I wrote this for someone else, for somewhere else. Here it is. Firesign Memories I had begun to receive fanzines in early 1971 as I’d signed up as an attending member of NoreasCon (I), that year’s WorldCon in Boston. (They didn’t know it was “I” yet; it was the very first Boston WorldCon.) That year a bunch of new formats of stuff got nominated for “Best Dramatic Presentation” – records! “Blows Against The Empire” by the Jefferson Starship, and something by a group called The Firesign Theatre – “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers” were the two records nominated. No Award won. I went to Noreascon, my very first SF con ever, as well as my first WorldCon, and it is still my favorite con of all time. This probably had to do with the time and place and my age and all that of course. In any case, after the convention I had enough money again to buy records. I bought “Blows” (which I still rather like) and “Don’t Crush That Dwarf.” I bought “Dwarf” while on my way to some sort of Boy Scout event on a Friday Night at Crickit Holler (no joke!), a Dayton-area Scout-owned wilderness area with a meeting place. I was early; I was sooooo early that I had time to dig up the record player I knew was there, plug it in, and put “Dwarf” on. There I was, Bob, listening to this damn record player that wouldn’t play loud at all; you had to almost place your ear to the speaker to hear anything. And what in the hell *was* I hearing anyway? It was weird, it was funny, it was confounding --- it blew me away. I thus became a full-fledged firehead (as we are called) at age 16, initiated into the secrets of this esoteric society at a Boy Scout camp. I’ve seen them three times, not counting movies and TV shows. Once at that Circle Theater in Phoenix in mid-1974 (whose name I can’t remember); once at Grady Garbage (that one was actually only a Proctor & Bergman show, 1977?); and then once again in San Francisco in 1985 (IIRC). They have never ceased being funny and creative. They took most of the ‘80s off but returned now and then and at the turn of the century they produced a slew of albums again. That was their last burst of creativity (1998 – 2001) and Peter Bergman died about two years ago, reducing the 4 or 5 krazy guys to only 3 or 4. But Dear Friends, I still follow them, marching, marching to shibboleth all the while.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:29:02 +0000
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