Barry Eiland

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Barry Bedford Eiland (also known as Red Wool or Wool) (December 19th 1946 – January 7th 2014) was an American vocalist and computer programmer, best known for his friendship with The Residents, and his appearance on their song "Smelly Tongues", from their 1974 debut album Meet The Residents. He was the younger brother of Palmer Eiland (better known as Arf, of The Residents' fictional conjoined twins Arf and Omega Berry).

Raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Eiland moved to Houston, Texas after graduating from C. E. Byrd High School in 1964, and became a computer programmer with IBM, pursuing his dream of working with NASA on the space shuttle program. Eiland briefly flirted with a recording career, planning a single on Ralph Records in 1977 under the stage name Little Squeegee Wonder, which was ultimately never released.

In the early 1990s, Eiland was briefly implicated in the murder of his assistant, but was exonerated when a private investigator uncovered the real culprit. He died in Houston on January 7th 2014, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Biography[]

Barry Bedford Eiland was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on December 19th 1946 to Doris Palmer Eiland and B.B. Eiland, the younger brother of Palmer Eiland (better known as Arf Berry, from The Residents' unfinished feature film Vileness Fats). At the age of twelve, Barry won the Shreveport Junior Golf Championship. The Eiland brothers became friends with future members of The Residents while they were students at C. E. Byrd High School. Barry was affectionately known by the nickname Red Wool, a reference to his "striking" red hair.

Barry was an enthusiastic R&B fan; as a teenager in Shreveport he once snuck into a James Brown concert, shaking the singer's hand at the end of the evening. He graduated from C. E. Byrd in 1964, and married Marilyn Givens (also from Shreveport). The couple moved to Houston, Texas, pursuing Barry's desire to work with NASA. He worked for TRW and then as a top-level computer programmer for IBM in support of the Apollo space shuttle program.

While recording Meet The Residents in 1973, The Residents remembered Barry's interest in music, and he ultimately provided lead vocals on the song "Smelly Tongues". During this time, The Residents gave Barry the "much more colorful" stage name Little Squeegee Wonder (though he was ultimately credited by his nickname "Wool"). Ralph Records briefly planned to issue a single by Little Squeegee Wonder in 1977, though it was ultimately never released.

Barry later worked in IBM's consulting and project management group. He remained a keen golfer, with a single digit handicap throughout his adulthood. He kept in touch with his old friends The Residents, once surprising the group by unexpectedly appearing in San Francisco in the late 1980s, using the city as a rendezvous point for an affair he was having with his assistant, who was murdered "under curious circumstances" a few years later. Barry became a "prime suspect", but was exonerated when he hired a private investigator, who fingered the true culprit, a handyman who ultimately confessed to the murder.

Barry retired from IBM in 2006. Following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease, Barry died on January 7th 2014 at the age of 67, after attempting to flee an oncoming hurricane in a car which he had "sadly forgotten how to drive". He was survived by his wife Marilyn and brother Palmer (who died in April 2017).

Barry Eiland

Biography[]

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