To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With

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To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With
Live album by Bill Cosby
Released	April 1968
Recorded	January 27, 1968 Cleveland, Ohio
Genre	Stand-up comedy
Length	41:09
Label	Warner Bros.
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Bill Cosby chronology
Revenge (1967) To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With (1968) 200 M.P.H. (1968)

To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With is the seventh album by Bill Cosby. It was recorded in 1968 in the Cleveland Public Auditorium, and released later that year, on a 12" vinyl record.

Side A covers topics such as the first sin ("The Apple") and Cosby's two daughters ("The Losers"), and side B is one long story, talking about childhood antics in bed when he and his brother were supposed to be asleep. It would be retold and put on several of Bill Cosby's MCA albums, such as When I Was A Kid and Fat Albert.

The day of the recording, Cleveland experienced a severe ice storm which tied traffic up considerably. Bill delayed the opening of the act for an hour to give people time to arrive and find their way to their seats. When the hour was nearly up (and no one had entered the auditorium for the last ten minutes for so) a woman arrived and made her way to a seat very near the front row. The auditorium was very quiet and the sharp click-click-click of her high-heeled shoes echoed loudly throughout the auditorium. When she had seated herself, Bill cupped his hands around the microphone and in a deep, stentorian voice announced "You're late" The entire auditorium erupted in laughter and the show was underway.

Like many of his other albums and stand up work, Bill Cosby tells great detail into his childhood. Many years later he would host Kids Say the Darndest Things where he'd get children to talk about their childhood.

Writer/director Kevin Smith said that this was one of his favorite comedy albums on the Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder DVD.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side one

1. Baseball – 2:36
2. Conflict – 1:18
3. The Losers – 8:50
4. The Apple – 1:42

[edit] Side two

1. To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With – 26:43