Phillibuster
The Firesign Theatre is known as a comedy act. Who made comedy albums. For me, the laffs are the least of what they did, coming few and far between. I love that run of early albums, up to Bozos, listened to them countless times over the years. They're immersive, incredibly detailed, multi-layered, with a dream-logic all their own. But funny? I've always found them more scary than funny, a little like the Alice books in that respect. Live performance (the clips are out there) lost what these guys were best at - throwing you in at the deep end and leaving you to work out what the hell was going on - and reduced them to third-rate burlesque shtick.
Their satiric targets were frequently obscure and obsolete, and unfamiliarity with the source material (who listened to 'forties radio shows in the 'sixties?) boosted the weirdness factor. Later attempts to politicize their humor, to make it contemporary and relevant, tended to fall flat. They were falling apart about the time the internet was coming together. But that early run of albums remains a remarkable achievement, redefining what was possible with audio environment and narrative, and it should include the album credited to Phil Austin, Roller Maidens From Outer Space.
It's actually a full-tilt Firesign Theatre album - the gang's all here - but there's
 |
| Hi! I'm Phil! |
dishy Phil on the cover as barechested glam rock diva. Barf. And - excuse me? - why? Maybe he tried the "I'm being ironic, man!" line - I'd have been unconvinced. He wanted to be a rock star comedian, but the addition of his dreary, unfunny, and unnecessary songs meant I never gave the album the attention it deserved. The cover, the songs, and the solo credit disguise a first-rate Firesign album.
So here it is. New cover, song-free content. And don't worry if you're not yokking it up all the way through. Listen for the devil breathing ...
ReplyDeleteOne for George Leroy!
Shoes for industry, compadre!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your opinion of their work - the political stuff left me cold, but the early ones are still in rotation. Easy on the 30-weight!
I'm grateful for a tip on anything post-Bozos worth listening to, after numerous fitful attempts on my own. Anyone who goes to the trouble of making a case for one such effort should be heard fairly. And so I will.
ReplyDeleteIt's not as great as Dwarf, or Bozos, but it's as good as the first album and half of the second, if you're rating this stuff. The closer you look at Maidens, the darker it gets.
DeleteThank you 3 sticks, you can wait here in the sitting room, or...you can sit here in the waiting room. ONWARD thru the Fog!
ReplyDeleteYou have the choice - park on the driveway, or drive on the parkway.
DeleteI tried posting this back in the early days of th' Foam, when only me and someone from Pork Bend, Wis., were reading it. The lack of interest almost killed the blog outright, so I pulled it. This time, I'm hoping the blog has enough momentum to overcome the stats falling off a cliff, and the swell Pcinemadelic feature will soon have us all soaring into th' empyrean again. Seems that, in a niche [Fr. for Nietzsche - Ed.] blog like this, th' Firesigns are a nick too deep.
ReplyDelete... nick too deep? Embrace the danger, FT3!
DeleteTo Mr King..."Everything You Know is Wrong" is as good as those first 4 LPs. As it was spot-on contemporary to the 1970's America it spoofed upon it's initial release, I would contend that it has held up well.
EYKIW is a good album, but it doesn't have the multilayered depth of Dwarf/Bozos, which is what keeps me going back to those albums. It's a fairly straightforward satire, as you say, of contemporary culture, which in my humble opinion (yeah, right) makes it a lesser work in itself. It's too easily assimilated, understood, and exhausted.
DeleteAgree on all points... as EYKIW is an enjoyable 45 minutes, it can be recommended to a new FT listener.... vs the other latter-day Columbia releases ITNWYOYO or NIOATYWT which come close to being the comedy equivalents of a Revolution #9. Vinyl proof that acid, over time, offers diminishing artistic returns. Nice horsey...
ReplyDeleteThe dick jokes on TBOF, the lame Princess Diana spoof on GMIOGMD, the mirthless ecological satire of BDB ...it's better to go back to Bob n' Ray than forward to those.
DeleteI've only recently digitized my own LP of Roller Maidens, and I'm wondering whether I can remember or Google a funny joke... If anything makes me laugh this week, I'll get back to you. I am curious about how you went about stitching around Red Greenback and his Blue Boys. I share the opinion that Phil's musical aspirations made this a distant third to Ossman's and Proctor & Bergman's "solo" albums. But now that I think about it, "Nasi Goring" and "Communist Love Song" were pretty unnecessary on TV Or Not TV, also. "I remember this stuff, the kids were smoking this the year they disappeared their high school..."
ReplyDeleteI did a "de-tuned" version of "TV", too - a big improvemink. I'll up them shortly. Possible in a new piece.
Delete