The Three Faces of Al

The Three Faces of Al
Live album by Firesign Theatre
Released 1984
Genre Comedy
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Allmusic [1]

The Three Faces of Al is a 1984 comedy album by the group Firesign Theatre. It features the group members reprising their most popular characters from earlier collaborations, notably hard-boiled detective Nick Danger and his nemesis, Lieutenant Bradshaw.

A recurring theme in previous albums was Danger insulting Bradshaw by forgetting his current rank, referring to him as Sergeant Bradshaw, when Bradshaw had been promoted to Lieutenant. In this album Bradshaw is the District Attorney, but Danger still refers to him by his police rank.

In earlier albums the characters refer to the "Anselma Pederasty" case. Even though this album occurs years later than the other albums, it is about that case, but Anselma Pederazy is a mob boss. The case was not actually about pederasty.

David Ossman does not appear on the album, having already left the group. Ossman would return for good in 1998, on the album Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death.

The initial release on Rhino Records was at the dawn of compact discs, and was among or possibly the first comedy CD issued by any record company. The CD wasn't produced in very large quantities, however, and after it went out of print it became something of a collector's item for many years. The album was finally reissued on CD in 2008 as part of the Firesign Theatre's Nick Danger box set, "Box of Danger" on the Shout! Factory label.

References

  1. Carruthers, Sean. The Three Faces of Al at AllMusic