Roller Maidens from Outer Space

Infobox Album |
Name = Roller Maidens from Outer Space
Type = Album
Artist = 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. 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 "Don't Crush That Dwarf" and Proctor and Bergman's "TV or not TV"; the channel-switching technique of editing between tracks pioneered by the former is in evidence here as well. 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

ide One

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

ide Two

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

tory

Like Firesign's Nick Danger, 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 "I Love Lucy" -- named "The Ethel & Regular Show".

The show parodied is more likely to be "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet". Richard Paul's voice for Regular Boinkland sounds a lot like Ozzie Nelson. He also makes mention of the kids growing up and moving away which led to their wives joining the Mystic Roller Maidens. One of the children mentioned was David, which would be David Nelson, one of Ozzie and Harriet's two sons who were on the show with them.

He aids Regular Boinkland, his neighbor Tricky Retardo, and Tricky's ne'er do well brother Jesus, who 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 wicked devilish character, who might actually be the devil.

The album is busy, with contemporary drug references, clever references to pop culture, and songs in a variety of genres that advance the plot. The album finishes up with an apocalyptic battle.