''Duke of Madness Motors: The Complete "Dear Friends" Radio Era'' is a book and data DVD set collecting the complete works of comedy group

the Firesign Theatre The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal humour, surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM broad ...

's 1970s radio shows ''Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour'', '' Dear Friends'', and ''Let's Eat.'' The set includes a 108-page book containing a historical essay, interviews, original scripts, and collages by Firesign founder

Phil Proctor Philip Proctor (born 1940) is an American actor, comedian and a member of the Firesign Theatre. He has performed voice-over work for video games, films and television series. Career Of the four members of Firesign Theatre, Proctor has had t ...

. The data DVD contains more than 80 hours of material on MP3 audio, including 24 episodes of ''Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour'', 21 episodes of ''Dear Friends'', 12 episodes of ''Let's Eat,'' and a 1972 series finale, ''Martian Space Party''. The collections were digitally remastered and annotated by the group's archivist and producer, Taylor Jessen along with several contributors including Mike McIntyre ''Dear Friends'' and ''Let's Eat'' are each collected in both their original broadcast versions and later syndication edits.

Production

The project took more than 10 years to complete. Proctor told the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

in an interview that the material was gathered from archives in "our basements, garages, sheds" and "entire reel-to-reel recordings" made by fans during the original broadcasts. Jessen recovered one tape from a shed which had been buried under a mudslide. The album was released on

Seeland Records Seeland Records is an independent record label created by Negativland in 1979 to release their own recordings. It is a reference to the song "Seeland" by the band Neu!, who also gave Negativland the basis for their name, Sea-Land Corporation, a ...

, the label run by experimental band

Negativland Negativland is an American experimental music band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! track, while their record label (Seeland Records) is named after another Neu! track. The core ...

; co-founder Peter Conheim cited Firesign Theatre as a direct influence on Negativland and hailed them as "pioneers of freely improvised radio".

Related albums

The group's 1972 compilation album '' Dear Friends'' was collected from the same radio sessions gathered in ''Duke of Madness Motors''. ''

Dope Humor of the Seventies ''Dope Humor of the Seventies'' is a compilation album by the Firesign Theatre, released by Stand Up! Records in November 2020. Background A sequel to the '' Dear Friends'' album, it consists of short, highly improvisational sketches distilled f ...

'', a compilation album released by

Stand Up! Records Stand Up! Records is an American independent comedy record label founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Grammy-winning producer Dan Schlissel. It has been called "the country's most respected indie comedy label." Stand Up! has released more than 20 ...

in November 2020, was distilled from the ''Duke of Madness Motors'' archive. The group considers the album a sequel to ''Dear Friends''.

Track list

''Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour'' #"Yes Mistress!" (1/25/1970) #"Pants The Bourgeoisie" (2/1/1970) #"The El Droog Symposium" (2/8/1970) #"I'm Not Saying They Do It, I'm Just Saying You've Seen It" (2/15/1970) #"KWKWT-TV" (2/22/1970) #"Live At The Basilica Of The Blessed Gaffe" (3/8/1970) #"New New Ork" (3/15/1970) #"Znachki" (3/15/1970) #"Everyone In New York Is A Communist" (3/22/1970) #"Easter Sunday Sunday!" (3/29/1970) #"Castaneda Your Bread Upon The Waters" (4/5/1970) #"We'll Be Heironymous Bosch In Jest A Minute, But Faust..." (4/12/1970) #"Zizzing And Dripping With The RAF" (4/19/1970) #"One Slave Whip, Leather, 57-½ Inches" (4/26/1970) #"We're Having Authorized Possessed Molluscs For Dinner" (5/3/1970) #"I Ain't Got No Body And Nobody Cares For My Grave" (5/17/1970) #"There's Been A Lot Of Trouble Out Here, You Know" (5/24/1970) #"Zen Hijinks Marathon" (5/31/1970) #"The Lone Ranger Vs. Your Developing Breasts" (6/7/1970) #"My Faith Is My Gas Mask" (6/14/1970) #"There's A Franciscan Friar Out There Right Now Who's Dyin'" (6/21/1970) #"The Boss Sound 1010 WINS Munich" (6/28/1970) #"Only The Blackness Behind Me Is Real" (7/5/1970) #"This Is One Avant-Garde Script You Won't Get Out Of" (7/12/1970) ''Dear Friends'' #"Don't Open The Door On Reality" (9/9/1970) #"Big Brother Is Washing" (9/16/1970) #"Louis P. Illuminato's Church of Everything" (9/23/1970) #"...I Could Always Shoot Him With The Camera" (10/4/1970) #"Somebody Put A Mickey In The Ground Zero" (10/11/1970) #"A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Inquisition" (10/18/1970) #"Power Is Trouble & Trouble's Not Funny" (10/25/1970) #"Deputy Dan Will Find Us No Matter Where We Go" (11/1/1970) #"Live At The Ash Grove" (11/15/1970) #"The Harry Yagoda Show" (11/22/1970) #"Was There A Cow On The Moon?" (11/29/1970) #"Happy Harry's Confession Booth" (12/6/1970) #"All We Have To Fear Is Me" (12/13/1970) #"Hello Russia? Merry Christmas!" (12/20/1970) #"Hour Of Ecstasy" (12/27/1970) #"Dick Nixon Chevrolet" (1/3/1971) #"Dr. Memory's Laff-A-While News" (1/10/1971) #"All Nite Images" (1/17/1971) #"Welcome To Microorganism State Park" (1/24/1971) #"Natural Disaster Telethon" (2/3/1971) #"An Inch Closer To San Francisco" (2/17/1971) ''Let's Eat'' #"Hey, Banana Nose!" (11/11/1971) #"The Whisperin' Squash Show" (11/18/1971) #"Radio Prison In Peace And War" (12/9/1971) #"Xmas In Ratland" (12/16/1971) #"The Filipino Cheeseball War" (1/6/1972) #"I Hear Noise In Charles Throat" (1/13/1972) #"The New Archipelago Show" (1/20/1972) #"Pastor Firesign's Pirate Radio Ministry Of The Air" (1/27/1972) #"The Harry Cox Show" (2/3/1972) #"The Underworld Olympics" (2/10/1972) #"Year Of The Rat" (2/17/1972) #"The Hilerio Spacepipe Show" (2/24/1972) #"Martian Space Party" (3/30/1972)

Personnel

*Producer: The Firesign Theatre *Reissue producer: Taylor Jessen

References

{{reflist 2010 compilation albums The Firesign Theatre albums Seeland Records albums