Don’t Crush that Dwarf is their classic, for sure. I just heard it again, after 35 years, and it is still great. But parts of the first four albums make up a whole story, astory of a man growing to take control of his own destiny.
In “Waiting for the Electrician” “P” is thrown from place to place. A brief attempt to take over fails miserably, and after losing at “Beat the Reaper” he makes a run for the border. He runs across the street …
and into “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once” where he buys a car, heads off, is carjacked by his climate control, and finds the vital piece of information that "the President of the United States is named Schicklegruber. Back in the car, he listens to Ralph Icebags the dope dealer, gets stoned, and soon has …
a case of the munchies in “Don’t Crush that Dwarf.” As George Leroy Tirebiter, he relives his life, both as a kid star, and older star, a director, and an old man. The vital thing here is that Porgy and Lt. Tirebiter find what reality is, and they break out of the movie, discovering that this is no movie, this is real. Which reel? Waking up from watching himself on the TV, calls from the great comics of the past transforms him into a kid again, and he runs out for an ice cream cone …
only to find the bus for the Future Fair in “We’re all Bozos On this Bus.” (A must listen.) Here, uh-Clem seizes control of the world, hacking the President and Dr. Memory, and bringing the structure of the crooked society of stupid exhibits and fascistic vegetables down.
I was in college when these came out, and we spent months at the beginning of each year analyzing them. I’ve also got the book of scripts - very useful.
The later ones are good. There was a two record set from their radio show, and a friend of mine had tapes of tons of them, a few of which I listened to. But nothing like the first four - though some of the short pieces on the first album are incredibly deriviative of Stan Freburg.