''What This Country Needs'' is the second

comedy album Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

by the duo

Proctor and Bergman Proctor and Bergman was a comedy duo consisting of Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman. The two started performing in 1973 while taking a break from the four-man comedy act The Firesign Theatre, with the comedy album "TV or Not TV", on which they ba ...

of the

Firesign Theatre The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American 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. They continued app ...

. It was originally released in September 1975 on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, and was among the Firesign Theatre's last Columbia albums, along with ''

In the Next World, You're on Your Own ''In the Next World, You're on Your Own'' is the ninth and last comedy album recorded by the Firesign Theatre for Columbia Records. It was released in October 1975. Track listing Side one #"Police Street" – 21:30 Side two #"We've Lost O ...

'' and ''

Forward Into The Past ''Forward Into the Past'' is a 1976 compilation album by the Firesign Theatre. It presents the "Greatest Hits" from their nine Columbia albums and includes two tracks that were previously released only on a single. Track listing Side one #" ...

''. It was recorded from a live performance at The Bottom Line which contained material adapted or re-used from their 1973 studio album ''

TV or Not TV ''TV or Not TV'' is the debut album by the comedy duo Proctor and Bergman. It was originally released in 1973 by Columbia Records. Unlike most Firesign Theatre albums, it included songs ("Communist Love Song" sung by Proctor at the end of side ...

'', plus several new sketches.

Title and cover art

The title is taken from a song

Philip 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 ...

and

Peter Bergman Peter Michael Bergman (born June 11, 1953) is an American actor best known for his portrayals on soap operas, such as Cliff Warner on '' All My Children'' (1979–89) on ABC as well as Jack Abbott on ''The Young and the Restless'' (1989–prese ...

wrote, which parodies

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Thomas R. Marshall Thomas Riley Marshall (March 14, 1854 – June 1, 1925) was an American politician who served as the 28th vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. A prominent lawyer in Indiana, he became an acti ...

's famous quote, "What this country needs is a good five-cent

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

". The song says what this country needs is "a good five-cent ''joke''". The album's cover art mimics a cardboard

cigar box A cigar box is a box container for cigar packaging. Traditionally cigar boxes have been made of wood, cardboard or paper. Spanish cedar has been described as the "best" kind of wood for cigar boxes because of its beautiful grain, fine textu ...

lid, with a painting of Proctor dressed as a field worker in jean

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

s and a straw hat, with Bergman dressed in a suit as the

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

owner. Proctor holds up a wad of cash, while Bergman holds a handful of cigars. The picture provides another joke, as the crop appears to be

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

(some of which sticks out of Proctor's hip pocket) rather than

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

Track listing

Side one — act one

#"Turning on Bosco Hern"* #"Fred and Ford" – a new skit with Fred Flamm (Proctor) interviewing President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

(Bergman) during the "Walking and Chewing Gum At the Same Time Marathon" #"Red Pills on Drugs"* #"The Roaming Umpire"* #"Give Up This Day (with R. Reverend "Sport" Trendleberg)"*

Side two — act two

#"What This Country Needs" – a new song performed by Proctor and Bergman #"Callback" – new; several listeners (Proctor) call a radio

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

host (Bergman) #"The Man Who Eats Watches" – a new skit featuring German Wacko Krank (Bergman) and a waiter (Proctor), mostly in the Firesign Theatre's usual

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

vein #"Dr. Astro" – new; Proctor gives whacky

horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...

s #"Hundred-Dollar Shine" – new; shoe-shine boy (Bergman) charges a business man (Proctor) an outrageous price * Skits adapted from ''

Issues and reissues

This album was originally released on LP: *LP — PC-33687 It has been re-released on CD at least once: *2001 - Laugh.com LGH1164.2

References

*"FIREZINE: Linques!." ''Firesign Theatre FAQ''. 20 January 2006 . *Smith, Ronald L. ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide''. Iola: Krause, 1996. 272. *Swenson, John. "Proctor and Bergman." ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide''. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 404. *Smith, Ronald L. ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide''. Iola: Krause, 1996. 272. *Swenson, John. "Proctor and Bergman." ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide''. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 404. *Proctor and Bergman. ''What This Country Needs''. Columbia Records, 1975.

External links

Proctor & Bergman - What This Country Needs
nbsp;– Laugh.com (November 2, 2016)
Firesign Theatre
nbsp;– Official website (19 January 2006)
FIREZINE: Linques!
nbsp;– ''Firesign Theatre FAQ'' (20 January 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:What This Country Needs 1975 albums Columbia Records albums Proctor and Bergman albums 1970s comedy albums