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  | Firesign Theatre - Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers!
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| Firesign Theater at Their Best | |
| Ths is quintessential Firesign Theater! The wordplays are here - "The Department of Redundancy Department", "The Natural Guard", Ersatz Brothers Coffee - "More coffee, warden?" and then "More coffins, warden?", and being sworn in "Do you promise to covet property, propriety, and not hurt that State? Say what." "What?" "Take your stand." And much more.
The underlying commentary is there on (Pick one) (a) our consumer society ("Eat, Eat, Eat ..." and "It's good to eat a friend, my friend"), (b) advertising [same thing?] ("Well you can believe me because I am always right and I never lie"), (c) religious fundamentalism ("Where can I find a good upbringing in a Christian environment?" "HERE, friends, right Here! [Pull the curtain, Fred]"), (d) our dependence on drugs ("Anguidrene" and "The chief himself's been on them for a week and he's a changed person"), as well as more. Then there is the big picture - What is happening in the recording? Someone is watching TV, and then running off to an Ice Cream truck (while being transformed into a child (again?). At the end, we find out that _he_ is George Tirebiter when he gets a phone call from his answering service and says 'I've been watching myself on TV all night', and then receives messages that all kinds of old film stars have left. But while George Tirebiter, who is named for the mythical University of Southern California dog/mascot, is the one who is said to have received the Good Sport Award on TV (while he is watching it, competing in the game show 'Stab from the Past'), he is also somehow related to Porgy Tirebiter in the 'Howl of the Wolf Movie' called High School Madness. On TV - Fred/Adolph is Porgies ... stepfather(?) but is running for office as George Tirebiter later. And 'Lieutenant' Tirebiter is in a movie on TV. Could this be a commentary on being self-absorbed? As Porgie sums it up "But, Gee, Dad - I still don't understand how you can be the Peoples Prosecutor and my defense lawyer at the same time..." "Easy, son. That way I can see that you are persecuted to the fullest extent of the law." "That's my Dad!" | |
| Best Comedy Recording Ever? | |
| Some argue it is, it's certainly up there, an amazing journey in a surrealistic future experienced via the tv of one George Tirebiter, who can't get any groatclusters in his sector, as they never come up into the hills. It's dense and amazing, hard to describe well, and a must listen.
'We've been shooting reds and yellows all day' 'Boy I'm sleepy' | |
| Still the funniest | |
| A few millenia ago, when I was a college freshman, my roommate would mumble to himself something about "Eat it Raw....Raw, raw, raw, that's the spirits..." Then, later in that year, I heard this album, then an LP. It caught me instantly. So I got all the other Firesign albums, thinking they'd gone a little downhill with "We're All Bozos..." which I also now have on CD... (Just an aside: a comedy act that followed Firesign Theatre consisted of two guys with their constant adolescent reference to drugs. As Amazon.com probably has their stuff on CD too I won't specify here who they are. But they led to a virtual generation gap about two years after these Firesign albums were released: the 18 year olds thinking this duo was superior. To the 20 year olds--among them me at the time--Firesign was obviously superior! Hail (Groucho) Marx and (John) Lennon!) Amazing is that when one rarely encounters a Firesign fan, we can spout off quotes from largely this CD--as if we'd just heard them five minutes ago. I was at the Firesign show in Washington in the 90s, a birthday gift from my wife who wasn't familiar with Firesign--and she was amazed by how much the audience shouted out Firesign's lines before they did! What does one call this humor? Someone called it "layered." Yeah, I guess that'll do. Whatever, it's spectacular. I suspect while lying on my deathbed some day, I'll be chuckling and spouting lines from here..."Right, Jack. So far a complete broken set of kellet bars for Mrs. P's new home..." And on, and on, and on. Oh, and, even after all these years, people point out the sometime esoteric sources for the lines Firesign uses. Amazing. Like "Star Trek" and "The Outer Limits," I have a weakness for the originals (despite, in the case of those series, their inferior effects and sets.) Same goes with Firesign. I try to get into their newer stuff--have several on CD as I couldn't resist. But the earlier displays of their talent are overwhelming with this still the best. The script goes from one "subject" to the next with extremely limited connections between them. But, despite seeming incongruities, somehow it all makes "sense," as much sense as can be made of it all. (I tried to put this one on a few minutes ago. But my wife, who's working on taxes, was distracted. I guess I'll have to go for a ride to listen to this in the car. Then I can distract her with more quotes....) Firesign Theatre? They're irresistible. And this is one of the funniest CDs ever produced. | |
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