The Residents - The Beatles Play The Residents And The Residents Play The Beatles Album

For over 40 years, the Residents have continuously confused everybody who dared to listen to their innovative sound creations. Numbering four, but keeping their personal identities a better guarded secret than the list with launching codes for US atomic missiles, the Residents share a nod or two with that other equally famous foursome. Their 1974 debut LP, Meet the Residents, with its iconographic Beatle-destructed cover, led to rumors that the Residents were in fact the Beatles themselves, sticking up their collective middle finger to the music industry. Buying this single three years later you would have been excused for believing these carefully nurtured rumors. The A-side of the single “Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life” is an audio collage (using a very early form of sampling) made up out of snippets of various Beatle tracks. “Flying”, its B-side, was chosen not only because it is one of the best-ever Beatle songs, but also because it was the one track the Residents could find that was credited to all four Beatles. This oddball single, out of step with everything at the time (and before and beyond), still stands up as a timeless tribute (or pastiche depending on how untouchable you consider your Beatles) and is perhaps the most original homage to the mop tops ever. This now ultra-rare single was released in a hand silk-screened cover in an edition of only 500 copies and included a membership card for the fan club. The fact that the Residents are still performing today, surviving for over 4 decades making music no one else makes, completely independent of the music industry is something of a miracle. Like that other famous foursome, The Residents have endured in popularity and collectability; original Residents vinyl is as much wanted by collectors as gold-labelled Please Please Me albums. Musically they are certainly as unique as the Beatles. But are they or aren’t they? Who knows, those rumors about the identities of the Residents just might be true. Or not.

A friend of mine introduced me to LSD and The Residents Play The Beatles on the same night approximately 30 years ago, and I haven't been the same since! Honestly, I have looked for this album for years, and here it is! Unfortunately I don't want to pay $300 for it! Well, unless it comes with LSD!

the tracks are available on a CD repress of Third Reich and Roll from the late 1980s at a much more affordable cost

The Residents designed this single to be a tribute to The Beatles, but also to satirize Beatles music as a whole. It encouraged two humourous rumors which became widely publicized about The Residents at that time -- first, that The Residents vehemently opposed everything that The Beatles represented; and secondly, that The Residents were, in fact, the actual Beatles. Confidential sources have since revealed that neither of these rumours are true. Anyway another rumour grow from that : The Residents are the Beach Boys refeering from the war beetween The Beatles and they ,but also the Black Album of the Beach Boys which sound like Resident's music.