THE RESIDENTS - STARS AND HANK FOREVER @ 35

 

October 21st marks the 35th anniversary of The Residents most unlikely commercial success, Stars & Hank Forever!, which was issued on this day in 1986. It was Volume II in their American Composer Series, which began two years earlier with the release of the George & James album. For this second volume, the composers were Hank Williams on side one and John Philip Sousa on side two. Though the American Composer Series was intended to span as many as 10 volumes over 16 years, the project was abruptly abandoned after this second volume due to various logistical difficulties. These, in part, involved rising costs for licensing fees and the incompatibility of the project’s structure with the emerging CD format. The American Composer Series was built around two composers per release occupying separate sides of an LP. With CDs usurping vinyl at the time as the dominant release format, the split side concept didn’t work anymore.

To say the album was commercially successful does not necessarily mean that it was critically or artistically so, though it does have certain moments. While the first volume, which covered works by James Brown and George Gershwin, offered a lot of giddy interpretations for the group to indulge in, their irreverent approach maybe didn’t serve the revered nature of Hank Williams’ legacy. However, their toe tapping take on Kaw-Liga, which mounted the familiar “Indian” lament atop a rhythm section lifted straight from Michael Jackson’s hit, Billie Jean, proved to be extremely club friendly and The Residents found themselves suddenly in the unfamiliar position of being DJ faves in the underground clubs of the mid 1980s. Releasing the track in an extended 12” remixed format helped drive its popularity even more. That hit aside, however, their versions of other Williams classics like Jambalaya may have been seen by some as disrespectful, though personally, I find the Williams side pretty consistently enjoyable.

The Sousa side, on the other hand, offers up a far more challenging listening experience. The bombast of parade and marching music makes for some pretty brittle listening and the arrangements, with their accompanying sound effects intended to recreate the ambiance of a live parade, leave the whole side long mix of songs sounding jarring and alienating. A remix of this material without the sound FX was later released separately, though I’ve not bothered to check out that version.

The saddest aspect of this album is the fact it contains the last recordings done with frequent collaborator and unofficial “fifth” Resident, innovative guitar genius Snakefinger, before his untimely and tragic passing. This fatal blow was something of a culmination to a turbulent time for the band, which had gone through a lot of struggle thus far in the decade. With the Mole Trilogy faltering and failing to resolve itself into a completed project, its accompanying live tour nearly bankrupting them and then the American Composer Series going off the rails after only two volumes, the loss of Snakefinger must have dealt a serious blow to the group’s resolve. It’s no wonder they’d turn their attention to the realm of faith and religion with their next major project, God In Three Persons. Though this represented the end of the composer series, they would do a collection of Elvis Presley songs a few years later in 1989 for The King & Eye album.