•
Rating: In 1977, the Residents released "Fingerprince," a work that I consider one of the best in the eyeballs' discography, and I don't think it's exaggerated to compare it to the band's milestones like "Not Available" or "Eskimo," even considering only the long final suite, which in my opinion, is the best piece by the Residents.
So let's skip the appetizers, little schizophrenic miniatures similar to those seen in their debut "Meet the Residents," and move directly to the main course of the album, the long suite "Six Things to a Cycle," lasting 17 minutes, which is divided into six movements, and represents, along with "Eskimo," the artistic-philosophical pinnacle of the band. Verses and calls of the forest, sort of a preview of the use of environmental sounds that we will see in "Eskimo," accompanied by a circular pattern of tribal percussion in crescendo, introduce us to the first movement, evoking a sense of primitivism, of a world still free from the pressures of modern society.
The calm of the piece is suddenly interrupted by a piercing scream, as if representing the arrival of man in the world. The track thus collapses into a minimalist motif of winds and metallic percussion, which in the second part of the suite is accompanied by the reappearance of tribal percussion and, above all, guttural and animalistic verses, in a crescendo that leads directly to the third movement, where the usual motif is interpreted by skewed synths, vaguely reminiscent of circus music, perfectly representing the alienation of modern man, increasingly a parody of himself, in relation to the industrial society he himself created. The usual metallic percussion, this time slowed down, introduces the fourth movement that, along with a drum disconnected from the rest of the piece, supports a choir of sterile processed voices, the true hallmark of the Residents, who on the same motif, chant a "chew chew gum chew gum gum chew chew," the result of consumerism on the minds of men, whose only interest now is the industrial products fed to them by the corporations.
The fifth movement represents the definitive dehumanization of the individual, now a machine enslaved by social conventions. An organ plays what is perhaps the first melody of the piece, together with the usual percussion and, towards the end, a female choir and a crescendo of winds. In the sixth and final movement, a string instrument accompanies the usual motif, the strings that play a vaguely cheerful oriental lullaby, but that kind of resigned cheerfulness of those who, in the face of the effects of progress, lose all ability to oppose and surrender, not without a tear of regret, to the celebrations for the birth of the new man, the man-machine completely dependent on technology.
A bitter cheerfulness, somewhat like the humor of the Residents, who parodied commercial music to denounce the dehumanization of individuals caused by consumerism, using irony to exorcise the fears brought about by industrial society.
Laugh to keep from crying.
Tracklist and Lyrics
06 Boo Who? (02:49)
Now ---- there just is a cow
Where --- once was a calf
Now ---- there just is a stare
Where --- once was a laugh
Now ---- there just is a bone
Where --- once was a bath
Now ---- a tink-er-y toy
Is ---- an epi-taph
A smile - would make believe
That ---- it had a friend
And ---- tomorrow's name
Once ---- never would end
sallysally@usa.net
07 Tourniquet of Roses (03:14)
The onion's in the fat
And the bacon's bought the bat
And the Posie's never even near the picture
(Now where to went that rotten egg
For feelin' up my lover's leg
I'll boil him 'til the begs to be a breakfast)
So I'm left all alone
Because my father fought the foam
And now I can't accept the pharmacy's prescription
So now there is a bank
Where once a summer spring
Remined us of what we thought we ought to ding.a ling
For ringing ringing rockets
Roar a tub of a' lard today
And all that's left
Is something else
There is no more to say
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
Is no more to say now... Is no more to say...
sallysally@usa.net
Loading comments slowly
