Roller Maidens from Outer Space

Roller Maidens from Outer Space
Studio album by Phil Austin
Released	1974
Genre	Comedy
Label	Epic
Producer	Phil Austin

Roller Maidens From Outer Space is a 1974 comedy album by Phil Austin, one of the members of the comedy group Firesign Theatre.^[1] Although the record is considered to be Austin's "solo" album, the other three Firesigns make vocal contributions throughout, and are thanked by Austin in the liner notes. A complex lampoon on television and society, Austin's record is much in the same vein as the Firesign Theatre's Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers and fellow Firesign members Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman's TV or not TV. The television theme is carried over into the record sleeve, which features liner information displayed as if it were a television listing, complete with stylized channel numbers and little blurbs of content.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Lord Jim Crappington - 1:49"
2. "C'Mon Jesus - 3:40"
3. "Carhook - 3:34"
4. "The Regular and Ethyl Show - 1:28"
5. "Switchblade Pitchforks - 2:21"
6. "The John Fresno Story - 10:15"

Side two

1. "The Bad News - 4:12"
2. "T.V. - 1:03"
3. "Celebrity Roller Rassling - 2:56"
4. "A Square Dance - 2:19"
5. "Dick Private's Personal Peril - 3:38"
6. "The Thrilling End - 8:35"

Story

Like Firesign's Nick Danger, Dick Private, the hero and narrator of this album is a hard-boiled detective. Normally he is the hero of a television detective show, but he finds he has crossed channels, and is now on a show that is a parody of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet—named The Regular & Ethyl Show.

He aids Regular Boinkland, his neighbor Tricky Retardo (who, along with his wife Juicy, are parodies of the principal characters of another 50s sitcom I Love Lucy) and Tricky's ne'er-do-well brother Jesus, who all want to know what Lucy and Ethel are doing at the weekly meetings of their club, the Roller Maidens From Outer Space.

In fact, the Roller Maidens have been subverted by a plot that involves both malevolent aliens and a character who might actually be the Devil.

The album features contemporary drug references, references to pop culture and songs in a variety of genres that advance the plot. It ends with an apocalyptic battle.

References

1. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music (3rd ed.). London: Virgin Books in association with Muze UK. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-85227-947-9.