Not Insane or Anything You Want To

In 1996, David Ossman published his diary entries from January through June 1972 when the Firesign Theatre prepared for their 1972 Columbia Records album, the closeout of their radio show Let's Eat!, and a Firesign short film pitched to them by Columbia producer Steve Gillmor.[1]

In 1970, the group performed a Shakespeare parody at Columbia University, The Count of Monte Cristo. For their 1972 album, they decided to write two new scenes (known as "the shipboard scene" and the "Father's Ghost on the battlements" scene) February 9–15 to expand this and call it Anything You Want To.[1]

By March 8, they had decided on the title Martian Space Party for the radio show's final episode, which would be filmed for Gillmor's movie and recorded for use in the next record album.[1]

On March 9, 1972, Columbia signed the group to a second five-year recording contract.[1]

On March 30, the Martian Space Party was performed before an audience, broadcast live on KPFK FM, filmed in 35mm, and recorded on 16-track tape by CBS engineers outside in a mobile bus. On April 16, the Firesigns assembled a miniature set on Phil Austin's porch and filmed insert shots of the monster Glutamoto attacking Monster Island. Final editing was finished by May 4. The movie was screened on June 29 at the Director's Guild of America theatre in Hollywood.[1]

The Firesigns started writing the 1972 album, now to be called Not Insane, on May 1. On May 9, they wrote the first drafts of "Torment of Young Guy in Radio Prison" and "Mark Time's return from Planet X"; and also conceived WALTER, the Watching-And-Listening-To-Everything Robot, to tie things together.[1] On May 15 they recorded an 8-track tape sound collage, "all created from recycled ads, readings of Filipino comic books, gospel music, coverage of the Olympics in Tierra del Fuego and other bits from the "Let's Eat" radio shows", which became the "Radio Prison", random radio and TV transmissions trapped in the space around Earth.[1] The Young Guy torment scene was used in the final product, but the Mark Time material was not. WALTER's voice was used, though the meaning was not explained.

On May 31, the Firesigns decided to "discard portions of work already written and recorded",[1] including the Mark Time material. They had another photo shoot June 1 at Austin's home for the album cover art, using the Monster Island miniatures used for the Martian Space Party.[1] On June 2, they wrote two pages for a new Young Guy scene, which they also discarded. Gillmor arrived on this date for a meeting, which according to Ossman "end[ed] abruptly and TFT goes home" without explanation. On June 10, Ossman says "TFT decides on no further meetings at this time. Phone calls continue throughout June."[1]

The album was mixed from the Martian Space Party soundtrack, the 1970 Count of Monte Cristo recording, and the newly recorded studio material, and released in October. "The contemplated story line and newly-written but un-recorded scenes were never used."[1]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide

The New Rolling Stone Record Guide only gives the album one star (out of a possible five), while The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide only gives it one and a half stars.

In the notes to the group’s 1993 greatest hits album, Shoes for Industry: The Best of the Firesign Theatre, Peter Bergman criticized the album, saying Not Insane "was when the Firesign was splitting apart; it was a fractious, fragmented album." David Ossman says that the album “was incomprehensible, basically” and that “it was not the album it should have been and I think that caused us to slope off rapidly in sales."[3]

The poor reception and financial performance of Not Insane caused the Firesigns to rethink their method of working which they had evolved. Proctor and Bergman decided to split off and write their own 1973 album, TV or Not TV. Ossman used his Mark Time / return from Planet X material cut from Not Insane to base his own 1973 album How Time Flys, and Austin wrote his own album, Roller Maidens From Outer Space. All four Firesigns acted in these last two albums, and the group reunited to write and perform in 1974.

The Firesigns expanded the Shakespeare parody again in 1981 into a road show, released on the 1982 vinyl LP Shakespeare's Lost Comedie, and re-released on CD in 2001 as Anythynge You Want To.

John Lennon had been photographed wearing a "Not Insane!" button supporting Papoon for President during April 1973, including at his "Nutopia" press conference.[4] Proctor and Bergman gave interviews discussing the "Papoon candidacy" to Steve Marshal of KNX radio, Los Angeles, both before and after the 1972 presidential election. The Firesigns revived Papoon's "campaign" in the 1976 and 1980 presidential elections, and released the compilation album Papoon for President in 2002.

In November 2020, the two surviving Firesigns, Philip Proctor and David Ossman, released a real album with the title of a fictional album mentioned in Not Insane, Dope Humor of the Seventies. This is a compilation of 34 tracks taken from their Dear Friends radio program which were previously released on the 2010 album Duke of Madness Motors.

This album was originally released simultaneously on LP and 8 Track.

• LP - Columbia KC-31585
• 8 Track - Columbia 18C-158

It has been re-released on CD once.

• Laugh.com LGH1075

• Firesign Theatre. Not Insane or Anything You Want To. Columbia Records, 1972.
• Firesign Theatre. Shoes for Industry: The Best of the Firesign Theatre. Sony/Legacy, 1993.
• Firesign Theatre. Not Insane. 19 January 2006[5]
• "FIREZINE: Linques!." Firesign Theatre FAQ. 20 January 2006[6]
• Marsh, Dave, and Greil Marcus. "The Firesign Theatre." The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 175-176.
• Smith, Ronald L. The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide. Iola: Krause, 1996.