Remember that tape I told you about earlier in the week which I thought contained an interview I did with George Carlin following his appearance on The Tonight Show? (You can see a picture of Carlin and me taken at 30 Rock after that gig and read more about the story here.) Well, it turned out I was wrong. But it turned out I was right, too.

The tape did contain an interview with George Carlin, circa 1972. But now that I’ve listened to it, I’ve learned that it took place before his appearance on Carson, and instead was taped backstage at The Bitter End, where I’d gone a day earlier with two high-school friends of mine to see Carlin perform. I now know this because Carlin spoke of appearing the following night, and we tried unsuccessfully to cadge tickets from him.

We brought along a half-dozen gift-wrapped boxes of Post Raisin Bran, which will explain why there’s a mention of that product on the tape. Why did we present such a bizarre gift, as well as a huge homemade card filled with bizarre raisin jokes and altered book and movie titles such as The Raisin Also Rises? Read on.

My wife, on hearing my voice from more than 35 years ago, remarked on how strong my Brooklyn accent had been in the days before she knew me. It had already started wearing off by the time she met me at Marvel Comics.

So you can get your vocal bearings (assuming you bother to click through), that’s me asking the first question, “How do you feel you’d contrast with such a comedian as Lenny Bruce?” And to show just how old this interview actually is, that’s also me asking, “Would you consider going to Vietnam with Bob Hope?”

The voice that comes on to ask, “How do you get a character like Congolia Breckenridge?” is that of Allan Grosman, who a few years later was the best man at my wedding. (And a few decades later, I was also the best man at his.)

As for the third voice, I have no idea. Neither Allan nor I could remember who had accompanied us to The Bitter End that night, so unless one of my other high-school friends can ID him, it will always be a mystery.

Below, thanks to Tom Ligon, who volunteered to digitize the ancient tape, and Ronald Erickson, who married it to that previously mentioned photo and created a video so I could upload it all to YouTube, is our never-before-heard interview with George Carlin.

For those of you who are confused by the final minute of the audio, during which my friends and I and Carlin sing the jingle from a Raisin Bran commercial, it’s because of a bit he used to do. Back in ’71/’72, part of his act was to suddenly stop, sing the jingle from the Raisin Bran cereal commercial, then return to his routine as if nothing odd had happened. We’d all thought it hilarious when we’d seen him do it in a performance at Brooklyn College earlier that year.

So at the end of the interview, we thought it would be fun to get him to sing it with us. As to why I gave a shout-out to my high-school English teacher … that I no longer remember.

Here’s the original commercial that inspired Carlin.

Of course, this all makes me realize there’s still a mystery. That photo was taken at 30 Rock after the Carson show. As you can see, there was a tape recorder in my hand. And I do remember walking through the streets of Manhattan with him asking further questions as my father followed us. So … does that mean that somewhere, in some box, there’s yet another tape?

You never know!