Not Available(1978)OverviewTracksLiner NotesLyricsUncle Willie
In 1978, the "official" word was that The Residents had stated NOT AVAILABLE could never be released. The group claimed that they had recorded their musical film noir masterpiece in secrecy as a way of exercising their "theory of obscurity" to its fullest, and, In strict accordance with the theory, the work could never be released until its creators no longer recalled its existence.
But those steeped in the lore of The Residents' milieu have long known that the recording of the album was in realty an exercise in group therapy. The real reason that the band wished to deny its existence was the fact that they felt that the work was too personally revealing.
What is not generally known, though, is that, as part of their therapeutic process, The Residents actually considered the idea of creating an operetta based on NOT AVAILABLE. Casting the primary roles with the actual inhabitants of the group's internal drama, they then began a series of loosely structured "rehearsals" with those players enacting the principal roles of Edweena, The Porcupine, The Catbird, Uncle Remus and Enigmatic Foe.
By enacting this pseudo drama within a psycho drama, the internal conflict, still not completely understood by all of the participants, became much more clear, as the player/characters instinctively acted out their roles. The love triangle between Edweena, Porcupine and Catbird became obvious ("Can two be more than three?") as well as Remus's role as the distant and objective commentator ("The aching and the breaking are the making of a soul."). The purpose of the Enigmatic Foe was of course still unclear when the rehearsals began, but once the Porcupine's breakdown was known ("He thought the end was overdue, but day broke him instead..."), the role of the noble Foe, as Porcupine's stand-in for the operetta's climatic duel scene, became clear.
As the faux piece reached its peak, the trio - two holding pistols while the third hid in a bush - came to the realization that the lovely young Edweena had eloped with the independently wealthy and no longer uninvolved Uncle Remus. At this point, the tension, previously thicker than frozen mayonnaise, was shattered by the Porcupine, emerging from the shrubbery to paraphrase Shakespeare ("To show or to be shown...").
With illusions of love shattered, the three were then able to forgive, embrace and even welcome the traitorous Remus back to the fold, once he had returned from his unexpected honeymoon.
- Part One: Edweena
- Part Two: The Making of a Soul
- Part Three: Ship's A Goin' Down
- Part Four: Never Known Questions
- Epilogue
For the 2019 pREServed edition, three live tracks were added to the first disc:
- Ships A'Going Down (1982 Rehearsal)
- Ships A'Going Down (Live, 1986)
- Mourning Glories (Live, 2014)
The second disc is comprised of "X Is for Xtra (a Conclusion)" - the original 1974 tapes that later became Not Available when adapted, edited, remixed and reprocessed four years later.
- Mehico Ron Devoo
- Theme From X (With Roman Overtones)
- Theme From X (Pt 2)
- Solome and Goiter
- New Mexico Dream
- Ho Ho Bumped His Toe
- Where to Begin?
- Fairly Well
- Love Sprong
- Ah Spare Us, Gus
- Slow Texture
- Tennessee Williams
- Little a (an Authentic Folk Song)
- Asonarose
- Anaconda Montana
- Tune of the Unknown
- Soundtrack Music Piece 17
- O Solo Meow
- Mehico Ron Devoo Finale
Not Available was not meant to be released. It was an attempt to take N. Senada's Theory of Obscurity to its logical conclusion. Senada maintained that an artist does his or her best work in isolation, free froms the influence of an audience. If the artist is modifying his or her ideas to suit the tastes of the audience the work is being corrupted.
This album was not to be released until the band themselves had forgotten completely about its existence, so that there would be no potential audience to influence its development. The idea worked well -- the music in Not Available, a mini-opera made up of four "acts" with an epilogue, is excellent and very distinctive.
The eventual publication of Not Available came about as the result of a problem with the band. In 1978, The Residents were working on Eskimo, a much-touted major release. However, after a disagreement with The Cryptic Corporation, the band disappeared to England with the Eskimo master tapes. Needing something to release, the Cryptics pulled "some old tapes" off the shelves and released them as Not Available, complete with ads in the UK music press announcing "Now It Can Be Sold." The Residents weren't bothered much by this deviation from their plan, however, since the 1978 decision by someone else to release the album couldn't affect the philosophical conditions under which it was recorded in 1974.
Expand allPart One: Edweena
Chorus:
Coming into column nation is a gracious thing
A stirring and a whirring and a broken widow(er)'s pain;
It's causing easy ought to just leave a lust alone
But when a friend has shrunken skin where do you throw the bone?
(The matter that's been spoken to's a fragrant little thing
It's open and was known to need a token diamond ring.)
Young Girl:
Investing space without a place;
Confusing grace with outer space.
Chorus:
To please the breeze you freeze the seize,
Combat disease and bend the knees;
And if explicit matters naught,
Extend the grin -- but don't get caught.
Now Uncle Remus, Uncle Remus, where have you been we say
(We saw the end of Uncle mend and turn into into today).
But now they say there's room no more for such a friendly friendly whore
Uncle Remus:
Yes, Easter Island isn't my land coming home once more.
Chorus:
But a sentence existing inside of a rhyme
Is only just a token left spoken in time
Uncle Remus:
Can tomorrow be more than the end of today?
Young Girl:
Or do posies just bloom for the feel of a may?
Investing space without a place;
Confusing grace with outer space.
Chorus:
The way is a never for severing two,
(For) beginnings are endings for all but a few.
Part Two: The Making of a Soul
Chorus:
Edweena went to calumet and left from there to college;
She took along a porcupine whose name was known as knowledge;
Now their relationship was fraught with pangs of loving hunger.
The Porcupine could question all, but all she new was slumber.
Porcupine:
A huge easy cozy wants our kiss to triumph,
But unbelievable admits --
Some questions receive a guarantee to shake you up.
How much marriage urges a windmill to pinch infinity?
Is a magic hid-a-bed the final home of Spanish fire?
Is firm corn merrier under gifts of less important love?
We wonder.
But fantasy moves ahead;
For the iceman just took a turn for the better
And a small object flies from his mouth;
A daring, jewel scales down the belted ear system
And you have the modular optimistic silver original.
Welcome to the offshoots of Jupiter.
Chorus:
Edweena never knowing why her friend would ramble so
She shut him out and left a pout to bleed upon the snow.
Porcupine:
Mourning Glories open only after noon begins;
The open and the broken have begun to blend again.
They freeze a shape about the nape
Of nectar and of knee;
They leave a sleeve, they weave a grieve
For mourning's never free.
Uncle Remus:
The aching and the breaking are the making of a soul.
(The empties that have been returned relieve us of a goal).
Chorus:
Now who is gone and who is right
And who is left to see
For who is left is just a few
Can two be more than three?
Part Three: Ship's a Goin' Down
Catbird:
Why not live?
Chorus:
The catbird shrilled!
Catbird:
And give a guy a chance!
For soon the moon will sing a tune and I'll be left to dance.
Uncle Remus:
Well, strangers have left on longer trains before.
Catbird:
Yes, shake and shout and cause a spout to be a mockery!
Exist inside a lemon drop and cause no word to be.
If after all this oleo a speck of dust exists,
We'll set aside a common tide 'twixt friend and who he's kissed.
Enigmatic Foe:
He thought the end was overdue, but daybroke him instead,
And consequently what he read was never what he said.
And don't you never,
Chorus:
Said the ever Enigmatic Foe
Enigmatic Foe:
Lose your cool, or after school,
They'll find me home in bed.
Catbird:
What hoe you rake, you fake a taking and a mating moo;
Confuse to lose and quake to break are simple rules to you.
Why send a curly head to bed and know her secrets too?
Enigmatic Foe:
Glue it down you dripping clown, and be not busy, too;
If a needy, if a seedy lets him come on through.
Keys are not thrust open spores, and neither is a broken store!
There are clothes that haven't been worn,
Feet that haven't been shorn,
There's causes that haven't been given a principle.
Need I say more?
Uncle Remus:
The soft spoken edge was a close fit
With the warped open cracks so many.
All:
The quick brain drained the main
And the ships a goin' down me mates,
The ship she's a goin' down.
The ship' she's a goin' down.
Part Four: Never Known Questions
Chorus:
The cloud continues and the spot
Diminishes without even the
Hint of a glow.
Is glowing a continuous process
Or does the spot find its
Way out where it needs to be.
Spot the rot, oh spot the rot,
Oh spot the rot we say.
Spot the rot they tell the
Tot while feeding him some say.
Spot the rot, oh spot the
Rot and then you'll be okay.
Spot the rot, oh spot the
Rot, but still you'd better pray.
Porcupine:
When Edweena made me mushrooms,
She ate the grate and ground the groom;
My mother made me eat boysenberries,
But my gracious sakes just ate me first.
Calling cards and polling wards are just to many... See?
Calling cards and winking bards are just a way to see.
Calling cards and winking bards are just the way to be?
Falling guards and winking bards are just a need today.
Falling guards and winking bards are just my needs. Okay? Okay?
Okay! Okay! Okay! Okay! Okay!...
To show or
To be shown
Is a question never, never known not even by many to exist.
Epilogue
Chorus:
The son of the know thing flew into today.
He left in a hurry -- had little to say;
But fore the barking sub side in his wake,
He helped out with vestiges sweeter than cake:
The Son:
Opulent givings are seldom a dread.
They help you relieve all them lies in your head.
But for the giving begets a sure vain,
Leave open a window and let in some rain.
This, the second album recorded by the Residents, is perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful of all their albums. Its was bounded by the "Theory of Obscurity" and "could only be released when the creators themselves had completely forgotten about its existence."
For whatever reasons, the album was eventually released four years later. Some have complained that this release was blasphemous and that the theory should have been respected. Let me assure you that no crime was committed. The lyrics are heavily veiled in an acoustic and linguistic gauze. Sometimes there is rhyme, and sometimes there is reason. There are times at which we catch glimpses of these lyrics through the veil, however their meaning tends to speak more directly to the soul, and for the most part are not available to the analytical mind. When listening to this album, one realizes that its obscurity remains fully intact.
The music is full of many rich and varied themes. Its juxtaposition of the sad, the beautiful, and the unusual, creates deep emotional currents that with proper navigation will lead you to interesting places. There is an innocence about this album that lays aside all pretense and bears open their soul.
We hear a hypnotic mesh of percussion, strings, horns, and voices. We find ourselves carried upon waves of unfamiliarity which lead us to seductive places where female voices and pianos sweetly wonder about the blooming of posies. There are also places of loneliness as felt in these words:
The sentence existing inside of a rhyme, is only just a token left spoken in time.
In "The Making of a Soul" there exists a most beautiful and delicately played piano passage. It sounds as though they were playing on their grandmother's seldom used piano in the basement while she was away. Later, lamenting strings join in with the piano, and a peculiar person shows up with some questions that are guaranteed to shake you up.
We make our way through the turbulent "Ship's A'Going Down", spiraling ever downward, descending into the whimpering depths from which there appears to be no return, until at last we find ourselves with "Never Known Questions". A lush resting place.
When you look into the emotions contained in the music on this album, they speak clearly, and there is no question of obscurity. This album is simultaneously sad, happy, and beautiful. Particularly as found in its climactic conclusion. Grandma's sad and innocent piano reappears and after a valiant attempt at trying to communicate the passage of calling cards and winking bards and falling guards, there is a certain feeling of resignation as we find ourselves, along with The Residents, throwing up our hands and saying "OK".
An angelic farewell march fades in and takes over while the singing continues in time with the new music. "OK, OK". There is a sense of finality and acceptance. As the march continues to play, another refrain emerges.
To exist to show, or to be shown? Is a question never, never known.
As the music slowly fades out, so do the lyrics. They leave us, receding faintly, with the words "to exist ... to exist". The music is sad because it is time to say farewell, as we all must do someday. It is happy, for having had the chance to exist. And it is beautiful, because it is.
- David Willenbrink