The Bill Hicks library was very limited up until the last two or three years. Ryko has finally put out more posthumous work from him, but not after being humiliated by the output coming from England (where he recieved the deserved recognition denied to him in the states). And even now, well, there's still more that has never come out except in bootlegs.
If Hick's friend and key producer Kevin Booth or Bill Hicks' family ever put Hicks material out professionally, I'll pick it up, regardless of whether or not I already have an existing bootleg. I think most Hicks fans, regardless of their degree of fanaticism, would say the same. Until then, though, for the full Hicks library, it's either pick up bootlegs or break into Booth's vault of archives.
Most of the Hicks bootlegs also give us the best part of His act: his improvisation and his ability to think on his feet and itneract with the audience--something you don't catch with the four albums he was involved in during his life, recorded and edited to remove the moments in his act he may have seen as unneccessary. I like to think that had Hicks lived longer, he would have eventually put out an album that captured his live work more accurately. As of now, it must be hard for new fans, who soon realize that the bootlegs and some of the newer CD's repeat some of the same jokes from the four key albums (Dangerous, Relentless, Arizona Bay, and Rant In E Minor). If they stick with them, however, they see how Hicks even kept revising and refreshing old material, never telling the same joke twice if he didn't have to, and how he challenged a crowd in such a way that it makes the standard comedy stars of today seem cowardly.
Whether it's threat of legal action from Kevin Booth or others, most sites offering bootlegs are shut down shortly after they emerge. This one, however, has not. Check it out.
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