Re: Firesign Theatre

[Chris Richards <kohntarkosz@yahoo.com>]

<<How fortunate for everyone!  Waiting for the 
  Electrician or Somebody Like Him has been
out-of-print for years, ever since Sony bought up
the catalog and decided that it would be best to
just have a Best Of collection, which goes to
show how much they understand THAT humor!  >>

I think all of the albums have been out of print
longer than that. I know I saw a CD of Don't
Crush That Dwarf... back around 89 or so, it was
the first album of their's that I heard, and as I
recall, it was on Mobile Fidelity. And I'm not
sure, but I think there was also a MF CD of How
Can You Be In Two Places At Once..., but I could
be wrong. I do remember that the CD of Don't
Crush That Dwarf had new liner notes written by
one of the members of the group (I've forgotten
who) where he mentioned one particular item in
the plot, which he picked up on while listening
to the masters as they prepared the CD version,
that he thought might confuse the listeners. I
won't say what it was, because I can't actually
remember the name of one of the characters
involved (and I haven't gotten around to
listening to side two of the CD). And I'm sure
there was a CD of How Can You Be In Two Places...
(geez, any attempt to abbreviate these album
titles is still a chore to type) as I remember a
line about how Nick Diamond "checks out the other
side" and how he's actually listening to the
other side of the album, backwards. 

Anyway, after I got out of high school, I joined
the Navy, which was a bad idea. But I did get
certain gains out of finding out I didn't belong
in the military, one of which was living in San
Diego, just a bit of a walk from the San Diego
Sports Arena, across the street from which was a
Tower Records. At the time, this was THE best
record store I had ever been to. This is where I
found the cassette copies of the first three
albums, which I bought. 

Now, I can't remember when Sony bought Columbia
(which was the label those albums first came out
on, or at least, the label the cassettes were
issued on), but I think the albums have been out
of print longer than since the release of that
double CD compilation set. Thinking about it now,
the library also had a CD of I Think We're All
Bozos On This Bus (that was the fourth album,
right?), so that makes me wonder if MF didn't
also issue a CD of Waiting For The Electrician...
and I've just never seen it (I'm sure I never saw
that one until I came across the cassette at
Tower). 

<<I remember a lot of nervousness from the
previous publishers, an early high-quality
mastering bunch who'd published everything before
The Giant Rat of Sumatra. I recall the guys
saying something about it during the 25th
Anniversary show at the Wiltern, back when I was
still a free American... >>

DUH!!!!!!!!!! I wrote all that stuff above, then
realized that you mention the Mobile Fidelity
reissues (without specifically mentioning the
name of the outfit). So, I guess that means they
DID reissue all of the albums in question. I
wonder what the "nervousness" was about. Mobile
Fidelity strikes me as the sort of people who
wouldn't be nervous about reissuing cult classic
comedy records. I mean, they put out remastered
CD's of many classic rock albums (I remember they
had a CD of the first two Blue Öyster Cult
albums) that were far superior to the regular
issue CD's that the respective labels were
putting out in the days before everyone started
issuing remasters with bonus tracks, new liner
notes, additional photos, "faithfully reproduced
artwork", etc.  
                  
Which album was it that had the drawing on the
back cover of the animals playing baseball? I
always thought that was a cool cover, though I
hear the album wasn't as good (I borrowed the LP
from the library once, but don't remember much
about it...our local library got rid of all of
their vinyl about 8 years ago). 

=====
May you never thirst!
The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris

"What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James 
Earl Jones

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