funny, though; I’m sure racial humor had quite the edge in 1975 that just does not move me to laughter in 2023. By and large, though, the lyrics were vacuous and the most common theme was references to other songs.

The Kung Fu Killer, for example, was all about how that song is terrible, which is true, and their version of There’s No Business Like Show Business was somewhat scarring.

The high points of the record were the hard rock songs, like the title track Illegal, Immoral and Fattening and Cheap. The Pop Star Massage Unit was the dumbest point.

Kama Sutra Time was a bit Oompa Loompa, and Livin’ in The Jungle was slightly funk. The Sanzini Brothers Return (With The Tibetan Memory Trick) was the most comically enjoyable.

Some of the songs were recorded live, and it did also sound like Flo & Eddie put on a really fun performance, but this is not a review of that.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing