Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death

1998 studio album by The Firesign Theatre

Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death

Studio album by

The Firesign Theatre

Released| September 1998 (1998-09)
Recorded| February 3–April 1, 1998
Studio| Sunburst Recording, Culver City, CA
Genre| Comedy
Label| Rhino
Producer| The Firesign Theatre
The Firesign Theatre chronology
| Pink Hotel Burns Down
(1996)  | Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death
(1998)  | Boom Dot Bust
(1999)

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Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death is a comedy album by the Firesign Theatre that was released in 1998 on Rhino Records. Its main theme satirizes 1990s radio formats and public hysteria over the Y2K programming bug. Give Me Immortality... is the first of the Firesign Theatre's Millennium CD trilogy We're Doomed, which includes Boom Dot Bust and Bride of Firesign.[1]

## Synopsis

[edit]

The album takes the form of a fictional radio broadcast on the night of December 31, 1999.[2] Radio Now is a FunFunTown (apparently modeled after Los Angeles, California) radio station whose format changes approximately every hour at the slightest whims of overzealous market researchers and focus groups. The album chronicles Radio Now's attempt to operate normally on the final day before the year 2000, a day riddled with apocalyptic omens, rampant computer errors, and dangerous doomsayers. The station is populated by DJ Bebop Loco (also known as Bebop Lobo) (Phil Austin), his producer Dwayne (Peter Bergman), news anchors Harold Hiphugger (David Ossman) and Ray Hamberger (Philip Proctor), sports commentator Chump Threads (Bergman), and self-help guru O'Nann Winquedinque (Austin).[3] Also reporting from outside the station are celebrity stalker Danny Vanilla (Ossman) and helicopter-bound traffic reporter Col. Happy Panditt (Proctor).

## Themes

[edit]

The album, made in 1998, lampoons the various world-threatening results which were being predicted from the Y2K bug. It also satirizes the media exploitation of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Joe Camel controversy, and the Art Bell radio show.

A running gag involves eyeballs, which at one moment represent binary digits (the digit 1 resembles the letter I, a homophone of "eye", while the digit 0 is in the shape of a ball) and at other times seem to be an allusion to The Residents ("Guyz in Eyeball Hats"). Another is "U.S. Plus", an apparent multi-national conglomerate with intentionally vague commercials that hint at their all-encompassing presence ("We're U.S. Plus. We own the idea...of America!"). The urbane, sophisticated Goddess Airways commercials promise "no bloody babies" on their flights.

## References to earlier Firesign Theatre albums

[edit]

Used car dealer Ralph Spoilsport (Proctor), last heard in How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, appears selling used body parts in a "going out of body" sale.

Newscasters Harold Hiphugger (Ossman) and Ray Hamberger (Proctor), introduced in Everything You Know Is Wrong, work at the Radio Now station.

Caroline Presskey (Proctor), a gameshow contestant on Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, is heard in a telephone conversation.

## Track listing

[edit]

1. Unconscious Village: Wake Up
2. Eyeballs In The Sky
3. U.S. Plus: Pork
4. The Celebrity Stalker
5. Sports In Your Shorts
6. Ralph Spoilsport's Going Out Of Body Sale
7. The News Drought Continues
8. Goddess Air Presents 'Hullo, Don't Worry!'
9. A Developing Chase Situation
10. Pull My String
11. Princess Goddess Escapes The Celebrazzis
12. Chump Takes Some Hits
13. Polar Pro: Texas Trots
14. Miss Shelob's Feelin' Poorly
15. Unconscious Village: Last Days Sale
16. Mr. Coffee Comes Up Zeros
17. Glacier
18. Gridlock At Homeless Stadium
19. Polar Ice: Party Vertical
20. Going, Going, Gone á la Blonde
21. Sex With My Hat
22. Trippple Ripppoff
23. Night Whispers
24. Bebop And Dwayne Feel No Pain
25. Smokin' Joe Says Farewell
26. U.S. Plus: Zeros And Ones
27. Chump Makes A Resolution
28. The Doll Drop
29. RadioNow Says Good-By And Hello

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death". Firesign Media. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
2. ^ Sirois, A. L. (September 12, 1998). "Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death". SF Site. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
3. ^ Roberts, Sam (June 25, 2015). "Phil Austin (a.k.a. Nick Danger) of Firesign Theater Dies at 74". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2017.

* v
* t
* e

The Firesign Theatre

* Phil Austin
* Peter Bergman
* David Ossman
* Philip Proctor

Radio|

* Dear Friends
* A Firesign Chat with Papoon
* Nick Danger: The Case of the Missing Shoe

Studio albums|

* Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
* How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All
* Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
* I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus
* TV or Not TV
* How Time Flys
* Roller Maidens from Outer Space
* The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra
* Everything You Know Is Wrong
* In the Next World, You're on Your Own
* Just Folks... A Firesign Chat
* Give Us a Break
* The Three Faces of Al
* Eat or Be Eaten
* Anythynge You Want To (Shakespeare's Lost Comedie)
* Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death
* Boom Dot Bust
* Bride of Firesign

Compilation albums|

* Dear Friends
* Forward Into the Past
* Lawyer's Hospital
* Box of Danger
* Shoes For Industry: The Best of the Firesign Theatre
* Papoon for President
* Duke of Madness Motors: The Complete "Dear Friends" Radio Era
* Dope Humor of the Seventies

Live albums|

* Not Insane or Anything You Want To
* What This Country Needs
* Fighting Clowns
* Back From the Shadows: The Firesign Theatre's 25th Anniversary Reunion Tour
* Radio Now Live

Books|

* The Firesign Theatre's Big Book Of Plays
* The Firesign Theatre's Big Mystery Joke Book

Video games|

* B-17 Bomber (voiced by Proctor and Bergman)
* Pyst

Characters|

* Nick Danger
* Rocky Rococo
* George Tirebiter

Related articles|

* Proctor and Bergman
* J-Men Forever
* Americathon

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

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