George Carlin's cynicism made people uncomfortable, but it never led him far from the truth. (Except, notably, in his rant against voting.) But while more than enough people can stomach tirades about corrupt politicians and the empty gluttony of consumer culture, far fewer can tolerate criticism of police officers—especially after 9/11.
Vulture reports that a previously unreleased album of Carlin's will drop September 1. I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die was originally recorded on September 10, 2001, but Carlin decided to bury the tape up to his death in 2008. Essentially, he thought it was too morbid for people to hear in the wake of a horrific national tragedy that took the lives of so many emergency responders.
Vulture supplied a bit of it today, with a heavy dose of police criticism:
Rolling Stone also had another piece last week, where Carlin traces a familiar late-career path: a kind of exaggerated schadenfreude in the face of hypothetical death and destruction. Carlin never minced words on how he felt about "people," or what he viewed as his role as an unnervingly detached observer of the human social condition.
Listening to these clips, it's no wonder even a cynic like Carlin thought they were too much for a grieving nation to handle after 9/11. He wasn't the only artist to make this kind of concession at the time: The Strokes removed a song called "New York City Cops" from the U.S. release of their debut album, Is This It?, because they deemed it too insensitive in the wake of the tragedy.
While it was the wrong time then, Carlin's no-holds-barred incision will find its place in the ongoing discussion of policing in America.