Shoes For Industry! The Best Of The Firesign Theatre

Firesign Theatre | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 7, 1993)
• Original Release Date: September 7, 1993
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000028OU
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,156 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Temporarily Humbolt County

2. Beat the Reaper!

3. I Was a Cock-Teaser for Roosterama!

4. Ralph Spoilsport Motors

5. The American Pageant

6. The Chinchilla Show

7. The Further Adventures of Nick Danger

8. Stab from the Past

9. Ersatz Bros. Coffee

10. High School Madness

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Forward into the Past

2. The Holygram's Song (Back from the Shadows Again)

3. The Breaking of the President

4. Deputy Dan Has No Friends

5. La Bomba Shelter

6. Young Guy, Motor Detective

7. Toad Away

8. Not Quite the Solution He Expected

9. Bear Whiz Beer

10. Happy Hour News

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pass this by-get the uncut albums here & at laugh.com!, December 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Shoes For Industry! The Best Of The Firesign Theatre (Audio CD)

Make no mistake about it: the Firesign Theatre are brilliant. Then you may ask, why do you rate this CD only two stars? Well, they're so brilliant that it does them quite an injustice to clip excerpts of their classic albums (which were all conceived to be whole, full-length pieces) and construct a "greatest hits" from them. Taken as small pieces, these cuts, while still very funny, aren't quite as amazing as they would be if heard within the context of the album from whence they came. Until recently, nearly all of the Firesign's classic LPs/CDs were out-of-print and this collection was the best you could do if you wanted to hear stuff from their "golden" age. But now, the first four albums ("Waiting for the Electrician...," "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once...," "Don't Crush That Dwarf...," and "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus")have been re-released on CD by Sony Legacy and the other titles from their '70s heyday ("Not Insane," "Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra," "Everything You Know Is Wrong," & "In the Next World, You're On Your Own") - not previously available on CD - have been re-released exclusively through laugh.com. Get those instead. They're all great and, to re-iterate, these mere "pieces" make much more sense when heard along with the "greater puzzle." The only cuts this collection offers which are not available anywhere else are some bits from their now-out-of-print collection of bits from their old, live radio show, "Dear Friends," and a couple of things from their "solo" albums (recordings consisting of only one or two of the members). So, unless your a real completist, pass this title by and acquire the complete, uncut albums from this site or laugh.com.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aliens...register here!, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shoes For Industry! The Best Of The Firesign Theatre (Audio CD)

This is a great collection and I especially enjoyed the detailed booklet. For those who have never heard Firesign before this is an excellent choice, and even for serious Firesign fans this set will probably have something you haven't heard before. To truly appreciate Firesign Theatre, however, it is absolutely essential to listen to the entire albums - especially "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers," "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All," and "Everything You Know Is Wrong." While this set has some of the high points from those albums (actually 3/4 of "...Two Places..."), it relies too much on cuts from "Dear Friends" which are funny at times but can't stand up to the mutlilayered maddness of their greatest moments. I would have prefered "Clockwork Films" from "Everything you Know..." and "Path of Science" from "Bozos" to some of the "Dear Friends" stuff. On the other hand the cleverly edited version of "Police Street", the singles (2) and cuts from solo albums are certainly worth having (although "TV or not TV" has parts I like better than what is presented here.) This CD got me listening to the original albums again, and what do you know, I heard more things I hadn't noticed before particularly cross references among the albums. Let's hope more are reissued soon - Rhino, you got 'em, we'll get 'em, and that's my story.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Diluted but still (fairly) dandy, December 14, 1998

By 

Ed Brickell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shoes For Industry! The Best Of The Firesign Theatre (Audio CD)

These "bleeding chunks" from the classic Firesign albums of the late 60's - early 70's give an acid-tinged taste (but alas, only that) of one of comedy's greatest national treasures. Imagine James Joyce as the fifth Marx brother and you'll have an idea of the fast n' furious wordplay and whacked-out satirical perspective this legendary quartet dishes out.

Their multi-layered albums are not only listenable after dozens of playings -- they can actually reveal new depths, uncover laughs you never heard on previous listenings, and become part of your life.

Docked two stars because it's impossible to limit the far-reaching brilliance of the original albums to what are, in effect, no more than "laugh bites."

Note to Rhino or whoever is sitting on the original material: there was never a better time than now to release all of the classic Firesign Theatre albums in the now-standard "digitally- remastered-new-liner-notes-by-the-original- artists-with-seventeen-outtakes-no-one-thought- good-enough-to-release-with-the-original- recording" format. Do it today! FORWARD INTO THE PAST!