Bend Over!! I'm A Gypsy!!!! HEADPHONE Comedy- aka Comedy's Psychedelic Era Part 1
In the wake of the success of THE FIRESIGN THEATRE Several other LP oriented comedic troups arose on other record labels, Epic had Harvard Lampoon, Atlantic had The Conception Corporation , There was that duo on Fantasy who I cannot remember the name of, CHRISTOPHER GUEST produced perhaps the finest example of all conceptual audio "headphone" comedy abum with National Lampoon's RADIO DINNER . One night I was up burning the midnight oil, writing auctions, when I started thinking about the Firesign's & how I never really "got it", so I decided to download Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers , which had been the recommended title & had the weird cover that had fascinated me as a very young child when I wondered upon it in my dad's record collection. Indeed the cover itself has a certain aesthetic to it that remains my favorite style of LP cover (tight facial of the band members, other examples include THE SHOCKING BLUE USA cover, the STOOGES first LP & the self titled MODER JAZZ QUARTET on Atlantic). Anyhow, I had fully downloaded it & was trying to make out the subtle bits on the computer speakers, when Miss Ventur stumbled & asked me to turn it down, all groggy & squinty eyed. "Sorry baby" I 'splained "It's just that I just loaded Firesign & am not sure I get it". ".....headphones" she murmured as she made her way back to bed. Good advice, it all makes so much more sense!!! Oh that Georgie Tirebiter!!
This is a bit from my other favorite THE CREDIBILITY GAP, featuring regular GUEST guests HARRY SHEARER & MICHAEL McKEAN, DAVID LANDER & RICHARD BEEB. Such convincing send up, many think it's an actual recording from The Tonight Show, McKean's RICKLES is dead-on perfect, and SHEARER...IS...CARSON! The group did a hilarious Borscht-belt meets WOODSTOCK send-up album for CAPITOL which I have never seen called WOODSCHTICK, a great mini- rock Opera (1 side of 1 45!!) Something for Mary ( i think it was a promo only, never seen one w/o white label) & an LP for Warners ,from which this bit is included , called A GREAT GIFT IDEA before splitting up soon after, McKEAN & LANDER of course, going onto become LENNY & SQUIGGY, and apparently SHEARER joined SNL during the final season w/ the original cast members, but I sure don't remember that. as the frog sez: dig-um!!
