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So Long Sam (1945-2006) was a one off performance by The Residents, taking place at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive on June 4th 2010. For this show, The Residents performed in an expanded six person line-up featuring two violinists and an accordion as well as various percussion instruments.

Shortly after the show, a series of four digital singles featuring studio augmented recordings from the show were released via the group's digital music platform Robot Selling Device. In 2012, a video of the entire performance was uploaded to the Berkeley Art Museum's YouTube channel. In 2022, Klanggalerie released a double CD set, also titled So Long Sam (1945-2006), containing the complete show, with a second disc of demos.

In 2011, the show was later adapted into the Randy Rose one-man "cabaret" show Sam's Enchanted Evening, where Rose was accompanied by long-time Residents collaborator, pianist J. Raoul Brody.

History[]

In March 2010, between legs of their Talking Light live tour, The Residents began recording studio demos for a new, stand-alone live project based around covers of selected songs from the mid-to-late 20th century.

On April 10th, 2010, The Cryptic Corporation announced through Residents.Com that The Residents' next performance piece would be an 'unplugged' show at the Berkeley Art Museum. Since the show was only 3 weeks following the second leg of their Talking Light tour, Cryptic warned audiences that the show would not feature any material from Talking Light and would be completely different.

The venue started the show with a retrospective on The Residents' videos; notably featuring a showcase of the group's Freak Show CD-ROM, which was unplayable on modern machines.

Once the performance began, it was revealed that The Residents had taken the form of a six-piece orchestra, with two violins, a keyboard, an accordion, a vocalist, and various percussion instruments. The show's set list consisted of covers of rock, pop, and gothic country songs, interspersed with monologues from "Sam", telling the audience of the songs' significance to him.

Legacy[]

The most notable influence of the show is that it inspired the group to write a second Randy Rose focused show, titled Sam's Enchanted Evening. This version of the show featured only two performers on stage, Randy Rose (portraying Sam) and Joshua Raoul Brody on piano. Sam's Enchanted Evening was exclusively credited to Randy Rose in promotional material.

Almost a year after the last Sam's Enchanted Evening performance, the Berkeley Art Museum released the entirety of the June 10th 2010 show to their YouTube channel.

Set list[]

  • Monologue #1
  • September
  • Sixteen Tons
  • September (Reprise)
  • Ode to Billie Joe / Monologue #2
  • Ring of Fire
  • Monologue #3 / True Love Never Runs Smooth
  • Monologue #4 / Livin' la Vida Loca
  • Monologue #5 / Who Do You Love?
  • Monologue #6 / Moon River
  • Walk On By
  • Monologue #7
  • Born to Be Wild
  • Monologue #8
  • The Ballad Of Mack The Knife
  • Monologue #9
  • Paint It Black
  • Monologue #10
  • The Windmills of Your Mind
  • Monologue #11
  • Happy Trails

Robot Selling Device releases (2010)[]

So Long Sam is a digital-only EP by The Residents, featuring four classic rock and pop covers from their one-off live show So Long Sam (1945-2006), recorded at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive on June 4th 2010.

Each of the four songs is a cover of a mid-to-late 20th century pop or rock song: "True Love Never Runs Smooth" by Gene Pitney, "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, "Ode To Billy Joe" by Bobbie Gentry, and "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones.

The four songs were originally released as digital singles released shortly after the show via the group's digital music platform Robot Selling Device; these versions feature some studio overdubs. The singles were then compiled into a 15 minute digital EP, which was only available for a short time before being quickly removed from the store.

As of October 2023, these studio augmented versions have not been reissued since their removal from the Robot Selling Device.

Track listing[]

  1. True Love Never Runs Smooth (Bacharach/David) (2:54)
  2. Born To Be Wild (Bonfire) (4:36)
  3. Ode To Billy Joe (Gentry) (4:37)
  4. Paint It Black (Jagger/Richards) (2:30)

Release notes[]

Recorded live June 4th, 2010, at Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. This performance is dedicated to the memory of Sam (1945 - 2006).

So Long Sam, as a work in progress, is an excerpt from a longer piece entitled Sam’s Enchanted Evening currently being developed by The Residents for performance with an orchestra.

Klanggalerie album (2022)[]

So Long Sam (1945-2006) is a two disc compilation by The Residents, containing a live recording and a collection of demos from their 2010 one-off live show of the same name (itself an early version of the one-man show Sam's Enchanted Evening, later performed by lead singer Randy Rose in Berkeley, California in 2011 and 2012). It was released by Austrian label Klanggalerie on September 19th 2022.

The second disc contains a series of demo recordings of the songs from the production. The demo album also includes the outtake "MacArthur Park".

Track listing[]

Disc One (Live, June 4th 2010) (1:05:08)[]

  1. Introduction (3:09)
  2. Sam Opening Monolog (1:07)
  3. September Song (1:27)
  4. Sixteen Tons / September Song (4:36)
  5. Ode To Billie Joe (4:49)
  6. South Monolog (0:53)
  7. Ring Of Fire (2:44)
  8. Suette Monolog (0:49)
  9. True Love Never Runs Smooth (3:09)
  10. Only One Song Monolog (0:32)
  11. Livin' La Vida Loca (4:01)
  12. Young Stud Monolog (1:00)
  13. Who Do You Love? (3:16)
  14. Soft Stuff Monolog (0:30)
  15. Moon River (2:45)
  16. Walk On By (2:17)
  17. Car Monolog (1:08)
  18. Born To Be Wild (4:50)
  19. Drafted Monolog (1:19)
  20. Mack The Knife (4:09)
  21. Geenormous Whanger Monolog (0:42)
  22. Kissed and Captured Monolog (4:10)
  23. Paint It Black (2:36)
  24. Torture Monolog (1:46)
  25. The Windmills Of Your Mind (2:49)
  26. Mac Dies Monolog (2:23)
  27. Happy Trails (2:12)

Disc Two (March 2010 demos) (55:43)[]

  1. September Song (4:33)
  2. Sixteen Tons (3:55)
  3. Ode To Billy Joe (5:03)
  4. Ring Of Fire (2:28)
  5. True Love Never Runs Smooth (3:15)
  6. Livin' La Vida Loca (3:36)
  7. Who Do You Love (3:07)
  8. Moon River (3:16)
  9. Walk On By (2:32)
  10. Born To Be Wild (4:28)
  11. Mack The Knife (4:07)
  12. Paint It Black (3:37)
  13. The Windmills Of Your Mind (2:40)
  14. Happy Trails (2:05)
  15. MacArthur Park (7:01)

Credits[]

See also[]

External links and references[]

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