The Firesign Theatre's Big Mystery Joke Book is a collection of transcriptions

Transcription (linguistics)

Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...

 and scripts written by The Firesign Theatre

The Firesign Theatre

The Firesign Theatre is an American comedy troupe consisting of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Philip Proctor. Their brand of surrealistic humor is best known through their record albums, which acquired a cult following in the late 1960s and early '70s.The troupe began as live radio...

 for some of the tracks on their first six Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s. The book also contains a long introductory parody chronicling the "history" of The Firesign Theatre from its origins in the renaissance as "The Fyre Sygne Theatre;" through the groups incarnation as "The Fyre Sayle Theatre;" into its "Wild West" incarnation as "Doctor Firesign's Antique Theatre of The Plains and Eclectic Buffalo Show;" and finally into its 20th century incarnations. Whereas the group's earlier book, The Firesign Theatre's Big Book Of Plays

The Firesign Theatre's Big Book Of Plays

The Firesign Theatre's Big Book Of Plays is a collection of transcriptions written by The Firesign Theatre for the title tracks of each of their first four albums. The book also contains some introductory material that is serious as well a few pieces that parody introductory material...

, had also included some serious introductory material, this title contains none.

Table of Contents

1. Money Song
2. An Invocation from the Book of Punter
3. The Mysterious History of "The Firesign Theatre"
4. The Tale of The Giant Rat of Sumatra
5. The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye
6. Temporarily Humboldt County
7. The Adventures of Mark Time
8. Hundred Dollar Ben
9. Young Guy, Motor Detective
10. The Year Of The Rat
11. Gramps' World
12. Rubbergon Dumn Toyko
13. Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde
14. The Dream Play (for Monkey, Dreamer, Mudhead and Snake)