In the late 60s, one of my favorite pastimes was listening to albums from the Firesign Theater. I’m not sure how to explain them… nor if it’s possible.
My Cousin Michael just told me he tried to play one of their albums for his wife, Melissa. She took to them the way most woman become Three Stooges fans. It was painful.
Sometimes their routines were peppered with what I thought was nonsense words. For instance, from “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All?”
JOE: No. First they had to come from towns with strange names like . . .
EDDIE: Smegma!
Dc: Spasmodic!
EDDIE: Frog!
JOE: And the far-flung Isles of Langerhans.
I had not thought of the far-flung Isles of Langerhans for twenty years… maybe more. And then, it all came rushing back at me, like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist.
Sorry – that’s their line, from Nick Danger.
From the New York Times:
The cause was pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, said his son Paul E. Lacy Jr.
Dr. Lacy was among the first scientists to observe how beta cells, which reside in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, make insulin.
You’re kidding! I can’t believe they worked pathology into their albums. These guys were good.
Hey Geoff – yes, the far-flung isles of Langerhans led me hear. I discovered the Firesign when in college, or was it university? Perhaps a darkened dorm room absent a disgusting dwarf with a pickle in a brown paper bag. Anyway, there was room for both of us. Enjoyed your recall and its cer-come-standing. Now, could you please pass the pliers?
Stephen
How about this: on Waiting for the Electrician which begins with the Ralph Spoilsport Motors commercial and ends with a pot commercial…”and here’s the Yucatán Blue, scored to you from that sky-blue province…” and somewhere in there, he segues into a stream of concienceness reverie “…and I wore flowers in my hair like the Andalusian girls—yes—and he asked would I say yes…” and this goes on for a bit, then the album ends.
I always thought it was a strange way to end “Waiting for the Electrician…” but cool. Years later, I realized that the whole reverie at the end was also the end of James Joyce’ Ulysses, where Molly is remembering how she met Bloom, while masturbating on the bed…”yes, I said…yes, I will…yes, yes, YES”
I guess it’s a really famous quote (possibly the longest sentence in English literature) but it took 20 years for it to click with me.