Allmusic had this to say about the Residents: "Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, the Residents remained a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions; cloaking their lives and music in a haze of willful obscurity, the band's members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise -- usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks -- and refusing to grant media interviews. Drawing inspiration from the likes of fellow innovators including Harry Partch, Sun Ra, and Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, the Residents channelled the breadth of American music into their idiosyncratic, satiric vision, their mercurial blend of electronics, distortion, avant-jazz, classical symphonies and gratingly nasal vocals reinterpreting everyone from John Philip Sousa to James Brown while simultaneously expanding the boundaries of theatrical performance and multimedia interaction.
It was commonly accepted that the four-member group emigrated to San Francisco, California from Shreveport, Louisiana at some point in the early '70s. According to longtime group spokesman Jay Clem -- one member of the so-called Cryptic Corporation, the band's representative body -- they received their name when Warner Bros. mailed back their anonymous demo tape, addressed simply "for the attention of residents". Finding no takers for their oddball sounds, the Residents founded their own label, Ralph Records, for the purposes of issuing their 1972 debut "Santa Dog", released in a pressing of 300 copies which were mailed out to luminaries from Frank Zappa to President Richard Nixon. Their debut full-length, 1974's "Meet the Residents", reportedly sold fewer than 50 copies before the group was threatened with a lawsuit from Capitol Records over its cover, a twisted, dada-esque parody of the art to "Meet the Beatles".
The follow-up, 1974's neoclassical excursion "Not Available", was recorded with the intention of its music remaining unissued; locked in cold storage upon its completion, only a 1978 contractual obligation resulted in its eventual release. 1976's "The Third Reich 'N Roll" was the next official offering, a collection of pop oldies covers presented in a controversial jacket portraying Adolf Hitler clutching an enormous carrot. After a 1976 concert in Berkeley, California which cloaked the Residents behind an opaque screen, wrapped up like mummies -- the most famous of only three live performances mounted during their first decade of existence -- they issued an abrasive 1977 cover of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", which became an underground hit on both sides of the Atlantic at the peak of the punk movement. As the decade drew to a close, the group released a flurry of recordings, further building upon their growing cult following; among them were 1978's "Duck Stab", 1979's "Eskimo" (purportedly a collection of native Arctic chants) and 1980's "Commercial Album", a compilation of 40 one-minute "pop songs" that aired on San Francisco radio only because the Residents played them during the advertising time they bought.
In 1981 the Residents embarked upon their "Mole Trilogy", a prog rock collection of albums -- 1981's "Mark of the Mole", 1982's "The Tunes of Two Cities" and 1985's "The Big Bubble" -- recounting an epic battle between a pair of tribes named the Moles and the Chubs; a lavish, multimedia tour, "The Mole Show", followed. In the interim, the group also mounted another ambitious project, the "American Composer" series, although only two of the projected titles -- 1984's "George & James" (a reinterpretation of songs by George Gershwin and James Brown) and 1986's "Stars & Hank Forever" (celebrating John Philip Sousa and Hank Williams) -- ever appeared. Instead, in the wake of financial and corporate difficulties which resulted in the creation of a New Ralph label, the Residents issued the one-off "God in Three Persons" (a talking blues outing), and 1989's "The King and Eye" (a reinterpretation of Elvis Presley standards).
After losing control of the Ralph label as well as their back catalog, the Residents regained the rights to their music in 1990 and began reissuing long-out-of-print material as well as the new "Freak Show", a meditation on circus sideshows and carnival dementia. Four years later, Freak Show was reissued as a CD-ROM, marking the group's first leap into the new digital interactive technology; "Have a Bad Day" followed in 1996, and included the soundtrack to the CD-ROM game "Bad Day on the Midway." In 1997, the band celebrated their silver anniversary with the release of the career-spanning overview "Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses". "Wormwood: Curious Stories From the Bible" followed the next year, with "Roadworms" (songs from Wormwood as performed in the stage show) being issued in mid-2000. They followed that up with the awesome "Icky Flix" DVD, an incredibly detailed collection of their videos that featured both old and new soundtracks, 5.1 Digital Stereo Surround sound, countless hidden videos and in-depth histories of each individual track. That was followed by another one of their rare tours, which saw them incorporate the DVD into their live act and bring out guest singer Molly Harvey for some truly creative duets. The "Petting Zoo" retrospective followed in the spring of 2002, acting as a budget sampler for new fans and giving old fans something to tide them over while several high concept projects neared completion. The first was "Demons Dance Alone", a complicated pop album that hearkened back to the catchier material from "Duck Stab" and the "Commercial Album". That was followed in 2002 by a live retrospective called "Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town" that contained 3 cd's and a DVD, and a further look at their past via remasters and remixes put out by EuroRalph (including a remix of their previously unreleased and notorious "Warner Brothers Demo"). A DVD of the Demons Dance Alone tour came out in 2004 and another new project, "Animal Lover" was released in 2005."
Summer of 2006 brought the internet download project, The River of Crime: Episodes 1-5. River of Crime was their first project with Warner Music Group's Cordless label. Following the success of "River of Crime", The Residents launched their weekly Timmy video project on YouTube. In 2007 they did the music for the documentary "Strange Culture" and also released a double instrumental album, "Night of the Hunters". On the Fourth of July, 2007, the planned October release of their latest project with Mute Records, The Voice of Midnight (a music theater adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story Der Sandmann), was announced on their website.
On the 21st of May 2008 they announced on their website that their first North America tour since "Demons Dance Alone" for a project entitled "The Bunny Boy" is set to begin on October 9th in New York — later an earlier date was added for Santa Cruz. Soon, it was announced that the tour will also include Europe, starting November 13th. On June 3rd, the Residents.com website boasted the planned release of "The Bunny Boy" which was released on September 1st. The website had posted information in which Foxboro claimed this would be a Farewell Tour; it was later revealed that this was nothing more than a mistake by Foxboro.
In October 2017, Hardy Fox identified himself as both the anonymous primary composer and producer for The Residents as well as the pseudonymous Charles Bobuck.
Hardy Fox died on October 30, 2018.
Godsong
The Residents Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
At least not after they started walking around
On their hind legs
And talking on the telephone
Of course poor God's point of view wasn't easy now (to) understand
He had invented man from dead things
At that time there were no grave yards to rob
So He had been forced to use dead worms, some sea weed
For quite a while.
At that time man had four legs and no telephone
A major mistake came when God decided that man should think
(A trait that He'd long desired for Himself)
What God no doubt intended was
For man to think about Him
And that was important because
God just wanted to be
Just another normal deity
Deity Deity Ty Ty Ty Ty Ty
All that God wanted to be
Was just a normal deity
All that God wanted to be
Was just another normal deity
All that God wanted to be
Was just a deity
Just a normal deity
All that God wanted to be
Just a normal deity
All that God wanted to be
Just a normal deity
All went well for quite a while
Man was a wonderful creature
With long rich engraved face
Four fine legs ending in five mini-legs
And a coat of satiney hair
And large genitals
His thoughts were pure and
Full of wonder
The wonder part was God's favorite,
(at least at first)
Because that's the part that gave Him
His Identity Identity Identity Identity
Oh, it was so wonderful for God
Man's... Man's questions turned to visions
And visions gave God
All kinds of exciting things to do
Someday He would be a God of wrath
Reeking havoc upon undiscipline mankind
And at other times He'd be a God of love and compassion
Of course these were all things that man had invented
So God had a hard time getting the full grasp
But...
One of His favorite things
Was man's believing in Him, and then not believing in Him
One of His favorite things
Was man's believing in Him, and then not believing in Him
Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
.......Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...........Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...............Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...................Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
.......................Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...........................Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...............................Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
...................................Believing in Him, Not believing in Him
.......................................Like some hide and seek game
...................................Over
...............................And
...........................Over
.......................And
...................Over and Over
...............Believing in Him
...........Believing in Him
.......Believing in Him
...Not believing in Him...
Not believing in Him?
I think He liked believing in Him much better...
But I'm not sure...
The Residents's song Godsong is a satirical commentary on the relationship between God and man, and how it has evolved over time. The first verse starts by stating that God did not like man anyway, especially after they started walking on two legs and speaking on telephones. The song implies that God's decision to create man was not an easy one to understand, given that He had to create them from dead worms and sea weed. The second verse delves into the ideology of God's creations and how He had intended for man to think about Him. The song ends by highlighting God's fondness towards belief systems and how it amused Him when humans believed in Him, and then did not.
The song is a satiric commentary on the relationship between God and humans. Instead of using a religious tone to depict the creator's relationship with His own creations, The Residents present a satirical view in their lyrics. By portraying God as a confused creator who made mistakes in His creation of man, they draw attention to the limitations of religion and the God-man relationship that humans strive to understand. The song highlights the frivolities of humanity and their actions, which have often been a disappointment for God. The overall tone of the song seems to be mocking the idea of religion and God.
Line by Line Meaning
God never really did like man anyway
God didn't like man after they started walking around on their hind legs and talking on the telephone
Of course poor God's point of view wasn't easy now (to) understand
God's point of view wasn't easy to understand as he had to resort to using dead worms and seaweed to create man when there were no graveyards to rob
At that time man had four legs and no telephone
Humans had four legs and no communication devices at first
(A trait that He'd long desired for Himself)
God had long desired for man to have the ability to think
What God no doubt intended was For man to think about Him
God intended for man to think about him, but this was a major mistake
And that was important because God just wanted to be Just another normal deity
God just wanted to be viewed as a normal deity
All went well for quite a while
Things were going well for a while
Man was a wonderful creature With long rich engraved face Four fine legs ending in five mini-legs And a coat of satiney hair And large genitals His thoughts were pure and Full of wonder
Man was a creature with an interesting appearance and pure, wondrous thoughts
Because that's the part that gave Him His Identity Identity Identity Identity
Man's sense of wonder about the world and God's existence gave God his identity
One of His favorite things Was man's believing in Him, and then not believing in Him
God enjoyed when humans played the game of believing in him, then not believing in him
Not believing in Him? I think He liked believing in Him much better... But I'm not sure...
God preferred it when humans believed in him, but it's not entirely clear
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jimbo
on BUCKAROO BLUES: The Stampede
A true mirror of American culture. The Residents are a national treasure