Oct 3, 2010: Firesign Forever
Beginning in the late ’60s, the four members of the Firesign Theatre produced a string of brilliant comedy albums that tapped into the zeitgeist, and helped define it. Surreal, subversive, psychedelic, postmodern: all the usual terms used to describe their sonic tableaus are accurate, up to a point. But I prefer Whitmanesque, or maybe Whitmaniacal, which suggests the sweep of their American census-taking. So what if the Firesigners heard hokum where Walt heard democracy singing? Their clamoring BS artists, barkers and bozos are at least as true to our time as Whitman’s doughty blacksmiths and ploughmen were to his.
As the fab four ready themselves for a reunion tour, I talked to two of them—Phil Austin and Phil Proctor—about their upcoming performances, their classic recordings, their methods and madness.
We featured parts of this interview on our Oct. 3 pledge drive show, but here it is in its entirety. Click the “play” arrow above to listen, or download the MP3 here.
