Freak Show(1990)OverviewTracksLiner NotesLyricsBiographies
After the Cube E tour The Residents were feeling rather dispirited. The last leg of the tour had been plagued with problems and they'd been feeling more and more like what had started out as a piece of musical theatre had turned into an exhibition of bizarre cultural deformities with themselves as the star attraction. "Everyone comes to the freak-show" became a back-stage catch-phrase for the tour. It didn't help that after almost ten years of tours and major projects (not to mention nearly twenty years of albums), the musical press still spent far more time talking about their Eyeball heads than their music.
Building on their fears and worries (a frequent source of inspiration for them) and inspired by such sources as Daniel P. Mannix's book Freaks: We Who Are Not Like Others and the 1932 movie Freaks, they came up with a series of short stories about a troupe of side-show freaks.
The songs which grew out of these don't necessarily tell these stories (though some do) but instead concentrate on the character of the people -- with the reminder that these are people, in spite of their often disturbing appearances. The group also turn the situation upside-down for one song, Lillie. Lillie is a member of the audience who, in spite of being a so-called "normal" person, is so disturbing that she manages to freak the freaks out.
The Residents hired Tony Janssen, who had worked with them on the sound on Cube-E, to help out with the MIDI work on the album. The band had started experimenting with the technology when they were hired to write soundtracks for episodes of Pee-Wee's Playhouse but this was the most extensive use of the synthesizer networking system they had ever undertaken.
The album was fairly successful and The Residents decided to expand on the ideas within it. They teamed up with computer animator Jim Ludtke to produce a promotional video, Harry the Head. As part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations in 1992 they recruited a host of top-notch alternative comix artists to produce a full-color graphic novel based on the characters' songs and stories, which was published by Dark Horse Comics. A special limited-edition hard-cover version also included a single called Blowoff, a fifteen-minute instrumental piece based on musical ideas from Freak Show.
The graphic novel was a hit and was followed by a first for The Residents: a CD-ROM. The interactive program lets the viewer not only explore the actual Freak Show under the big top, but also go backstage to the Freaks' trailers and poke around in their personal belongings and private lives (and see videos for each character). The Residents themselves appear as a freak act and have a trailer for you to explore, which contains a history of the band.
- Everyone Comes to the Freak Show
- Harry the Head
- Herman, the Human Mole
- Wanda, the Worm Woman
- Jack, the Boneless Boy
- Benny, the Bouncing Bump
- Mickey, the Mumbling Midget
- Lillie
- Nobody Laughs When They Leave
pREServed Edition:
Disc One: Freak Show
- Everyone Comes to the Freak Show
- Harry the Head
- Herman the Human Mole
- Wanda the Worm Woman
- Jack the Boneless Boy
- Benny the Bouncing Bump
- Mickey the Mumbling Midget
- Lillie
- Nobody Laughs When They Leave
Bonus Tracks
- The Mutes
- Blowoff
- All Tha' Freaks
- The Eyes Scream
- Jelly Jack (Icky Flix)
- Harry the Head (Icky Flix)
- Jelly Jack RMX
Disc Two: The Freak Show Evolutions
- Spring 1990 Jam 1
- Spring 1990 Jam 2
- Spring 1990 Jam 3
- Rough Mix 1
- Rough Mix 2
- Rough Mix 4
- Rough Mix 7
- Rough Mix 10
- Rough Mix 12
- Rough Mix 13
- Rough Mix 14
- Rough Mix 16
- Rough Mix 19
- Rough Mix 21
- Pony Rink 1
- Pony Rink 3
- Pony Rink 4
- Pony Rink 5
- Pony Rink 6
- Pony Rink 9
- Pony Rink 10
- Pony Rink 11
- Pony Rink 13
- Pony Rink 17
- Pony Rink 20
- Pony Rink 23
- Pony Rink 26
Disc Three: Live Freaks
- Ty's Freak Show Restoration (1991)
- Everyone Comes to the Freakshow (1997)
- Harry (2014)
- Herman (2014)
- Wanda (1995)
- Jack (1997)
- Benny (2001)
- Mickey (2018)
- Lillie (2011)
- Nobody Laughs When They Leave (2001)
The Freak Show Story
The conclusion of the Cube-E tour in 1990 left The Residents with mixed emotions. Although the tour have been quite successful, large chunks of the band's collective creativity - namely composition and recording - had gone untouched for a couple of years. Another way of seeing it is that the performance batteries may have felt a little burned out, but the urge to record was fully charged.
The beginning of Residents projects are always a little free-form and chaotic, and Freak Show was certainly no exception. All they knew was that this album was somehow about a circus. They played with various carnival themes and ideas, but nothing seems to be right - until the moment of realization came: a vague and slightly uncomfortable memory of having seen Grace McDaniels, the one and only Mule-Faced Woman, at the Louisiana State Fair sometime around the mid-fifties. BINGO! They were off and running.
The Freak Show album was a great start, creating a marvelous cast of quirky freaks, each with their own all too human failings and each with a haunting theme song worming its way into the listener's brain. That could have been the end of it, but The Residents felt like the ideas still had more life, more levels to explore... and they weren't alone. While traveling in England shortly after the album was released in 1991, they met with comic artists Brian Bolland (visual creator of Judge Dredd and "The Dark Knight" Batman) and Edwin "Savage Pencil" Pouncey. During the course of the evening, the idea of a graphic novel based on the Freak Show characters and ideas came up, with both Brian and Edwin responding enthusiastically. Each suggested other artists as possible contributors. A year later, the Freak Show graphic novel was published by Dark Horse Comics.
While The Residents found the comic to be quite satisfying, ultimately it only made them thirst for more. The band has always had a lot of support in the tech community, and this group had been raving about the creative possibilities of CD-ROM. While The Residents didn't immediately grasp the full potential of this new medium, they were definitely intrigued. Then two things happened: first, while editing a video in New York, they met computer artist Jim Ludtke. Then, shortly after, they were featured in a 10-year retrospective of MTV, created by Michael Nash, at the Long Beach Museum of Art. As it turned out, Ludtke was a magazine illustrator who was interested in video and CD-ROM, and Nash was a curator in the process of going to work for Voyager, a CD-ROM publisher. This is sometimes called kismet, sometimes serendipity, sometimes just dumb luck... but, regardless, it worked. Two years later, the Freak Show CD-ROM was released.
(A curious aside to the story says that the morning after agreeing to the deal with Voyager, Michael Nash and The Residents were on their way to breakfast. Michael was a little short on cash, so the all-seeing quartet waited outside the bank while Michael went in to refresh his wallet. A few minutes later, Nash staggered out of the bank, a look of total astonishment completely possessing his face. It seems that Michael had been standing in line behind Yvonne and Yvette MacArthur, a pair of African-American conjoined twins (joined at the hip). Strangely enough, as an even more curious aside to this already twisting story, perhaps the earliest memory retained by one of the Residents was of having actually seen Yvonne and Yvette MacArthur at a County Fair in Lake Charles, LA, when he was about five years old. At this point everyone immediately recognized the fact that this project has vaulted light years beyond the concept of mere serendipity and had somehow rented a room in the Twilight Zone.)
The Residents had another visitor around this time. Knocking on the door of their studios was Ondrej Hrab, director of The Archa Theater in Prague. Mr. Hrab was in the process of converting the theater from a provincial repertory house to a modern home for international productions. The theater was being completely rebuilt, but for the reopening in about two years, Ondrej wanted to have a performance that would make people take notice. He was quickly convinced that Freak Show was exactly the production he was looking for.
Over time, the material evolved as it moved from one Freak Show incarnation to another. Originally there were six "freaks": Benny the Bump, Herman the Human Mole, Mickey the Mumbling Midget, Wanda the Worm Woman, Jelly Jack the Boneless Boy, and Harry the Head. These professional freaks were joined on the CD by two "normal" characters, Tex the Barker and Lillie the audience member (who were of course the biggest freaks of all). While the songs had given us atmospheric slices of their lives, the Freak Show graphic novel then expanded the background or history of these characters and showed us where they came from.
But where did they live, what were their bedrooms like, and what was in their closets and drawers? All these questions were answered by the Freak Show CD-ROM, where the audience actually entered their trailers, read their love letters, and looked at their photo albums. But, curiously, no one was home. The characters themselves were limited to brief stage appearances, or unexpectedly showing up inside their homes but quickly disappearing, leaving the viewer with an odd and empty feeling. Once again the user was left wondering, how did they spend their time off stage and what were their relationships? With its oddly schizophrenic structure, the Freak Show Live performances answered these questions, placing formal performances in the first half and personal lives in the second.
And, of course, The Residents' own involvement also evolved with the project; from being near sole creators of the original album, to little involvement with the graphic novel, to great participation with the writing and music of the CD-ROM, and finally to becoming music and stage directors of the theatrical production. Interestingly enough, the Freak Show orchestra, led by the Residents' friend and colleague Mirek Wanek, represented the first time that any project connected to The Residents name did not have a single note of music or song lyric performed by one of the group.
At the time, Freak Show Live seemed to mark the end of the project... Or did it? Benny the Bump did make brief appearances at The Residents' 25th anniversary performances at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and again in the encore of the Icky Flix show in 2001. Then, in 2003, the appeal of giving life to the material in a new medium was so strong that The Residents began work on yet another incarnation - the Freak Show DVD. But, after committing a year to the project, the sudden and untimely death of artist and collaborator Jim Ludtke brought the project to a halt. The remnants of that version can be found on the accompanying DVD, and it contains some of Ludtke's best but sadly incomplete work.
In the end, the question remains: is Freak Show finally over? Does the wild Pomeranian poop on the Pampas grass?
Expand allEveryone Comes to the Freak Show
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up and you will see on display
a collection of some of the strangest specimens ever gathered
together -- both LIVE and preserved.
You will see the incredible JELLO JACK -- the boneless boy and
HERMAN -- The Human Mole.
You'll see WANDA -- The Worm Woman and MICKEY -- The
Mumbling Midget with his secret from far beyond the realm of
human understanding.
There's also Benny -- Bouncing Benny The Bump who can't wait to
show you the eerie and shapeless mass which he hides beneath his
shirt and shows only when he does his famous dance --
THE BOUNCING BUMP!
So -- step this way, folks come on in, you know you can't resist.
Come in and make your mundane lives look like the kiss of bliss.
Everyone comes to the Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
Everyone comes to the Freak Show
But nobody laughs when they leave.
Once a man exploded just before he went to sleep
When his wife awoke she found some fragments of his feet
She wondered what had happened but there was no mouth to say
Or lips to kiss or even any tears to wipe away
She went to see a priest and asked if death could be much worse
Than knowing what was left of love would fit inside her purse.
Someone said that nothing hurts you
Like a vice without a virtue;
That may be but is it worse than
Life when it becomes so certain
That your eyes cannot be open
To the twisted and the broken?
Harry the Head
The Head was hardly human
The head is finally dead
"I can live forever
In formaldehyde", he said.
Once he made me so mad
I knocked him on the floor;
He rolled around and found a
little paint brush
by the door;
As he held it in his teeth
he painted angels
On the skirt I wore.
Harry
Harry
Harry
Harry -- The Head is dead.
Harry -- The Head is dead.
Harry -- The Head is dead.
Herman -- The Human Mole
Herman
Herman
Herman isn't happy
Herman isn't well
Herman is an albino
Not that you could tell.
Herman
Herman
Herman is dirty
Herman is cold
Herman is thirty and
Wishes he was old
But he isn't.
Herman has a trailer
On top of it is grass
He filled the inside up with dirt
And made the sides of glass
He lets you climb the steps
Up to the top for free
And look down through a little hole
Above his old TV.
But if you want some more
You pay to go inside
The tent that goes around the trailer
In which Herman hides.
Herman plays piano
When no one is around
He has an upright baby Steinway
Underneath the ground.
Wanda -- The Worm Woman
Sneering at the leering lady
as she stares and squirms
At Wanda with her saintly smile
and living wig of worms
I like to watch their faces fall
as we disgust and shame them
Seeking suckers is my game
-- no longer lion taming.
Like a pink and pregnant pumpkin
perched upon her neck
Wanda Wadkins head was hurting
it was bitten by insects
I watched the awkward way she waddled
walking to the pail
She always used to wash her worms
and clean beneath her nails.
I love the should I see inside her
but I just can't love her
Folding fat that rolls around
like bowling balls in butter...
Wanda Wanda Wanda...
Watch me watch me watch me
Won't you watch me for a while
Watch me pick my worms up
And put them in a pile
Watch me sit upon it with
My Mona Lisa smile.
Why Wanda why, do I always watch you cry?
Jello Jack -- The Boneless Boy
Ho ho ho I'm Jello Jack the jolly boneless boy.
I live inside a jar beside the rooster boy named Roy.
They pour me out upon a platform and the people stare
At eyeballs in a pool of flesh surrounded by some hair.
I wish I was a cowboy or maybe just a bird
Singing simple melodies that no one every heard
Soaring with the winter winds and bringing in the spring
Sharing air with orioles and bumblebee that sting
And making babies proud of all the bugs that I would bring.
I'd sit up high above the ground and laugh as I looked down
at all the silly humans as they slowly trudged around.
But as I see the end of evening turn into the night
The bird inside my brain becomes a light that is too bright.
In his dreams at night he hears a white hot light
And he knows that God is singing in his dreams at night.
Hot heat smolders smoking embers
Vibrate deep, vibrate deep
Cause teeth clinch, cause vibrate deep
Inside the sucking sound of suction,
Suction, sucking sections of my soul,
Sucking section of the only thoughts
My mind will salivate and drool
And press against itself and press
Against itself and feel the cursing
Flow of fever, driven, biting, grinding, clinching,
Ream the center of the Sun
With shaft of Solid Steel
Know that there is nothing like the feeling
Of those steel fingers up inside
Of something sticky, sweet and wet
Feel the lips of licking licky wet liquid;
feel the tongue that touches the tips of sharp pointed things.
Bouncing Benny
Seeing that his eyes were empty under half closed lids,
Made it all the more disturbing knowing Benny hid
A bump that looked like clods of dirt inside a sickly lung
That barely peeked beneath his shirt and twitched like Toto's tongue.
For fifty cents inside a tent adjacent to the rest,
The weaker souls could hide their eyes while Benny bared his chest;
He rubbed the bump with oleo and little bits of meat
And stroked the shape as it extended down towards his feet.
Bounce Benny bounce Bouncing Benny
He would put a record on then go into a trance
Until he heard his mother's favorite polka then he danced;
The record player went to fast but Benny didn't care,
He simply bounced around the room while people stood and stared.
Benny really only cared about one single thing --
He collected magazines called "Women in the Ring";
He kept them all in plastic bags and everybody said
That Benny talked to them at night before he went to bed.
Bounce Benny bounce Bouncing Benny
I need someone to wrestle with she'd have to wear a hood.
And hold me in a hammerlock if she was feeling good.
She'd probably have a ponytail that stuck out from the back
And I bet her eyes would shine -- right when she attacked;
She might be kind of mean some times and act like we weren't friends,
But when the match was over we'd be buddies till the end;
I've got to go! I've got to go! I know that she is there --
Waiting in a ring for me to hug her like a bear.
Follow that dream Benny follow that dream...
Mickey -- The Mumbling Midget
Mickey the mumbling midget
was ten years old today
Mickey the mumbling midget
somehow ran away
Mickey the mumbling midget
was not in his cage
Mickey the mumbling midget
soon would need a shave
Lassie looked at something shapeless lying on the lawn
Scratching at some scabby sores and stretching as it yawned
It seemed to be uneasy as it looked up at the moon
She sensed the tension in the air and smelled a sweet baboon.
Pungent was the warm aroma drifting in the air
She hoped that he would smell her heat and lick her silken hair.
Run Mickey run
Run Lassie
Lillie
I saw a woman chewing with nothing in her mouth;
Her teeth were in her hands and her tongue was hanging out;
Then she started drooling and caught it in a cup,
The cup was full of pennies; it spilled when she got up.
Some guy is in the shadows grabbing empty air;
He could be catching butterflies if there were any there.
All the freaks are not inside the tents
Some pay to come and be in the audience.
I saw a great big guy who had a little gun;
He pulled it out and smiled and then he sucked his thumb
His wife was standing by with a leather leash
Fastened to a child who cried beside their feet.
The scary one is back with clothes so white and clean;
And her face that's coated with a quarter inch of cream --- cold cream
She's the one who freaks the freaks out
Lillie little Lille, Lillie little Lillie, Lillie chilling Lillie
Lillie with her white face.
Delicate Lillie is stainless lonely and
She is too white
Like a face in a flashlight with teeth that might bite
She is too white
Like dice rolling snake eyes in headlights at night
She is too white
Like a corpse in the sunshine or eyes in a fight
There's a spot a spot on my glove on my glove I know, no no maybe it was make em runny make em runny honey... doilies doilies where have all the doilies gone...
Roses will whither and die
Along with the lace and the lies
Nothing is nicer than death
At matching the bad and the best
Heh heh... he hated me he hated me and hate is white and hate is hot but I'll not even have disdain for him not even a stain on a memory looked up to, lacking all respect for him I'm blacking out the specks of decent thoughts that linger in me and leave only white white peaceful white calm white swans silently flying in the snow look down and see the bleached bones of a noble knight who died trying to save his lady his lovely white lady who brought her man milk in the moonlight but it was too late too late too late he said
Scratch out the pin holes
Open up the sores
Don't look out the window
White hatred's at the door.
And he tried to make me dirty make me dirty make me dirty.
Touch her someone
Touch her someone
Reach out to her
Touch her soiled soul.
Nobody Laughs When They Leave
Everyone comes the to Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
Everyone comes the to Freak Show
But nobody laughs when they leave.
We are only equal in the grave and in the dark
Said a man whose head was halfway eaten by a shark
Now if you ask me why I would continue on like this
I doubt that I would know so I could only make a guess
Half a mouth may not be much but it's still half a kiss.
Everyone comes to the Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
Life is a lot like a Freak Show
Nobody laughs when they leave.
Herman
Herman hides. He hates the light and he hates to be seen and he hates people. Painfully shy, the Mole Man is a recluse who never leaves his dirt-filled trailer. By billing himself as a Human Mole and allowing the freak show customers to peek into his windows for a small fee, Herman has transformed the liability of his self conscious behavior into a financial asset. Herman also has secrets, the most notable of which is that skin condition known as albinism, a condition that is easily concealed beneath a layer of dirt.
Harry
Without limbs or even a torso, Harry was just a head and a surly one at that. The Human Head possessed but one quality that spoke of humanity - he was a painter. Holding a brush in his teeth, Harry struggled to produce a low-grade landscapes, but the act of painting at least suggested that shadows of romance and poetry had to be lurking somewhere in his dark soul. Disliked even by his wife, Harry was nevertheless a popular performer; known as "The King of the Freaks," the little man was one of the freak show's most successful acts, and still is. Even though the Human Head has been dead for quite some time, his last request was faithfully followed. Under a coating of dust, the crowds still thril at the sight of Harry, "living forever" in a jar of formaldehyde.
Tex
The Barker or announcer of the freak Show, Tex is a cynical and arrogant former lion tamer who wants to see himself as superior to the sideshow trash he works with. While he tells everyone that it is only a matter of time before he makes his comeback, in reality Tex is a bitter and washed-up alcoholic. His only redeeming quality is an obsessive romantic interest in the freak show geek, Wanda the Worm Woman. While Tex is in denial of his romantic interest in Wanda, he is both compulsively drawn to her and repulsed by his compulsion.
Jack
Jelly Jack is the most helpless freak in the show. Without a bone in his body, he is not only unable to move, he can't even speak. Jelly's act consists of being poured out of his glass box onto a platform where he quickly becomes a motionless puddle, much to the shock, amazement, and eventually, boredom of his audience. Jack, and his box, resides in a corner of Tex's trailer where he patiently enjoys the free-flowing fantasies of those who personally converse with God.
Wanda
In freak show terminology, a geek is someone who does disgusting things in front of a paying audience. Wanda, who sucks worms for a living, fits this description perfectly. She's an overweight former nun who somehow manages to appear serenely sublime with worms dangling from her large voluptuous lips. Obsessed by God, eating, and of course, worms, Wanda also cries when she is alone late at night.
Benny
Stupid, overweight, and unattractive, Benny would have a difficult time supporting himself were it not for his willingness to display his only remarkable feature, a large shapeless mass that projects outwards from center of his chest. Other than fond recollections of his mother, Benny's only interest in life is a collection of women's wrestling magazines, and he often fantasizes about the happiness that a close friendship with female a wrestler might bring.
Mickey
Mickey's story is an impressionistic intersection of two ideas: one is a risque unaired script for the television series lassie, the other is based on one of the traditions of the freak show - the manufactured freak. In this story we discover that Mickey has run away from the circus and is found by Lassie who was intrigued by the musky smell emanating from the scabby figure sleeping on her lawn. Mickey, it seems, is not really a strange midget with a severe speech impairment, but is actually a shaved baboon. The two quickly are overtaken by the pangs of forbidden desire and have no choice but to run away together. The affair reaches an inevitably dark conclusion, a conclusion best left to our imaginations.
Lillie
After the show the members of the freak show family love to make fun of what they consider the real freaks - the people in the audience who stared and pointed but who were obviously stranger than anybody on stage. But no matter how many odd characters they found to laugh at, conversation always came back to Lillie. The freaks were all afraid of the spooky character who followed the show from town to town and who was always dressed entirely in white. Lillie never said a word but somehow created a palpable fear that even eye contact might be enough to draw one into the whirlpool of madness behind her facade of softness and purity.
