A classic for those hoary hairy hippies among us who remember our Beatles lyrics. This first Firesign album was released at the Haight, sorry, the height of the Revolution on the 38th of Cunnegonde, 1968. On side one Dr. Tim treats us to a paisley sunrise but can't find anything for his acid stomach. Then the revolutionary government seeks to correct all that is unhip, mandating all to drop out, even subjecting Nigeria to a bombardment of "The Naked Lunch" to enforce its grooviness. The supremely Kafkaesque title piece occupying all of side two (TFT's first extended piece and a breakthrough in recorded comedy) takes a confused tourist into a shadowy world of Byzantine fascists. Strangers in an elevator speak first in Russian, reply in French and somehow still understand each other. Lord Kitchener is overthrown. Our traveler escapes the Winter Palace only to be thrown in prison where he must Beat the Reaper to survive the plague and escape, ending up breathless on side six for another lesson in Turkish. Perhaps the most poignant and lasting piece is the first, a short history of the American Indians, Temporarily Humboldt County. Few vinyl copies of Electrician survive because most had to be returned for regrooving. Beautifully recorded and worth repeated listenings on headphones, Electrician still has the power to amuse, amaze and mystify after thirty years. (Available in CD format, collector's item in vinyl.) - (Rusty Pipes)

This is the clear choice of most Firesign fans when it comes time to try to convert a friend to the ways of the 4 or 5 guys. Reason? Because one side is as close to conventional humor as Firesign would ever step. Nick Danger, 3rd Eye, may be based on Phillip Marlowe, but in this world you can count on the plot twists being almost more than your mind can absorb. A witness to a murder exclaims "at the last possible moment, he stopped on a dime! ...Unfortunately, the dime was in Mr. Rococo's pocket." Young men grow old in seconds via time machines, cornstarch tires are advised, and Roosevelt throws in the towel. Once your friend is open to suggestion, flip it over and allow the full force of Firesignian wit blow him or her away. How Can You Be In Two Places At Once (When You're Not Anywhere At All) puts you in the driver's seat of a motorhome like no other. Our advice? Keep your hands off the Climate Control, take the old Antelope (exit 1/128th mile) and head out for an adventure in psychotic America. No matter which side you drop the needle on, you've got yourself some thinking to do. (Available in CD format, collectable in vinyl.) - (DJ Johnson)

This special edited version of Nick Danger was made available to radio stations to promote airplay. The original story was broken up into eight chapters with short intros by Ossman and Bergman. Each chapter was given a name that had nothing to do with the story like "The Asphalt Arab." The next chapter's name was mentioned in the outro and the last chapter lead back to the first making it maddenly circular as the Roosevlet ending on the original was not included. (Collector's item in vinyl only) Columbia DJS 29 - (Rusty Pipes)

Having closed out the 60s with a pair of comic masterpieces that were drawing comparisons to no less than James Joyce, the Firesign Theatre had to enter the 70s with a bit of trepidation. Expectations were almost as high as their audience. Well, why not roll out a comprehensive overview of a half a century or so of popular culture, filtered through the dreams, visions and viewing habits of a new installment of the Firesign everyman, George Tirebiter. Why not, indeed. So they did, and along the way came up with the album that has been lauded as their creative peak and attacked as an indecipherable riddle sans punch line For the hardcore, it's precisely the album's initial inaccessibility that makes it great. For the casual listener, it's probably not the best starting place. But like any fun house, you just won't get the full effect without spending some time in the hall of mirrors. Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers is an album every Firesign fan has to come to eventual grips with. The good news is that it's worth every ounce of effort.
(Shaun Dale)

One of the best and most profound Firesign albums. Take a stroll on the Funway with Clem and Barney, stand on that yellow rubber line and, if you ask the right questions, the President may answer. In this theme park of the future, it's all laid out in easy to swallow government inflicted doses, but the metaphor is clearly pointing to the real time, screwed up world of American bureaucracy circa 1971, and it's just as relevant in 1998. Clem's clone finally breaks through and asks the big question, and then it's back to the shadows again. This one is so deeply layered you could go nuts trying to catalog the events. And that's good.
(DJ Johnson)

Beware, listening to this one might give you Globner's disease! In the early 70's many progressive rock stations played twelve one-hour Firesign radio shows collectively called Dear Friends. Originally broadcast live on KPFK in Los Angeles, short pieces from these shows compose the 1971 Dear Friends double album. There's no extended plot lines, instead Dear Friends has an immediate, homey kind of wit, almost like they've come over to your house and are cutting up over after dinner coffee. Some of it is improvised, some of it is small sketches. The gems include "40 Great Unclaimed Melodies," "Mark Time" (a prototype for Ossman's album How Time Flies), "Giant Toad Supermarket," and my fall-down-funny favorite, "The Chinchilla Show." Great fun and a good alternate starting point for getting into TFT's work. (Available in CD format, collector's item in vinyl.)
(Rusty Pipes)

September, 1970 through February, 1971, 21 Dear Friends shows were broadcast live on KPFK in Los Angeles. These shows were condensed down to twelve one- hour shows for radio syndication. According to David Ossman, only 100 pressings of the 12 album set were made, making these perhaps the rarest of all Firesign releases. Between November 1971 and March 1972 another show called Let's Eat was aired. Another limited pressing of five one-hour shows was made from this series. No special covers were made and the record labels do not reflect Columbia. (Collector's item in vinyl only, see above for the best of Dear Friends commercial release. See below for a list of the individual records in the Dear Friends radio series.)
(Rusty Pipes)

Dear Friends Volume 01 "Live at the Ash Grove"
Dear Friends Volume 02 "Power is Trouble and Trouble's Not Funny!"
Dear Friends Volume 03 " . . . I Could Always Shoot Him with a Camera"
Dear Friends Volume 04 "Somebody Put a Mickey in the Ground Zero!"
Dear Friends Volume 05 "All We Have to Fear is Me"
Dear Friends Volume 06 "Deputy Dan Will Find Us No Matter Where We Go"
Dear Friends Volume 07 "Was There a Cow on the Moon?"
Dear Friends Volume 08 "Being On Radio is More Fun than Watching TV"
Dear Friends Volume 09 "Dr. Memory's Laff-A-While News"
Dear Friends Volume 10 "All Nite Images"
Dear Friends Volume 11 "Welcome to Microorganism State Park"
Dear Friends Volume 12 "Is This the Machine That Registers No 'n' Yes?"

You might find this one with a rusty plastic dagger embedded in it. Coming after Bozos in late 1972, Not Insane or Anything You Want To is the album version of their movie, The Martian Space Party, so it's mostly recorded in live performance. Not Insane doesn't have a single story line, it's three or four long sketches rolled into one, full of spacey sound effects, a radio prison, psuedo-Shakespeare and political humor. It even features a Bergman lead vocal on the blusey title song. A standout part is George Papoon's nomination for President by the Surrealist Party, running on a platform six inches high so no one falls off, while Glutamoto fights to keep the current president from getting off. If you don't like it we're Not Responsible. (Collector's item in vinyl only)
(Rusty Pipes)

A promotional release for Not Insane that came out around the 1972 election, A Firesign Chat with Papoon is really the first Proctor & Bergman album. Done in an interview format with Steve Marshall from KNX in LA, side one is pre- election and side two is post-election. It includes everything you wanted to know about the Surrealist Party, plus after the nation decided to stick it out with President Dick, there's a concession speech by Papoon to his animal constituents. Full length and very rare, it had only a white cardboard cover. (Collector's item in vinyl only) Columbia AS 41 - (Rusty Pipes)

TFT's 7th album is a Holmesian, er, Stonesian mystery set in 1921 that sounds almost like it could be performed onstage. Hemlock Stones and his partner Flotsom need to write another penny dreadful to pay the rent when a new case arrives in a cloud of Uncle Sigmund's Peruvian Coco Powder. The first clues lead our heroes to a filthy pirate pub in the skies, er, our heroes go to the pub in disguise. Soon after they encounter The Electrician, who steals the Zeppelin Tube, the amplifier of unlimited power. And who is the Electrician anyway? Is he the fair-headed pharaoh of industry, Jonas Acme? Is it his ward, Spad pilot Frank Acne Jr.? Gangster Harold the Hawk Lungett? That ingenue I knew, Violet Dudley? Have an oiled beer while you try to find the solution to your head code distress, though it may not be quite the solution you expected. Rusty Pipes' personal favorite! Get it anyway. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

After dedicating a half a decade to crafting albums designed to make you wonder if you knew anything at all, the Firesign Theatre announced that Everything You Know Is Wrong! As if you didn't know that all along... This time the fellas take a peek through the reality tunnel of a desert dwelling broadcaster obsessed with aliens, conspiracies and various other curious phenomena. Happy Harry Cox seems to have tapped the space/time continuum himself, channeling Art Bell way back in '73. As Harry himself might say, "Could be, could be!" One of the great Firesign performances, Everything You Know was buried amidst a rush of solo and duet projects and a couple of their less successful efforts. It's worth uncovering. - (Shaun Dale)

Another of the great channel-flipping mind trip albums from Firesign Theatre. In THIS world, we're introduced to lonely police officer Random Coolzip, a man on the edge, a man who buys drive-through cocktails while on duty as he tries to forget. Meanwhile, the soap opera that is his life plays out on every channel as surrounding events, from terrorists at the Academy Awards to the integration of lotus-like aliens in Major League Baseball, conspire to drive him ever crazier. It is from this record that we learn there's a whole dead cat in every bar of Dead Cat Soap, and it is this album that contains the classic line, shouted by an excited and confused terrorist, "EAT FASCIST DEATH, FLAMING MEDIA PIGS!" Forget the critics who said it wasn't great Theatre; The Next World is absolutely essential. - (DJ Johnson)

A double album anthology that samples something great from every album up through 1974's Everything You Know Is Wrong. The title comes from Catherwood's classic exit into the time machine in Nick Danger, which is here in its entirety. But wait, Forward into the Past is also one side of a rare 7 inch EP (backed with Station Break, also here) released between 2 Places and Dwarf that was never on any album until this one. There's two chapters of Giant Rat, the song Back to the Shadows Again, Mark Time from Dear Friends and lots more. Another great intro point for the novice Firehead. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

Just before Jimmy Carter took office, TFT welded some bits together as a report by Edward M. Torres to the new president, sort of an audio State of the Union in early 1977. It's a tour of home town America, Duck Town to be exact, populated by denizens like those lovable old hermaphrodites, Mutt and Smutt. There's also the Ben Bland All Night Matinee which is brought to you by Tudor Nightmare Village. Ben features the movie Bacon Rind on the Whistle Front, a Multiple Identity benefit and an interview with Mr. Torres. Part of Who put the Mickey in the Ground Zero is lifted directly from Dear Friends and likewise the title cut is a remake of a lovely little piece on the Indians, originally performed on Live at the Ash Grove. Also known as the Butterfly Album, this may be the rarest of all TFT's commercial releases. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

Fighting Clowns reunited the Firesign foursome just in time to greet the Reagan era. If ever they were needed, they were needed then. The format was a departure from previous albums, presenting the quartet in a musical review. The satire was a little broader, more politically pointed and somewhat less texturally dense than the classic albums, but the Bozos were back in the nick of time. With a generous helping of help from Jeff Baxter, who performed lead guitar chores and then some, the album pointed out that the incidental music which all of the albums featured at some point was more important than was always apparent, and that there were genuine musical satire chops at play here. And play it was, with the group working together and sounding happier about it than they had in some time. It kicked off a continued reunion that produced the next round of Firesign recordings, a sort of second golden age, and holds a unique and important place in the Firesign discography. - (Shaun Dale)

Our most awfule plot once endeavoured in 1972 on Not Insane to us was brought in fulle measure in 1982. Edmund Edmund, scion of Phlegmland, is haunted by goats or ghosts upon the battlements, anon he woos a winsome wench in the cemetery. Then hither come the Moguls to wage a Universal battle of Paramount importance o'er the ghastly rights to these ghostly rites. In these spiral'd grooves the 4 or 5 fooles hath been joined by an ensemble of actores for a romp of moderne puns done in grande Bardish style. Cry Speed, and take it one more time! The Lost Comedie's meaning doth matter little, faith, it means Anythinge You Want To. But be warn'd! Know ye well your English, ye Heads of Firesyne, or this comedie may yet be lost e'en when found! (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

"I'm not mean to Bambi, she likes it that way!" A lovely doctor soap opera recorded live in 1981 is the centerpiece of this 1982 release and fills out some of the material about Peggy found on Don't Crush That Dwarf. The second side is political bits recorded in 1980 for National Public Radio's Morning Edition, plus a couple of the legendary Jack Poet VW commercials. Real Commercials a la Firesign. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

Another collection of great moments of Firesign past. See the review for Forward Into The Past and then collect 'em both. It's a simple equation.

The four or five guys are together again, performing two discs-worth of their classic bits. As usual, they can't convey the atmosphere of their albums, but they knew that going in. Instead, they present the audience with a chance to pick up new insights into favorite bits. Anyone who missed the Nixon aspect of President Springhead in I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus will have a second shot at it as Worker returns to the scene of the crime. The guys take the opportunity to sprinkle 1990s pop culture into their stories, dropping names from Heidi Fleiss to Dan Rostankowski. Live, the multi-layers of Firesign's world are reduced to four living, breathing tracks, but they sure make the best of it. For a true fan, this is a wonderful walk on the funway. - (DJ Johnson)

The curios and artifacts enshrined on this 1996 release include their very first recording from 1967, International Youth on Parade. Another Pre- Electrician delight, the Goon-Show-like "By the Light of the Silvery" is a two part piece that later evolved into "The Giant Rat of Sumatra." Also there's the very funny "Exorcism in Your Daily Life." Mainly it's early work but the title piece is the cybernetic pilot for their 1985 album, Eat or Be Eaten. A worthy addition to your collection. (Cassette only.) - (Rusty Pipes)

It's the eve of the Millennium and things are unraveling fast. Radio Now, which changes format every few minutes to stay up with the focus groups, is bringing us special coverage of all the events leading up to the big Princess Goddess Doll Drop. Meanwhile cars and coffee makers are coming apart with Y2K problems. Guys with eyeball hats are either cleaning up Fun Fun Town's morality or spreading Ebola virus, it's hard to tell. Time for a station break, Ralph Spoilsport sells us used body parts and monolithic corporation US Plus tries to make us feel good about their owning the very idea of America. Back to the talk shows where fringe groups are getting brain cramps. Please stop pulling my string! Cut to breaking news. But there's a news drought. Everybody's waiting to see what happens as the Millennium inches ever closer... like... a... slow... motion... disaster... movie... called... Glacier. Goodbye to 19 Anything! - (Rusty Pipes)

Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman took a break from the Firesign foursome to plug in the Charge-a-Card and order some pay per view public access. One of the better Firesign side projects, TV Or Not TV didn't offer the textural complexity of the best FST albums, but it hung together conceptually and what it lacked in mind boggling neural twists it made up for with a wide range of characters performing some genuinely funny material. They control the horizontal, they control the vertical, they control your rib cage as it tries to control your laughter... - (Shaun Dale)

Need a good 5 cent joke or a Hundred Dollar Shine? Proctor and Bergman's 1975 album is all live material, half drawn from the TV or Not TV album. It also contains the only bit in the Firesign catalogue on Gerald Ford plus the absurdist Man Who Eats Watches (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

At Hot Rock Radio, if the records weren't free they'd be all news. At least that's their theme song at this absurd station that pre-dates Radio Now by exactly two decades. The radio station format gave Proctor & Bergman a chance to stretch out with 22 short, mostly unconnected bits, and it was good stuff. Through the magic of commercial interruptions we meet Dr. X ("...Practicing medicine... until I get it right"), get a crash course in C.B. radio procedure, luck into a sweet deal on illegal weaponry, and learn to sing our TRUE national (natural) anthem. If you're looking for a cohesive story, look elsewhere. If you need a good shot of P&R's cultural grinicism, then by all means give yourself a break and search the used record store bins for this one. - (DJ Johnson)

Mix together cars, Nick Danger, Watergate and the Second Coming of Christ together in East LA and you get Roller Maidens from Outer Space. Oh yes, don't forget TV, Country Western music and a good dash of hedonism. Phil Austin's solo album from 1974 is another channel slalom centering on the adventures of Dick Private, star of the show "Carhook." Our private dick is hired by Regular Boinklyn and Tricky Retardo to find out why their wives Ethyl and Juicy joined the secret society of the Roller Maidens. Meanwhile Tricky's brother Jesus Retardo comes back into town sparking the song, C'mon Jesus, one of four very good C&W tunes on the album. Later Jesus goes up against the Roller Maidens' boss Nick Exxon, Regular and Tricky go transvestite, and everyone gets all balled together in the end. Ossman, Proctor and Bergman co-star along with the band, Red Greenback and the Blue Boys and yes, Austin can sing quite well. Did we mention it may be the most surreal amalgam in the whole catalogue? If you're a novice, try some of the others before you tackle this one, but it's rewarding. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

David Ossman's "solo" album actually included performances by 3/4ths of the Firesign Theatre, but it was his baby. While all serious Fireheads know this album inside and out, the fringe fans are totally ignorant of its very existence. The story involves Mark Time, a volunteer astronaut who was hurled into space toward Planet X and frozen for the bulk of the decades-long journey each way. On his return to Earth he is not met by the throngs of flag-wavers he expected, but by a Government Tweeny, a manufactured lifeform and the only semi-breathing soul left at the shut-down space station. The timing of this album's release (1973) coincides with the public's back-turning act that left America's space program high and dry. Mark returns to find a strange new world where there is precious little room for space heroes. As the zep flies lazily over Panoramaland 2000, our hero sets out to find some answers, dammit. - (DJ Johnson)

Nick Danger is still having trouble spelling "Danger" in 1980 but it finds him again anyway. All the usual suspects are here, Nancy, Lieutenant Bradshaw, Rocky Rococo, Blootwurst and more. There's only one thing missing, David Ossman. The writing is great but unfortunately Nick loses his script halfway through the adventure and is forced to improvise as he discovers a plot by Van Pedarazzi to control the world market in... well, that's part of the mystery, so you figure it out along with who has three faces. Coming close on the heels of Nick's Missing Shoe adventure, TFT could have easily fallen into a Dangerous rut but Three Faces is damn near as good as the original. - (Rusty Pipes)

Firesign foreshadowed the computer revolution on many occasions. The real deal was almost in full swing when the guys made this little gem. Our hero is simply named Player. He purchases a video game that he knows is taboo, having been recalled for dangerous bugs. The game pulls him into its bizarre world, but unlike the many movies that have followed similar lines, this seems totally natural to Player, so much so that it's a seamless transition into a computer world where the bugs'll kill ya. Peter Bergman's ultimate computer geek rings true, and he always seems to be a step ahead of the vast cast of meanies that are out to terminate his interface. Released after a three year Firesign drought, this was a pleasant indicator that the guys could update their landscapes to include the details of the computer fixated world of the 80s. Then again, that was a world they had predicted all along. - (DJ Johnson)

Help, it's the Police! A 7" single released only to radio stations in November of 1969. Hilarious fun, it is two sides of extremely short bits segued together. Among these almost one-liners: Police State , The Straight People, Captain Equinox and a public service message for NASA commanding all Aliens to register, with or without forms. Also found on the Forward into the past double album. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

In Nick Dangers's first post-war adventure he wakes up one day to find everyone's left shoe is missing. Then he stumbles (after all he only has one shoe on) across a plot to make a penny off every loafer in town! This 12" Rhino EP marks the 1979 rebirth of TFT after several years hiatus. Missing Shoe is five short but spirited chapters, each spiced with quick lead ins and commercial spoofs. Sound effects are limited to a Wurlitzer and acoustic noise makers giving it an authentic old radio sound too. Great fun! (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)

Amy Carter for President! A 7" picture disk that held the Ronald Reagan song on one side and the Jimmy Carter song on the other side. The Jimmy Carter Song was not released on the 1980 Fighting Clowns LP, but it is on the CD. (Collector's item in vinyl only) - (Rusty Pipes)