Commercial Album

Commercial Album is an album released by the Residents in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen.

Commercial Album
Studio album by
The Residents
ReleasedOctober 1980
RecordedSeptember 1979 – October 1980
Genre
Length42:12
LabelRalph Records
ProducerThe Residents
The Residents chronology
Eskimo
(1979)		 Commercial Album
(1980)		 Mark of the Mole
(1981)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic link

Background

The album pares down the concept and structure of the average commercial pop song and reduces it to a one-minute redux. It contains a compilation of 40 such sixty-second vignettes. The album used several session musicians, including Chris Cutler, Snakefinger (who sings lead on many tracks) and Fred Frith as well as two anonymous guest vocalists, Lene Lovich ("Picnic Boy") and Andy Partridge ("Margaret Freeman"). Brian Eno is also thought to appear on the album, but this was never been conclusively confirmed until the release of the 2-CD pREServed Edition in 2019, the liner notes of which confirmed that Eno played synthesizer on "The Coming Of The Crow" as well as David Byrne's appearance on harmony vocals on "Suburban Bathers".

The faces on the album cover are John Travolta and Barbra Streisand. The backside of the original LP labels listed the length as "1:00" after each of the 40 song titles. The first edition sleeve listed the tracks in the wrong order.

The liner notes state that songs should be repeated three times in a row to form a "pop song". The Residents purchased 40 one-minute advertising slots on San Francisco's most popular Top-40 radio station at the time, KFRC, such that the station played each track of their album over three days. This prompted an editorial in Billboard magazine questioning whether the act was art or advertising.[1]

Track listing

All tracks written by the Residents except where noted

  1. "Easter Woman" – 1:03
  2. "Perfect Love" – 1:03
  3. "Picnic Boy" – 1:01
  4. "End of Home" – 1:04
  5. "Amber" – 1:02
  6. "Japanese Watercolor" – 1:02
  7. "Secrets" – 1:03
  8. "Die in Terror" – 1:03
  9. "Red Rider" – 1:02
  10. "My Second Wife" – 1:02
  11. "Floyd" – 1:03
  12. "Suburban Bathers" – 1:04
  13. "Dimples and Toes" – 1:03
  14. "The Nameless Souls" – 1:04
  15. "Love Leaks Out" – 1:04
  16. "Act of Being Polite" – 1:03
  17. "Medicine Man" – 1:04
  18. "Tragic Bells" – 1:03
  19. "Loss of Innocence" – 1:04
  20. "The Simple Song" – 1:02
  21. "Ups and Downs" – 1:04
  22. "Possessions" – 1:03
  23. "Give It to Someone Else" – 1:03
  24. "Phantom" – 1:04
  25. "Less Not More" – 1:03
  26. "My Work Is So Behind" – 1:04
  27. "Birds in the Trees" – 1:04
  28. "Handful of Desire" – 1:04
  29. "Moisture" – 1:04
  30. "Love Is..." – 1:03
  31. "Troubled Man" – 1:04
  32. "La La" – 1:04
  33. "Loneliness" – 1:04
  34. "Nice Old Man" – 1:04
  35. "The Talk of Creatures" – 1:04
  36. "Fingertips" – 1:04
  37. "In Between Dreams" – 1:03
  38. "Margaret Freeman" – 1:03
  39. "The Coming of the Crow" – 1:04
  40. "When We Were Young" – 1:02
  • Bonus Tracks (1988 CD release only)
  1. "Shut Up Shut Up"
  2. "And I Was Alone"
  3. "Theme for an American TV Show"
  4. "We're a Happy Family/Bali Ha'i" (The Ramones)
  5. "The Sleeper"
  6. "Boy in Love"
  7. "Diskomo (Remix)"
  8. "Jailhouse Rock" (Leiber/Stoller)
  9. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (James Brown, Betty Jean Newsome)
  10. "Hit the Road Jack" (Percy Mayfield)

Personnel
  • Written & Produced By: The Residents
  • Extra Hard Working Guest Musician
    • Fred Frith: Guitar on 'Japanese Watercolor',[2] ''Moisture' [3]& 'The Coming of The Crow'[4]
  • Special Appearances
    • Chris Cutler – Drums on 'Love Leaks Out',[2] 'Moisture'[3] & 'The Coming of The Crow'[4]
    • Don Jackovich – Drums on 'Love Leaks Out'[3]
    • Sandy Sandwich – vocals, guitar on "Margaret Freeman"
    • Mud's Sis – Special Appearance
    • Snakefinger – Special Appearance on 'Moisture',[3] & Vocals on 'Ups And Down'
  • Secret Special Appearances
  • Cover Design & Art Direction
    • Pore Know Graphics

References
  1. Jack McDonough (15 November 1980). Air Time, Ad Time Fuse In Residents' S.F. Promo. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 22–. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  2. The Residents - Heaven? [RykoDisc RCD 20012] (1986) Track Credits
  3. The Residents - Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses [Euro Ralph CD017] (1997) Track Credits
  4. The Residents - Hell! [RykoDisc RCD 20013] (1986) Track Credits
  5. The Residents - Commercial Album [Mute, CDSTUMM243] (2004) Track Credits
  6. Knipfel, Jim (2018). The Residents Sell Out [Commercial Album pREServed Liner Notes]. Cherry Red Records, MVD Entertainment Group, New Ralph Too. p. 2.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.