Firesign Media: Pink Hotel Burns Down

Pink Hotel Burns Down

(Out of Print)

A collection mostly consisting of early Firesign radio and live performances. The standout track is the title cut, which is a precursor to what ultimately became Eat or Be Eaten.

LINER NOTES:

The Firesign Theatre's
PINK HOTEL BURNS DOWN

At last! From the Mark Time-capsulated Archives! Here's an assortment of early sketches and live performances by the Firesign Theatre, along with the opening scenes from an album they never finished.

From their historic "Magic Mushroom" broadcasts in the winter of '67 -- three-hour live shows from a fruit-juice cabaret in North Hollywood -- the first performances of "Exorcism in Your Daily Life" and "By the Light of the Silvery." The first is literally an educational movie-for-your-mind. The longer piece is a flat-out Goon Show parody adapted for their 1968 stage gigs. Sureshot Homeless and the patient Doctor reappear, of course, as Hemlock Stones and Dr. Flotsom in the 1973 Firesign record, The Giant Rat of Sumatra.

In 1980, Firesign was asked to pilot a new studio album. They wrote a dozen pages of a story based on an early computer game, narrated in game language. The budget allowed for a day in the studio -- time enough to record and produce two game sequences: The Pink Hotel and The Sand Bar. Too bad the boys never had a chance to get to Bonus City!

While Proctor & Bergman was touring in the mid-1970s, Austin and Ossman appeared together in a couple of stage shows. "Over The Edge" served as the morning soap opera in a "day" of vintage parodies mixing Nazis and Surrealists with Nick Danger and George Tirebiter.

The rest of this collection is RadioThen: four real commercials for Firesign's early KRLA radio sponsor, Jack Poet Volkswagen; one genuine radio spot for a Craig portable recorder; three actual headlines from 1979 used as the basis for improvs in a brief run on National Public Radio; and the Firesign's first recorded radio sketch ever, from Radio Free Oz on KPFK. They had been working together for some four months by then!

All materials, sketches, commercials, and radio plays were written and performed by Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Phil Proctor: The Firesign Theatre.

KPFK and KRLA Radio Free Oz broadcasts engineered and recorded by Make Dayton. Radio Laffs of 1940 written by Austin and Ossman, recorded by Zippo Klein. The Pink Hotel Burns Down engineered by Fred Jones. Craig Product spot recorded by Bell Sound Studios. Music and vocal for Jack Poet spots by the immortal David Grimm.

Produced by Richard Fish.
Artwork and CD Mastering by Daniel J. Geduld.
Texts (c) 1996 and 1998 by the Firesign Theatre.
Compact Disc (p) 1998 by More Sugar.
For more information, call (812) 824-2400.

1. Exorcism In Your Daily Life
TFT presents an URPI Classroom Film for Radio in which Jimmy and, his Dad, a Bank Manager, the Mayor and Old Doc Filth have to write an essay on this important natural resource! (October 29, 1967 - The First Firesign Theatre "Magic Mushroom" Live Broadcast) 7:40

2. The Aboriginal Amateur Hour
"Round and round and round it goes! Ho ho! We're on the wheel again!" (1969 - Brought to you by Jack Poet Volx - Waggin) 1:04

3. Over The Edge!
One more episode in the story that asks the question: "Who's Peggy?" Victoria Hamingbird and Edward Edwards perform live in "Radio Laffs of 1940." (May, 1976 - Los Feliz Theatre) 12:28

4. ...nd of the World!
Another troubled day in the life of Mixville Breadworks folks. (1969 - Another Vintage Volkswagen Radio Spot) 1:04

5. A Closer Look
TFT's own hard-htting news magazine for NPR! SKYLAB THREATENS EARTH WITH SPACE-JUNK! SEN. HAYAKAWA'S DOOMED MONARCH MOTOR HOMES. THE ENERGY CRISIS ROUNDTABLE! Up-Close Coverage of 1979's Big Stories! 7:30

6. International Youth On Parade
TFT's International Radio News uncovers a Paris love-in! (February 1967) 3:58

7. Sergeant Preston
Two years later and it's still cops vs. hippies! (September 1969 - TFT and friends caught bootlegging with a Craig Stereo) :50

8. The Pink Hotel Burns Down
or What Good is a Halfling in a Holocaust? TFT invites you to play alone on the Road to Bonus City with Armistice Brooks, Ol' Grizz the Leatherback, Earl-the-Halfling, and the Dustmaster... or is your game over? (August 1981 - Opening scenes of an unfinished album) 6:50

9. Breakfast With the Brunts
More Sugar from America's hippest hand-painted dealership! (1969) 1:05

10. By The Light Of The Silvery... part I
or The Giant Rat of Sumatra. TFT presents the premiere performance of Sir Arthur Condem Daily's tale of Sureshot Homeless' most hopeless case! (Nov. 19, 1967 - Broadcast live from the stage of the Magic Mushroom) 12:43

11. Captain Equinox
By day, Kiki, mini-skirted habitué of Hollywood's Star-Struck Sunset Strip... (Beetlemania Never Strikes for the Last Time - 1969) 1:00

12. By The Light Of The Silvery... part II
Act Two - Over the Heath Cliff. 11:52

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