Customer Reviews

How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're

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Let's start with side 2 - The Further Adventures of Nick Danger. This is how I taught my children about radio theatre. You can follow the story as is, you can notice the radio theatre jokes, the inside Firesign Theatre jokes including the other side of a phone conversation which appears on another album, or do all at once. You'll hear more each time you listen. Side 1 (the "title track" so to speak) uses multi-tracking in a way that makes "Sgt. Pepper's" seem simple by comparison. The references fly fast and furious, from a parody of a then-famous LA car dealer, to James Joyce, to Zeno's Paradoxes. It's OK if some of it goes over your head, or too fast to hear the first time. Otherwise, why would you listen again? A warning: this is not background music. Parts of it can become really annoying if you try to do something else while listening. You can also get lost, as the protagonist does, if you miss some of the transitions. It is meant to require your full attention and both ears, as well as the space between them.

The original LP Side One of HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE WHEN YOU'RE NOT ANYWHERE AT ALL is a continuous recording subdivided into themes. Side Two is a Nick Danger radio show episode, brought to you by the makers of Loostner's Castor Oil Flakes and Fastastic Cigarettes ("Loostner's for the smile of beauty; Fantastics for the smile of success").


How Can You Be In Two Places etc. is truly one of the strangest comedy albums of all time. Arguably the Firesign Theatre's finest, it's just packed with memorable lines that Firesign fans can still quote decades after they, through sheer repetition of listenings, committed them to memory.

For example, I've had this bit from Side 1 stuck in my head for over 40 years. As printed here, this is how I recall it:

"Hiya, friends! Ralph Spoilsport, Ralph Spoilsport Motors... the world's LARGest new-used and used automobile dealership... Ralph Spoilsport Motors here in the city of... EMphysema! Let's just look at the EXtras on this fabulous car: wire wheel spoke fenders, two-way sneeze-thru winds vents, star-studded mud guards, sponge-coated EDible steering column, CHROME fender dents and factory AIR conditioned air from our fully factory-equipped... air conditioned factory. It's a BEAUTiful car friends (with doors to match), purchased BLACKlist as this automobile was STOlen, but for you friends a complete price: only two-ninety-five HUNdred dollars; and easy money payments available once a week, twice a week and never on Sunday... As you can see this car has been fully equipped with a complete line of extras designed with YOUR MIND in mind: here for instance an all-weather climate control in red, blue or green, with a special oxygen danger indicator level. And here of course your own personal remote control picture-sized color TV with matching brass knobs. Just reach above the bar and press the button right there under the handy laminated imitation masonite Wild West gun rack (with the look of real wood) for the channel... of your choice."

CLICK.

What a soliloquy. What a waste of brain cells storing it. But it can't be helped! Firesign Theatre affects folks like this, so be advised that repeated plays of this CD may lead to YOU spouting reams of bizarre Theatre dialogue, much to the dismay of family, friends and strangers.

PROGRAM--
(All titles are as they were on the original 1969 COLUMBIA Records LP.)

SIDE ONE:
"How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All"
[4:21] Drink to Me Only with Thine Fox (Mr. Catherwood and Ensemble)
[4:34] The Policemen's Brawl (Officers Bradshaw and Henderson)
[2:47] Yankee Doodle Came to Terms (All Fecal People's Chorus)
[1:34] Über Dubbing Over Alice ('arry 'n' Friends)
[7:34] You Ain't Got No Friends on the Left (Babe and the Unknown Soldiers)
[7:31] We're Bringing the War Back Home! from "Babes in Khaki" (Lilly Lamont*) (*Miss Lamont Courtesy of Paranoid Pictures)
TOTAL TIME: 28:27

SIDE TWO:
"The Further Adventures of Nick Danger"
From the Archives of the Original Firesign Theatre Radio Hour. As First Broadcast December 6, 1941. Rebroadcast Courtesy of Loostners Bros. Soap Co.
TOTAL TIME: 28:11

This FT album (I just dated myself) is, in my experience, the best of the incredible body of work these guys have produced over the years. "Head 'em Off at the Past" alone is worth the price of admission.
On the other hand, I played it for an ex-girlfriend once and she didn't think it was funny. I'm not saying that's the reason we broke up; I only mention it because it's apparently possible, for some, to not enjoy this.
But if you don't I'm gonna have to rethink our relationship.

This release from the Firesign Theatre is, as this review's title says, a comedy masterpiece. It is a densely-packed one-two punch of some genuinely brilliant material, possibly this quartet's best work. It's a little dated, with some drug humor and a lot of references to The Beatles' "White Album," from the previous year, but the humor itself is timeless. Some of the wordplay, particularly in the "Nick Danger" radio play, is multi-faceted, boomerang humor, as I call it, as it goes over your head, only to come back and hit you, such as "...There was something fishy about the butler; I think he was a Pisces, probably working for scale." Gold.

One reviewer of this product gave a verbatim recitation of the "Ralph Spoilsport" segment, impressive, but seeing it transcribed in front of you, as opposed to actually hearing it, takes something away from it. It could be called one of those "You had to be there moments," in which case, you had to be there.

This has some esoteric highbrow humor, as well as some lowbrow audio slapstick, and everything in between, something for everyone.

I used to have it on 8-track (yes, I'm that old), and replaced it on CD, but wound up a few years ago moving several times in short order, and this gem, as well as several others, disappeared in the confusion. So in my recent shopping binge, I am replacing it, with no buyer's remorse.

This is the third version I've had of this album. The first side is a belly laugh a minute, and the Nick Danger episode is the best of the bunch. You can listen to these hundreds of times (I have) and still pick up new things you may have missed the first hundred times. I also recommend "I think We're all Bozos on This Bus". But you do need a basic understanding of the 60's to appreciate that one.

Once you've listened to the Nick Danger "Cut'em Off at the Past" episode, listen the the Beatles "Rocky Raccoon". You will see where they got some of the plot.

THis is a classic radio comedy CD which will make you laff til it hurts , I personally guarantee .