National Lampoon January 1975

National Lampoon

January, 1975

Once again, let us travel back in time, fifty years in this case, to January, 1975, and the latest issue of the National Lampoon. The cover art, by Robert Grossman, depicts Father Time holding up a used condom.........that's Lampoon humor for you !

 

The Billboard Top 200 LP chart for early January 1975 indicates that Elton John's Greatest Hits album is atop the chart, followed by albums from Jethro Tull, Neil Diamond, the Ohio Players, and Joni Mitchell. So you have rock, pop, soul / R & B, Adult Contemporary, and folk, all represented.

At the Lampoon, P. J. O'Rourke now is executive editor, with Henry Beard and Doug Kenny still manning the editorial offices. The magazine is thriving, with lots and lots of  advertisements for high-end stereo equipment and record albums in its pages. At the beginning of '75, the singer-songwriter movement was getting a lot of attention from labels. You can find all the albums advertised below on YouTube. 

 

I've listened to some of them and I find them listenable, with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils' It'll Shine When It Shines a good LP. Poco's ad tells readers that the group is America's 'first and best country rock band,' a dig at the Eagles. Unfortunately, as 1975 unfolded Poco would struggle for commercial success, while the Eagles would only expand their dominance of the charts with the release of One of These Nights later in the year.

 

 

 

 

The Nostalgia Craze of the 1970s continues unabated; how else to explain Columbia, a major label at that time, flacking a packaging of old W. C. Fields radio programs ?! 

 

There are lots of comics in this January issue, one of the best being 'All New First High Comics,' from Doug Kenny and Joe Orlando. Not only does it satirize the romance comic books of the era, it delivers a great last panel. And, the character 'Dave Wheatjeans' seems to have been the inspiration for Stephen Bishop's character in Animal House: 'I gave my love a cherry / that has no stone.........'

 

 

 

 

 

Do you want nudies ? Well, as always, 'Foto Funnies' delivers !

This issue's magazine parody is Negligent Mother, which, in its own snide way, reminds us that fifty years ago things like Child Protective Services were rarer, and less effective, then they are nowadays.

 

 

 

 

  

We'll close with 'Salvation Army Comics,' by Henry Beard, with art by Frank Springer. This is one of Beard's better pieces in those early years of the magazine. It avoids his highbrow approach to humor and instead goes for something more blunt and acidic..... I mean, Christian soldiers using flamethrowers on Bowery Bums ?! That's humor for you, from fifty years ago......