this special radio programme by the residents probably was recorded in 1976 for RAO in houston, texas, though it was not released to the public any earlier than 1977. it features sid powell from RAO in an interview with jay clem, represantative of ralph records and the cryptic corpration, and the residents they=themselves walking around the studio and banging on their instruments. they are talking about the facts behind the rumours that planted the question why and when the residents were infact the beatles or visubversa, and the question why the residents refuse to see the light of day, and the question who they reallyreally are; and as you might have guessed already, none of these questions will be answered properly in here. but it's a lot of fun to listen to some wellknown tunes and some semi-rarities by these=here early residents, featuring of course satisfaction, flying, king kong and mellon collie lesseon; but the interview sections with some "original" or even "live in the studio" music by the residents (you may believe this or not: they don't mind) are what make this tape a very interesting gem in their hissstory. i bought my copy way back in 1979 on the stuttgart fleamarket from klaus, a wellknown seller of overpriced bootlegs then, for some 30 deutschmarks, or something like 25 euro today. at least my version of the radio show has a cover completely different to all the versions you can find on discogs.
with the following link to a .rar-file you can download both sides of my copy of this halfamous tape as well as two bonus tracks that you can find all about way down below, as more of the well of as some obscure(d) fotos that argee gleim and memyselfandeye took way back in 1983, whose origin will be explained later on.
burst first of all:
(mp3 / pictures included / direct download)
and here's the commercial break: in the early days of 2018 the world will be delighted to see the release of the first two editions of early residents material blown up with tons of unreleased sounds, starting with meet the residents and third reich 'n' roll: these wonderful double-cd-sets can be preordered at cherry red. or die!
and on with the show: for your listening pleasure i included two bonus tracks to the .rar-file mentioned above, as mentioned above. here's number one:
the holy kiss of flesh, sixteen minutes of sounds reworked and remixed from the god in three persons project, that the residents=themselves describe as "almost danceable". this was released in 1988 in the usa and in 1993 by ralph europe as a 3"-cd and was never rerelased in this form, length or format.
and let's get it on with the track "ramblin' man" the residents contributed to a compilation that included artists like hasil adkins, isaac hayes, jad fair, or the mekons paying all their dues and tributes to hank williams in 1998 on the german trikont label.
on the 29th of may 1983 the residents played live in düsseldorf, and i was there, and i was not all too amused. in an article for the german magazine lautt using my nom de guerre "ralf van daale" i explained why i was completely enthusiastic about the residents as such and why i was completely bored with their concert (just for the sake of your mandatory research i included two .pdf-files for your pleasure: the german magazine lautt # 3 from 1983 in its entirety, and the three pages about the residents as an excerpt). it's rather interesting to read what i wrote some 35 years ago; or at least i find it interesting. find out here:
more interesting though is what happened in the afternoon of the same day, and that's where those cryptic pictures in the article stem from: some days before the concert a member of ralph europe told the düsseldorf photographer argee gleim that the residents would arrive on this sunday's morning at the frankfurt airport and would take the special lufthansa train from frankfurt to düsseldorf in the afternoon. so at exactly 15:31 (3:31 pm) the both of us were waiting at he düsseldorf hauptbahnhof for the lufthansa-express to arrive: and then there they were: the residents.
4 comments:
This is a cool story. Thanks for sharing it. I recall the early 1980s as totally dominated by Residents' charismatic anonymity.
Hi ! The "LINKS TO THIS POST" doesn't open a download link. The "download the residents radio special plus some bonus material" works, is that the whole thing ? There is no list of songs, so I don't know if the Zappa's King Kong coverversion from a 'radio show 1977' tape that I had is included. I will listen to this right away. If not, no problem. The Residents are very apreciated by the "fans", but they didn't defined the 80's music, I think. a lot of people were listening to a lot of... what's the nice word for this ? and very few to the Residents. they are somewhere at the opposite. The "Commercial album" had some success and it was a big surprise for their label, who couldn't provide the vinyl production at all.
Thank you for these rarities and the very interesting photos! The taller man in glasses appears to be Hardy Fox. Is the lighter haired man with the mustache Homer Flynn?
I saw the Residents during the Talking Light tour and was not disappointed. Their performance of Hank Williams' "Six More Miles To The Graveyard" was deeply moving. Thanks again!
To the last poster -- no, that is not Hardy Fox, and that's not Homer Flynn, or any of the other Residents either. Totally in keeping with their character, they must've sent 4 strangers to the station to be there at the right time. None of the Residents appear in these photographs.
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