The American Composers Series

The American Composers Series
Year	1984 - 1986
Number of releases	2

The American Composers Series (or The American Composer Series) was a project undertaken by The Residents beginning with the release of George & James in 1984, and ending with the release of Stars & Hank Forever in 1986.

The series was originally conceived to contain ten releases, featuring a total of twenty composers, to be released over a period of sixteen years, ending after the turn of the century in 2001. However, only two albums (with a further three related singles) were completed and released before the series was abandoned in 1986.

History

Concept

After the disastrous Mole Show tour almost brought the group to the point of breaking up entirely in 1983, The Residents decided that they needed a different sort of project to work on, outside of the Mole Trilogy concept, so they decided to take the idea of "music about music" to its logical extreme with a ambitious, long-term project called The American Composer Series (later referred to with the plural, as The American Composers Series).

The series was to be made up of explorations of the music of various American composers, one to each side of each album. The idea was to break down the mythologies surrounding the celebrated composers and to get straight to the ideas in the music - somewhat akin to imposing the Theory of Obscurity on famous musicians.

The Residents thus set themselves the goal of creating ten albums, each covering two composers (one per side of the album), to be released over a period of sixteen years, beginning in 1984 and ending after the end of the century (and millennium) in the year 2001.

Releases and abandonment

The first album, George & James, covered George Gershwin and James Brown. The Residents followed this with John Philip Sousa and Hank Williams, Sr. on Stars & Hank Forever.

The new CD technology was starting to catch on and with everyone buying up the CD rights to music, The Residents could no longer afford to play in this seller's market - especially with Ralph Records' financial troubles. The group also felt that CDs were unsuited to the whole project, since one of the composers would naturally have to come before the other on the disc, giving a false impression of priority.

Despite the termination of the project in 1986, the concept of the series would inform the group's work throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s in the form of the Cube-E tour and The King & Eye album, among others.

Unfinished installments

There have been varying reports as to what would have been the third album in The American Composers Series. An album titled The Trouble With Harrys which would have featured the music of Harry Partch and Harry Nilsson has been suggested, but this does not appear to have been recorded before The Residents abandoned the project.

The group had started work on a planned album featuring Sun Ra (it has been variously suggested that the Sun Ra suite was to be paired with the music of either Ray Charles or Buddy Holly),. The Residents' version of "Hit The Road Jack", originally intended for the Ray Charles American Composers suite, was released as a single in 1987.

A medley of preliminary attempts at Barry White and Sun Ra, "Daydream In Space", was later released on the UWEB outtakes compilation Daydream B-Liver. A supposed outtake from the Buddy Holly sessions, "That'll Be the Day (Baby Baby)", was released in July 2023 as a limited edition 7" single included with copies of the book A Sight For Sore Eyes, Vol. 2.

Other artists The Residents planned to feature in the series included Steven Foster, Captain Beefheart, Charles Ives, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Scott Joplin.

Interactive media

An "interactive book" edition of George & James was released by Euro Ralph in 1994; essentially a CD reissue of the original album, this edition included bonus 3.5" floppy disks which featured a (somewhat) interactive slideshow with a unique essay on the album, designed to be viewed and read while listening to the CD. George & James was the second and final Residents album to be issued in the "interactive book" format, following The Third Reich 'n Roll.

The Residents briefly considered reviving The American Composers Series in the CD-ROM format in the mid-1990s, however no releases eventuated.

pREServed box set

An American Composers Series box set, The American Composers Box, was intended for release in the group's expansive pREServed series of reissues in 2019, at an unknown time after the release of the Mole Box in April. This release was delayed, however, as there were additional materials they wanted to include in the set which they had not yet been able to locate in the archives.

The box set was further delayed, due to rights issues over one element of the set. As of July 2023, The American Composers Box is currently being prepared for an expected release within the second half of the year.

The series

• Volume 1 - George Gershwin / James Brown - George & James (1984)
• Volume 2 - Hank Williams / John Philip Sousa - Stars & Hank Forever (1986)

Abandoned installments

• Volume 3 - Harry Partch / Harry Nilsson - The Trouble With Harrys
• Volume ? - Ray Charles (or Buddy Holly) / Sun Ra - Ray & Ra (or Sons of the South: Buddy and Sonny)
• Volume ? - Bob Dylan / Barry White - Bob & The Blob

Related releases

• The White Single (1984)
• "Kaw-Liga" (1986)
• "Hit The Road Jack" (1987)
• "That'll Be the Day (Baby Baby)" (2023)

See also

• "Daydream In Space"
• The King & Eye
• Cube-E
• The American Composers Box

External links and references

• The American Composers Series at The Residents Historical
• The American Composer Series at RZWeb (archived via archive.org)