The Firesign Theatre: Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers CD Track Listing

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The Firesign Theatre Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers (1970)
2001 Columbia/Legacy\nOriginally Released 1970\nRemastered Edition Released December 4, 2001\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Firesign Theatre's previous work had already proved that the troupe wasn't particularly interested in releasing conventional comedy albums. While earlier albums had longer pieces, Don't Crush That Dwarf is the first time they dedicated an entire album to a single theme. Although initially it sounds like a loose collection of semi-related items, it later becomes clear that the whole album is a look through the past of a single character, George Leroy Tirebiter, with a few flips of a television tuner knob taking you through his early days as a child star all the way up to a This Is Your Life-style reflection and beyond. Television and movie parodies still figure prominently throughout: "High School Madness" is a hilarious spoof on wholesome '40s boys' adventure films, but the group also takes on war films, televangelists, commercials, and more. In many ways, this is a comedy concept album. What's more, it moves past comedy in places, proving that you can be funny while remaining intelligent. The group even throws in a touch of poignancy at the very end. Masterful. -- Sean Carruthers\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThis is one of the great ones!, February 6, 2002 \nReviewer: misterlevel from Sebastopol, CA USA \nSimply the most innovative thing done under the "comedy" heading since the advent of television. Firesign Theatre applied the same studio tools to their comedy as those used by the rock'n'roll artists of the time, creating here a richly-textured tapestry that continues to entertain after hundreds of hearings. A few of their other albums reach for these heights - this one is the most full-realized. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nStrange, inexplicable genius, January 22, 2002 \nReviewer: Jonathan Deon from Nelson, BC Canada \nThe closest analogy I can think of with listening to Firesign Theatre is catching a radio broadcast from a parallel universe. Their weird, layered tales of sound and fury project the feeling of being allowed a glimpse into another world, another culture, a warped version of our own with people that operate under alien logic and a completely different perception. This is a world where everything is normal to the inhabitants but foreign and nearly incomprehensible to an external eavesdropper - sort of like a shipwrecked Englishman trying to comprehend the language and rituals of the tribesmen on the south pacific island he's been stranded on.\n\nFiresign Theatre often goes beyond simple satire or parody and into a state difficult to define. A brilliantly constructed alternate reality is the best way I can describe it. And it is brilliant. The universe may be stranger than we CAN imagine, but if anyone can imagine that strangeness, it's the people behind Don't Crush that Dwarf - thinking this original doesn't need any revelatory insights into the human condition attached to it - though you may stumble upon a few anyway. Don't listen to this while attempting to derive philosophical truths on a level of profundity equal with Shakespeare's plays. Just sit back and enjoy the mind-bending ride. This stuff is better than acid. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThe one everyone remembers - a classic!, December 20, 2001 \nReviewer: A music fan from Los Angeles, CA USA \n"Dwarf" is probably the most celebrated of the Firesign Theatre's albums (along with "How Can You Be In Two Places..."). It certainly presents the foursome (David Ossman, Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, & Phil Proctor) at their peak creatively and remains a hilarious listening experience. It follows a faded movie star, George LeRoy Tirebiter (Ossman), on a journey through an evening of television where, after consuming sustenance offered to him (literally) right through his TV by televangelist Rev. E. L. Mouse (Austin), he is able to view himself in various incarnations. He is, at various times, the star of the old, '30s & '40s juvenile (& fictitious) "Peorgie & Mudhead" comedies, as the star of the WWII drama "Parallel Hell," and as an aging showbiz vet looking back on his career. Throughout it all, he tries to figure out the exact time that he "sold out." Indeed, selling things and selling out are the major themes on this album, and the various TV ads presented ("Napalmolive," "Erstatz Bros. Coffee") are among the CD's highlights. It also presents switching TV channels as being our nation's fundamental aesthetic (and, really, it is). This CD was previously out-of-print for nearly 10 yrs., so grab one now and treasure it. Also, head over to laugh.com for the balance of re-releases of the Firesign's classic albums (i.e., "Everything You Know Is Wrong," "The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra"). \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nWit For Brains, December 4, 2001 \nReviewer: A music fan from Anytown USA \nAnother of the Firesign's essential masterpieces of audio theatre. Densely packed with jokes and parodies, this album stands up to repeated listenings without losing its charm. Unlike most comedy albums (where once you've heard the joke or routine, you've got it) this album will reveal new layers of meaning, reference and humor each time you listen to it.\n\nWhat at first seems to be an almost haphazard collection of parodies of television evangelists, old war movies, TV sit-coms, game shows, B-movies, and commercials commercials commercials gradually reveals a coherent story behind all the channel-changing. Like all of the troup's best work, this story is open to multiple interpretations, but themes that clealy play a role are selling out, conformity, obedience to authority, pacifism and commercialism. This is a dense yet fast-paced send-up of middle-brow American culture.\n\nIn the tradition of the best American humor, this is hilariously funny while also asking some pointed questions. Even better, the Firesigns are less interested in providing pat answers than in simply posing the questions for you to ponder on your own. A marvelous album that will make you laugh and make you think (and think about laughing and laugh about thinking).\n\nOne quibble: There is no banding other than "Part 1" "Part 2" It would be nice to be able to skip to a favorite section (and would allow DJs to insert the fake commercials into a radio show - thus promoting the album - duh!). \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nBill Driml, Engineer\nBill Driml, Producer\nFiresign Theatre, Producer\n\nRolling Stone (10/15/1970)\n...The secret message of the Firesign's last album was that the United States had lost its gigantic war on fascism...But this record will send you coasting on gales of laughter to a very unpleasant realization: time is running out...
This misc cd contains 2 tracks and runs 46min 30sec.
Freedb: 0f0ae402
Buy: from Amazon.com

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: Music

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: music songs tracks misc Comedy

1. The Firesign Theatre - This Side (22:14)
2. The Firesign Theatre - The Other Side (24:13)