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This article is about the 1971 demo album. You may be looking for the song of the same name. |
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PLEASE GO AWAY! This recording was not intended for release. THEY HATE IT!!! |
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Baby Sex (officially released as B.S.) is a demo tape recorded between August and December 1971 by Residents, Uninc.. Featuring a notoriously unprintable cover art image derived from a Danish pornographic ad leaflet, the tape was the group's second attempt at gaining the attention of Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt.
Apparently comprised largely of compositions by the group's mentor N. Senada,[1] B.S. is the final demo known to have been recorded by the group before their first official release, the Santa Dog EP, on Ralph Records in December 1972. it consists of two side-length suites, the second of which (comprised mostly of the suite-within-a-suite "Hallowed Be Thy Ween") includes recordings from the group's live performances at The Boarding House and KHSC-FM Studios in October 1971.
Though much of its contents had been released across a number of years and various compilation albums, B.S. had never been officially released in its entirety until April 2019, when it was issued as a pREServed limited edition LP for Record Store Day. B.S. finally became widely available to the public the following November, with its inclusion in the pREServed 2 CD compilation A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big.
History
Hardy Fox and N. Senada testing video equipment, and Residents, Uninc. live at The Boarding House with Peggy Honeydew, 1971
Consisting of various studio recordings and excerpts from the group's earliest known live performances between August and November of 1971, B.S. was compiled by the group (now crediting themselves as Residents, Uninc.) in December of that year. Two mixes of the tape were created, with the second being preferred.[2]
The composition of every track on the tape is credited to the group's mentor N.Senada,[1] who had previously been credited for production on the earlier demo tape The W***** B*** Album. Senada is also heard throughout the tape (its second side in particular), alongside other notable early collaborators such as Margaret Smyk and British multi-instrumentalist Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman, who makes his first known recorded appearance on the demo, having been introduced to the group in the previous year by Smyk.
The original artwork features no specific performance credits, in keeping with Senada's Theory of Obscurity, although it does credit Senada as the songwriter on most tracks, and Residents, Uninc. as the tape's producers.[1] When the tracks were released later, composition was credited either to The Residents, or The (Pre-)Residents.
Like The W***** B*** Album, B.S. (and particularly its cover art) was conceived with the intent of provoking a response from Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt,[3][2] who had recently inadvertently named the group by returning The W***** B*** Album addressed to "Residents, 167½ 17th Avenue, San Mateo".
Contents
Tape box containing preferred second mix of B.S., December 1971
Further developing the group's predilection for subverting popular music, B.S. includes parodies of Tim Buckley ("We Stole This Riff" is derived from "Down By The Borderline" from the 1970 album Starsailor) and Led Zeppelin ("Holelottadick"), and also a cover of "King Kong" by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, featuring a guitar solo by Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman.
The demo also contains a performance of a piece apparently composed by Snakefinger alongside the group's mentor, Bavarian composer The Mysterious N. Senada, entitled "Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen".
"The Fourth Crucifixion" contains an excerpt from a radio interview with Snakefinger and Senada. The interview was also included in the UWEB compilation, Daydream B-Liver. A different piece by the same title can be heard on the group's previous demo The W***** B*** Album.
Senada appears on "Kamakazi Lady"; a performance of this piece (as well as "Eloise") would later be filmed for inclusion in the group's unfinished film project Vileness Fats. "Eloise" was also re-recorded in 1984 for Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?, and again in 2001 for Icky Flix. These two tracks also feature on the set lists of most of the early performances of the group between 1971 and 1976, as they provided the group an easily-performed distraction when members of the band were experiencing technical difficulties.
"For Doorknob" was co-written by Senada and Roland Sheehan,[1] who had been working with the group since arriving at their at their San Mateo apartment the previous year, with a U-Haul trailer full of musical instruments. The song features vocals from the fabulous Miss Peggy Honeydew (portrayed by the group's friend Margaret Smyk), who would soon appear as a minor character in the group's unfinished feature film Vileness Fats.
Cover art
The back cover art of Randy Newman Live and B.S.
B.S. is notorious for the highly offensive cover art which accompanied the original demo, which featured a low-resolution image of a grown woman performing fellatio on a baby. This image, credited in the tape's liner notes to "Dana Associates" of Denmark, had been blown up from a thumbnail in an advertisement for a Danish porn magazine, which the group had received - apparently unsolicited - in the mail.[3] The image would also later be printed on a very limited run of t-shirts - rarely seen, for obvious reasons, although some are known to remain in private collections.
The Residents later explained that their use of the disturbing graphic was intended as a parody of the cover art of the album Randy Newman Live, which had then been recently released on Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Reprise Records.[2] Randy Newman Live featured a similarly low-resolution image of Newman on its front cover - the track listing included with B.S. mirrors the design of the back cover of the Newman album. As a further provocation, the tape's copyright is presumptuously credited to Warner Bros. in fine print at the bottom of the track listing.
Reception
Response from Hal Halverstadt
Hal Halverstadt, ca. 1972
Like The W***** B*** Album before it, B.S. was submitted after its completion to Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt, whose written response to the tape (and the newly renamed Residents, Uninc.) reads:
"I hate to tell you this, but Baby Sex did not (repeat, did not) set Burbank on its ear, even though the tape was widely circulated through the stuccoed halls of good old WB. As to the art, one of the girls here who still wears hot pants had the audacity to infer that you guys are sickos! So keep the good work coming. There are enough heavy breathers here in Burbank to make it worth the postage."[2]
The group would jokingly refer to their exchanges with Halverstadt as "[negotiating]... over the rights to the Snakefinger/N. Senada/Residents tapes" in the liner notes to their 1974 debut album Meet The Residents.[4]
Retrospective
Reviewing a bootleg copy of the demo in October 2007,[5] freelance music reviewer Mark Prindle had mixed impressions of B.S., describing its first half as "The Residents... demonstrating that they actually are a music band, albeit a quirky one," while negatively comparing the "suite of electronic blurbles, sax bleats, drumbeats and screaming" on the second side of the tape to the "freak-out racket and pseudo-doowop falsetto vocals" heard on the earlier demo The W***** B*** Album.[6]
Release
Residents, Uninc. Valentine's Day card, February 1972 (high-res scan courtesy of Mr. Riggsy's ResTube)
Despite the group's reluctance to acknowledge their early demos, an acetate pressing of B.S. was made in the 1980s by Southern California disc mastering facility Artisan Sound Recordings, of which two copies are known to exist.[7][8] Regardless of whether or not B.S. was being considered for release around this time, the tape would remain officially unreleased in its entirety for half a century following its completion.
A significant number of excerpts from B.S. were officially released by the group over the years, however; "King Kong" and "Kamakazi Lady" were the first two excerpts from any of the demos to see official release, first in 1977 on the group's promotional "radio special". "Kamakazi Lady" was also included on the 1983 outtakes compilation Residue of The Residents.
An excerpt of "Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen" was featured on the UWEB Snakefinger tribute album, Philip Charles Lithman aka Snakefinger, and the group created an "orchestral remix" of the track in 1988 (the master copy of which was thought by Hardy Fox to have been lost), which has never been included on an official release, but was aired during a radio special on Dutch radio station VPRO that year. The piece is also referenced in "You Yesyesyes" from Fingerprince.
Additional mixes and excerpts from the demo were included on the Daydream B-Liver, ERA B474 and The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss compilations, with the result that, by 2016, most of the contents of B.S. had been officially released in a piecemeal fashion through various compilation albums (apart from the first three tracks and the complete original edits of "Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen" and "Hallowed Be Thy Wean").
Bootleg editions
The W***** B*** Album and B.S. tapes were both broadcast to the public in their entirety in 1977 by the group's friend, Bill Reinhardt on KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon, during a Residents-themed radio festival. Most versions of the two demos that circulated among fans for years afterward seem to have originated from home recordings of this broadcast, although a higher quality version became available in 2015 as part of a series of bootleg CD-Rs.
It has been suggested that the later bootlegs were copied directly from tapes which had been stolen from The Cryptic Corporation archives by a former associate and later made available for profit.[9] As with their other demo tapes, The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation long did not consider B.S. to be part of their official discography, and were uncomfortable with the availability of their private recordings as bootlegs, with Hardy Fox (then-president of Cryptic) likening it to "peeping through the window while [The Residents] masturbate".[10]
B.S. (pREServed vinyl edition, 2019)
B.S. was finally officially released in its entirety (featuring the group's preferred second mix of the tape) in a limited vinyl edition on April 13, 2019, as a special Record Store Day release and part of the group's expansive pREServed reissue campaign, following the 2018 limited edition release of The W***** B*** Album. Like all releases in the pREServed series, B.S. was remastered from the original master tapes by engineer Scott Colburn.
The group claim in the March 2019 announcement of the tape's release that they had completely forgotten about its existence, "until the master tape fell from a shelf in the archive onto the singing Resident’s head. As a consequence, he now has no memory of the recording, but we thought you might like to hear it anyway".[11]
A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big (2019)
The Scott Colburn remaster of B.S. entered wide release for the first time in late 2019, on the second disc of the double CD pREServed compilation A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big.
B.S. is accompanied on the second disc by the complete, previously unheard recording of the Chris' Party performance from 1972, and (as an uncredited bonus track) the "intro tape" which opened the group's sets at their early live appearances (and which opens side B of B.S.).
The compilation also includes the complete Colburn remaster of The W***** B*** Album, as well as a slightly shortened edit of the Boarding House recording, and a "concentrate" edit of the (also previously unheard) recording of Residents, Uninc.'s performance at Snakefinger's wedding.
Track listing
Baby Sex (1971)
All tracks composed by N. Senada unless otherwise noted.
Side A
- We Stole This Riff (1:58)
- Holelottadick (1:37)
- Baby Sex (1:49)
- Deepsea Diver Song (4:13)
- King Kong (Zappa) (3:27)
- Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen (6:14)
Side B
- Somethin' Devilish (4:33)
- The Fourth Crucifixion (4:06)
- Hallowed Be Thy Wean 1971 (14:35)
- Sandman (4:49)
- Eat Me Mother (1:26)
- Eloise (2:11)
- For Doorknob (Sheehan/Senada) (2:51)
- Kamakaze Lady (sic) (3:18)
B.S. pREServed vinyl edition (2019)
All tracks composed by The (Pre)Residents unless otherwise noted.
Side A
- We Stole This Riff (1:50)
- Holelottadick (2:20)
- B.S. (1:03)
- Deepsea Diver Song (4:05)
- King Kong (Zappa) (3:20)
- Cantaten To Der Dyin Prunen (5:50)
Side B
- Intro Tape / Somethin' Devilish (2:44)
- N. Senada Tribute (1:50)
- The Fourth Crucifixion (3:18)
- James Dean's Death (0:21)
- Very Long Suite (14:25)
- incorporating "Pink Lemonade", "Sandman", "Eat Me Mother", a selection of untitled instrumentals, "Bumble Bee", "Eloise", Snakefinger's wedding, "Kamikaze Lady", Miss Peggy Honeydew and "D Is For Doorknob", a number of announcements, The Three Most Important Things In The Whole Wide World and more.
Liner notes
pREServed limited vinyl edition (2019)
This album was recorded by the loose collective of creatives, post-hippies, dreamers and friends who later become known as The Residents between August and November 1971. It was compiled into vinyl-ready, side-long suites in December that year, and a tape was sent immediately to the group's only known supporter in the music industry at that time, Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. Records Inc. But alas, despite being packaged in artwork modeled on a Randy Newman live album recently issued by the label, Hal and co. passed again, and superstardom and their wildest dreams continued to elude everybody involved.
Ever eager to move forwards, the group discarded the tapes and forgot all about their contents. And so they lay neglected in a San Francisco basement for over forty-five years (the tapes, not the group) until recent archival excavations by The Residents produced two dusty reels. Having listened and pondered, several members of the group deny having been involved in the recording of this material at all, whilst others insist they couldn't have played it so well even if they'd wanted to. They were, however, all in agreement that the tapes' existence could not be denied, and that it might be interesting to release this music at last, if only to see if anybody else out there could recall recording it. Suggestions and enquiries to the usual addresses please.
Nb: Of note is that two mixes of this entire recording exist, The Residents preferring (and sending to Hal) mix #2, completed in December 18th 1971.
Credits
Original demo tape (1971)
- Cover photograph - Dana Associates, Denmark
- Package design - Pornographics, Ltd.
- All songs Senada · Underpass - Asinine Music (BMI) except King Kong - Zappa · Frank Zappa Music (BMI) and For doorknob - Sheehan · Senada - Dubach Ditties (BMI)
- Live portions - The Boarding House, San Francisco - Oct. 18, 1971 and KHSC-FM, Arcata, Ca. - Oct. 30, 1971
- Produced by Residents, Uninc., 167 1/2 Seventeenth Ave., San Mateo, Ca.
- © 1971 - Warner Bros. Records Inc.
pREServed limited vinyl edition (2019)
- Produced by Residents Uninc.
- Tape transfer, restoration and mastering by Scott Colburn
- Archive imagery supplied by The Cryptic Corporation
- On behalf of Pore Know Grafix
- With thanks to Homer Flynn & The Cryptic Corporation, RA, Paul Bevori & All At Cherry Red & MVD.
- All songs written by the (pre)Residents
- Published by Pale Pachyderm Publishing
- Except for "King Kong": Zappa/Munchkin Music Co/Kobalt Music Copyrights Ltd).
- ℗ & © 2019 The Cryptic Corporation, Cherry Red Records & MVD Entertainment
Additional credits
- N. Senada: Performance on all tracks
- Philip 'Snakefinger' Lithman: Guitar on "King Kong",[12] performance on "Hallowed Be Thy Ween",[13] Piano, Vocals & Violin on "Cantaten To Der Dying Prunen"[14]
- Peggy Honeydew: Performance on "Hallowed Be Thy Ween"[15]
- Roland Sheehan: Performance on "Hallowed Be Thy Ween"
See also
- The Delta Nudes
- Residents, Uninc.
- The Boarding House
- Rusty Coathangers For The Doctor
- The W***** B*** Album
- Santa Dog
- Vileness Fats
- A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big
Buy Or Die!
- A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big at MVDShop (US)
- A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big at Cherry Red Records (UK)
Listen online
External links and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Aaron Tanner, The Residents: A Sight For Sore Eyes, Vol. 1, Melodic Virtue, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 B.S. liner notes, 2019
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Allan MacInnis, "The Residents Return to Vancouver: a Homer Flynn interview, with added Poor Know Graphics", Alienated in Vancouver, April 14th 2016
- ↑ Meet The Residents liner notes, 1974
- ↑ Mark Prindle, "The Rich Bunnell Honorary 'What's New?' Page", Mark's Record Reviews, October 5th 2007 (archived via archive.org)
- ↑ Mark Prindle, "Baby Sex", Mark's Record Reviews, October 5th 2007
- ↑ Post by Jannis Tsakalis to The Residents unofficial Facebook group, May 20th 2022
- ↑ "very rare, only two copies exist, made in the 80’s by Artisan sound recorders." Jannis Tsakalis, comment posted to The Residents unofficial Facebook group, May 20th 2022
- ↑ Big Brother, "Can You Hear Me Now?", The Residents' Official News Blog, January 30th 2008
- ↑ Cross-posted by Frenesi Gates to The Residents Facebook group, April 26th 2018
- ↑ "The Residents brand new album 'Intruders' is out now! Watch the brand new video for 'VoodooDoll' & an interview with Capt. Doc!", The Residents mailing list newsletter, October 22nd 2018
- ↑ The Residents Radio Special 1977
- ↑ Daydream B-Liver
- ↑ Philip Charles Lithman AKA Snakefinger, 1949 - 1987
- ↑ Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses
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B.S. (recorded 1971, released 2019) Side A |
