Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
| Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by The Firesign Theatre | ||||
| Released | July 1970 | |||
| Recorded | April and May 1970 | |||
| Genre | Comedy | |||
| Length | 46:28 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | The Firesign Theatre with Bill Driml | |||
| The Firesign Theatre chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
| The New Rolling Stone Record Guide | |
| Robert Christgau | A+ |
| The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide |   |
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers is The Firesign Theatre's third comedy recording for Columbia Records, released in July 1970. In 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called it "the greatest comedy album ever made".
All tracks by The Firesign Theatre
This was The Firesign Theatre's first album wherein a single narrative took up both sides of the album.
In Phil Austin's notes to the 1987 Mobile Fidelity re-release of this album he says "Dwarf is the story of the five ages of Man and in particular, the five ages of one George Leroy Tirebiter; a man named after a dog"
The piece centers on the character of Tirebiter (played by David Ossman), a former child actor who spends his time watching himself on late-night television.
As his evening unfolds, the listener hears "excerpts" from fictional movies in Tirebiter's past. High School Madness stars 'Dave Casman' as Peorgie Tirebiter and 'Joe Bertman' as his sidekick, Mudhead—although an earlier portion of the recording intentionally blurs the distinction between fantasy and reality by identifying Tirebiter (not 'Casman') as having been the star of the "Peorgie and Mudhead" films, rather than a character in those films. High School Madness is a parody of the Aldrich Family radio show, the Archie comic book and of 1950s youth culture in general. Parallel Hell is a war film set in Korea, where the soldiers (including Tirebiter) debate the seemingly endless war. These are interspersed with commercials and other staples of late-night television (including a televangelist and a talk show) as Tirebiter randomly changes channels. The broadcasts contain many references to warfare and Cold War paranoia (product names such as Napalmolive), indicating that Tirebiter's world exists under martial law.
...
Wikipedia