"Six Things To A Cycle" is a six-part suite by The Residents, originally released on their 1976 album Fingerprince.
The suite was originally composed by the group with the intention of being performed live as a ballet featuring French dancer Maurice Bejart, though the ballet was ultimately never performed.
The version of the suite released on Fingerprince is a truncated version of the original ballet; the full ballet is known to exist in the group's archives, and is being considered for release in the near future by their labels New Ralph Too and Cherry Red Records.
History[]
"Man, represented by a primitive humanoid, is consumed by his self-created environment only to be replaced by a new creature, still primitive, still faulty, but destined to rule the world just as poorly..." - A Resident
"Six Things To A Cycle", a ballet in six parts, was composed by The Residents for French dancer Maurice Bejart, who had used their music in a dance piece he had performed on a barge moving down the canals of Venice.
It is a follow-up of sorts to "Number One", an improvisational orchestra piece which was composed and performed by The Residents around 1973. It takes inspiration from Indonesian gamelan music, the minimalist movement, and avant-garde composer Harry Partch.
The Residents began recording the composition in May of 1976, and performed parts of it at the Oh Mummy! live performance in Berkeley the following month. The suite featured contributions from several of the group's then-frequent collaborators, Pamela Zeibak on vocals, Don Jackovich and Tony Logan on percussion, and Adrian Dekbar on violin. Recording of the suite was completed in August 1976.[1]
On the first two pressings of Fingerprince, "Six Things To A Cycle" is erroneously listed as being 15 minutes and 9 seconds long. This error was fixed on later pressings; the original two pressings contain the complete, nearly 18 minute long version of the suite.
The Residents have never (to date) fully re-recorded "Six Things To A Cycle" as they have with so many of their other compositions; however in 1992 elements were incorporated into "Six Amber Things" for their retrospective "mash-up" album Our Finest Flowers, and in 2008 they recorded a short follow-up of sorts entitled "Six Things To A Sickle".
Ballet outline[]
The curtain rises. Predawn blue spills across the sky silhouetting a jungle of thick vegetation. A fire burns in the foreground casting shadows upon a ring of strangely dressed and postured figures. The jungle breathes a primitive rhythm into the figures who become animated while watched by large birds who devour them as the sun rises. The birds form a line dancing from side to side as multi-colored geometric shapes fall from their mouths. The shapes grow until the jungle is pushed entirely off the stage and replaced by pulsating and occasionally flashing clouds of smoke.
The shapes revolve around a central axis which grows higher against a smoke-filled backdrop. On top of the central shape is a figure heavily draped with layers of bright silk cloth each slowly being lifted by invisible threads attached to the four corners and pulled tight so that each cloth slowly becomes a square forming a backdrop for the dancer. As this happens other figures appear at the base of the shape and call to the mysterious image. As the figure is revealed in its true state, the geometric shapes open offering forth the dream of Utopia.[2]
Parts[]
For the 1987 CD reissue of Fingerprince, "Six Things To A Cycle" was divided into six parts.
- Part One (2:46)
- Part Two (1:38)
- Part Three (2:25)
- Part Four (3:49)
- Part Five (4:49)
- Part Six (2:17)
Lyrics[]
Part 4
Chew chew gum, chew gum gum chew chew
Part 5
Good good coffee, good good coffee, good good coffee, good good coffee, good good coffee, good good coffee, good
Personnel[]
- Percussion - D. Jackovich
- Steel Derums - T. Logan
- Violin - A. Dekbar
- Vocals - Zeibak
List of releases[]
- Fingerprince (1977) [Version 1]
- Please Do Not Steal It (1979) [Version 2]
- Nibbles (1979) [Version 2]
- Memorial Hits (1985) [Version 1]
- Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents (1993) [Version 3]
- In Memoriam Torso (1994) [Version 1]
- Twenty-Five Years Of Eyeball Excellence (1998) [Version 4]
- Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! Can't You See That It's True; What The Beatles Did To Me, I Love Lucy Did To You (2010) [Version 5]
- The Third Reich 'n Roll pREServed (2018) [Version 5]
List of versions[]
External links and references[]
- ↑ Please Do Not Steal It! liner notes, 1979
- ↑ Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents
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Tourniquet of Roses Fingerprince / Babyfingers (1976-1979) Side A |