Dick Price
Dick Price’s Theatre of Cruelty
The album you didn’t know you were waiting for is here! After years of treasuring battered cassette tapes, fans of the Austin-based pianist can rejoice in the new millennium as their favorite Dick finally appears on CD. Like the Austin Lounge Lizards’ lone cousin, Price’s wry compositions alternately skewer and praise pop culture with little more than a keyboard for accompaniment. Songs like “I Was a Go-Go Boy for the FBI,” “Tiny Little Man,” and “The Midnight Ride of Paula Revere” were staples of Price’s Eighties repertoire and Nineties Dial-a-Tune service, as was the tune that’s arguably his most famous, “Hillbillies in a Haunted House.” Even better news, “Hillbillies” is one of 16 songs on Dick Price’s CD debut, Dick Price’s Theatre of Cruelty. Price’s humor draws inspiration from B-movies, as is evident in the titles of his songs: “Die! Die! My Darling,” “I Spit on Your Grave,” “A Kiss Before Dying,” and “I Know Who You Are, I Saw What You Did” without ever lowering himself to the Weird Al level. Price’s wit is actually much closer to satirist-pianist Tom Lehrer or Mark Russell, meaning that while it might not be politically correct (“Shut Up and Get in the Car”), it’s always on target (“Product of a Broken Home,” “Hey Meemaw,” “Daddy’s Last Request”). Dick Price takes the listener from smirk to belly laugh in a couple of bars, and his jaunty, barrelhouse piano style is irresistible. How long has it been since you had Dick at night? Well, that’s too long.
This article appears in April 6 • 2001.