Richard Prior, 1940-2005

Finally done in by multiple sclerosis. When I first heard his albums, in the early 1970s, I didn't like the comedy because I didn't like him giving permission to white kids like the ones I was listening to him with, to laugh at the word "nigger." Permission, God knows, they didn't need any more of. It took a few years to get past that and to begin to hear the hard truths he was telling, even as the audience was laughing. He uncovered and spotlighted the baked-in racisty racism of this country. We laughed, but we were also listening.

A wild life, that's for sure.