"Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers" (1970) The Firesign Theater. Influential records sometimes contain something other than music.
My best high school surfing buddy, Kurt, had an older brother with a lot of records. The family garage had been converted into a party room, with a pool table, and a keg in the fridge. Brother Steve let us stack his records on the stereo console while we played pool after surfing all morning.
It was here I first heard The Firesign Theater. An intensely surreal comedy group. Steve had a copy of their "Big Book Of Plays", which contained the scripts of all their albums at the time. I borrowed it for a year, practically memorizing the entirety, all the while collecting the discography. When surfing, we'd be out in the water, reciting our favorite routines of the Firesign's twisted, surreal take on our cultural landscape.
This recently acquired $5 copy is probably my favorite, next to "I Think We're All Bozo's On This Bus"(1971), and "How Can You Be Two Places At Once When You're Not Really Anywhere At All" (1969).
-BBJ
6 comments:
YES! I love this stuff…my personal fave being Side 2 of “Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Like Him”….Indelible brilliance and memorable lines with staying power…. So much FUN!
I am proud to say that I wrote the (IMHO definitive) history booklet/liner notes/career retrospective for Sony's early 90s Firesign Theatre box set "Shoes for Industry." Interviewed all four of the guys (a thrill, as you can imagine) for it. Alas, the album seems to be out of print at the moment, and you can't access the notes anymore at the Firesign website, which seems to have gone ghost. Oh well. In any case, the notes are going to be a chapter in my forthcoming greatest hits book, which with any luck will be available in some form next year
I have a CD copy of "Shoes For Industry", but it came without the liner notes.
Wow. Firesign Theatre and Kinks Kronicles back to back. Makes me want to go get stoned. I’ll be right back.
Go, Steve!
Success!
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