Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory, two American social critics, were also stand-up comics---comedians. Whenever the press had to write articles on or even just mention their serious work for many good causes (Gregory ran for Mayor against the first Richard J. Daley in Chicago), they ALWAYS put the adjective COMEDIAN before their names. Comedian Dick Gregory or Comedian Lenny Bruce became, automatically, a buffoon in the minds of the people who read the stuff.

Somehow, this seems pertinent to some of the posts here in this thread. We all are influenced by each other musically and otherwise. That's how it's always been and that is also how it ought to be. Then, we see each other more like "people" than like the impersonal brunt of political and/or ethnic monsters reduced to stereotypes for various reasons and agendas by those we want to see as enemies.

Art Thieme