tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post7843557142175928241..comments2024-03-04T04:08:39.755-08:00Comments on The Fies Files: Whatever Happened to the Comedy Album?Brian Fieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16347700145666751363noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-34450978814851843732010-03-03T20:20:46.467-08:002010-03-03T20:20:46.467-08:00Oh, and a Vaughan Meader story - when I was a kid ...Oh, and a Vaughan Meader story - when I was a kid I saw him on Dick Cavett a million billion years ago, talking about how he heard about the assassination. <br /><br />He got into a cab in Manhattan and the cab driver asked him, "Did you hear about President Kennedy in Dallas?" and Meader responded, "No, how does it go?"Jim O'Kanehttp://www.tvdads.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-19918054042828241122010-03-03T20:14:45.113-08:002010-03-03T20:14:45.113-08:00Brian - The Firesign Theater is still kicking. Fir...Brian - The Firesign Theater is still kicking. <a href="http://www.firesigntheater.com" rel="nofollow">FiresignTheater.com</a> is a long-established web presence.<br /><br />I know you're in the northern side of California, and FT has a few performances planned:<br /><br />July 8,9,10 -Ashland/Medford, Redding and or Arcada (possible)<br /><br />July 23,24,25 - Could be Mill Valley, Berkeley/Oakland<br /><br />Sept. 16,17,18,19 - Santa Barbara and LAJim O'Kanehttp://www.tvdads.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-55311385969273908642010-02-27T22:18:50.092-08:002010-02-27T22:18:50.092-08:00Oh yeah, I was a big fan of Firesign Theater, it w...Oh yeah, I was a big fan of Firesign Theater, it was an oversight not to mention them. Jim, you say they're still in business? I did not know that. I was likewise a fan of Bob and Ray. I like my humor droll and very dry.<br /><br />Talk about performers who had their careers disappear overnight--In Vaughn Meader's case, Nov. 22, 1963. His misfortune in no way compares to the nation's, but I don't think it's unseemly to feel a little sorry for him especially.<br /><br />Ronnie, love the story but admit I never warmed to Cheech and Chong. But I know the feeling they evoked in you. Their influence was big.Brian Fieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347700145666751363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-14897683541849347232010-02-27T17:56:45.633-08:002010-02-27T17:56:45.633-08:00I spent much of my lawn mowing earnings on Firesig...I spent much of my lawn mowing earnings on Firesign Theater albums in the 70's. The group always astonished me with the multi-layered depths of their comedy audio. A dozen re-hearings would turn up new nuggets of humor in the background, long before the DVD Easter eggs of today. The albums had the internal logic of a Vonnegut novel, and more cultural references than an episode of MST3K.<br />Their more recent offerings have a bit too much inside baseball for a new audience, but the boys still have the "it" of funny.Jim O'Kanehttp://www.tvdads.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-86720541315436948302010-02-27T15:19:05.808-08:002010-02-27T15:19:05.808-08:00"Intensely" in the next-to last paragrap..."Intensely" in the next-to last paragraph of my comment should have been "intense," of course.<br /><br />I wish Blogger allowed comments to be edited.Sherwood Harringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09575868746160608731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-44546631496002073342010-02-27T15:16:11.830-08:002010-02-27T15:16:11.830-08:00I love this post.
Oh, yes, I remember many evenin...I love this post.<br /><br />Oh, yes, I remember many evenings with friends, (some wasted, some not, and you can take "wasted" however you want) listening to comedy on vinyl. It's a shame that comedy albums seem to be gone; I agree with you and ronnie about where they went (to cable and the internet.)<br /><br />But you can occasionally hear them on radio -- our local renegade-eclectic FM station, KPIG, will throw an occasional cut in between songs by the Trailer Park Troubadors or whomever. Just yesterday, while driving home, I was treated to Bill Cosby's classic bit on driving in San Francisco ("a STOP sign... at the TOP of the HILL!") and noticed how much different his voice sounded when he was young.<br /><br />You left out the Firesign Theater! ... or maybe they just weren't to your taste. I think one of those was the last comedy album I listened to all the way through.<br /><br />I think I caught the comedy album fever from my Dad -- he absolutely loved Bob and Ray, and he passed his appreciation for a young Bob Newhart on to me. Speaking of Newhart, I wonder how many people who knew him only from his TV shows knew why (or even noticed that) just about every episode included a funny bit with Bob on the telephone, in which you could never hear the person on the other end of the line, only Bob's responses.<br /><br />I once got into trouble at the radio station I worked for when I was in high school for playing a cut from a Vaughn Meader album, "The First Family," I think was the title, in which he did an outstanding JFK. Within seconds of the start of the cut, the station manager called from home and in a chill voice and stern tone let me know in no uncertain terms that I was NEVER to play anything from that album on the air again. Turns out he was an intensely anti-Kennedyite politically, as were many in that small town at that time.<br /><br />Sorry for throwing such a long comment here, but, pleonastically, I loved this post to pieces. It brough back a whole lot of pleasant memories.Sherwood Harringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09575868746160608731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1568334561722760329.post-43403897750275026752010-02-27T14:32:45.329-08:002010-02-27T14:32:45.329-08:00I remember the first time I heard a Cheech & C...I remember the first time I heard a Cheech & Chong album, at around 16. I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pass out. Don't know how much of an impact they had on mainstream culture (little, I suspect) but they sure as hell had an impact on the subculture. Them, and Monty Python, seem to have been the last gasps, no? I agree that cable (and now the internet) are what replaced them.ronniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14044863062652781155noreply@blogger.com