Everyone Comes To The Freak Show

Everyone Comes To The Freak Show is the first track from The Residents' eighteenth studio album, Freak Show. Unsurpingly, this song is the introduction to the albums plot.

Background

Writing & Recording

This song was unsurprisingly written as a intro of sorts to the freak show. It is unknown if any particular event referenced this song as it was likely one of the last completed for the album.

The earliest demos for the song were released on the 2021 Freak Show pREServed edition, with the first being 'Spring 1990 Jam 2.' This jam contains rough instrumental of the songs ending. This instrumental was then touched up on in their "Pony Rink" demos. The song "Pony Rink 26" contains a much more finalized instrumental for the song. With this song being the last officially released "Pony Rink" it is believed to be one of the last songs made for the album.

Plot

Like many other Residents albums, this song begins with quite the grand opening. The song quickly sets the overall vibe for the album and the new direction The Residents have taken since the end of their previous tour "Cube-E". The song then first introduces us to Tex, your "Host und guide". After very fashionably introducing most of the freaks to us, the iconic chorus kicks in and starts singing some poetic words about the freak show. After this, the singing resident also says a short poem that he wrote for the song. Strangely, The Residents website contains extra lyrics that are unused in the final version of the song.

Freak Show projects

Promotional VHS

Concurrently with the US release of the album, a VHS containing music videos for "Everyone Comes To The Freak Show". This video was directed by long-time collaborator John Sanborn and many fans will instantly recognize his visuals. This video contains a lengthy monologue given by a very high-pitched singing resident which informs us of some histories of freaks and the residents' personal opinions on freaks at that time. This then directly cuts into a 3D CGI video of Harry the Head made by Jim Ludtke. Thankfully the full VHS tape was archived by Pietro Gallo on Youtube.

A still from the show

Ty's Freak Show

In 1991, The Nippon Electric Company invited the Residents to hold a short concert at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose in order to test out their NEC Video Deck and Light Source editing software throughout filming of the concert. In this performance, the start features a unique instrumental played over the same monologue from the music video but in a normal pitched voice. Very uniquely, this performance features the "Grand dad" costume from Cube-E over the costume from "Organism". After some extended verses in the monologue, the song finally starts. With the more traditional granddad costume and the singing resident as Tex. With this song being very recent at the time, the live version is quite faithful to the original. Thankfully the whole recording of this show can be found on Youtube thanks to Lfrench and youtube_MAN356.

Freak Show Graphic Novel

Despite the residents' lack of interest in live performances, many of the Freak Show characters received lots of acknowledgment by the group. In 1992, artist Kyle Baker was tasked with making a comic to represent this songs backstory. Despite this track being a great intro it actually does not have much plot to expand upon. Kyle turned this limitation into a opportunity by showing of five pages of "everyone going to the freak show" and "nobody laughing when they leave." As a "accompanying soundtrack" the band released the single "Blowoff" which features abridged instrumentals of the song at the start and end.

Freak Show CD-ROM

While this song is very important to the original album, it fails to add extra structure to the CD-ROM format. That is why the song only appears in short instrumental segments found throughout the games' overworld. Herman actually plays a rendition of this song on his piano for the player. According to the canon story of freak show, that means that Herman is the true writer of this song. Thankfully this full rom has been properly archived on archive.org and is fully playable in your web browser.

Freak Show live

In a similar vein to the CD-ROM, this song does not quite fight the structure of freak show live. The song was played as an abridged version to start the show. While unintentional, the very fast organ part in the intro of this song was given to poor saxophone player Jindrich Dolansky, who does rather well considering the absurdity of his part. Other than this, the song itself is a very faithful rendition with real instruments more traditional instrumentation. Thankfully the full video has been archived by MaeGoji on their youtube channel.

Legacy

This song has been performed by the band a number of times since the freak show project ended. It was quickly debuted by The Residents themselves in the first three nights of their Fillmore "Disfigured Night" show. This version is quite abridged but is largely faithful to the original and can be found on the pREServed edition of this album. The song has not been played live since. This song was also intended for inclusion on the unfinished 2004 Freak Show DVD. A demo from this time period has not been officially released but has circulated through fans as a bootleg. This bootleg also contains a extended instrumental from the recording of the original album. While not a live appearance, this song does appear in the movie "Sculpt" alongside a number of other unrelated resident works.

Lyrics

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?

Appearances

• Freak Show (1990)
• Twenty Twisted Questions (1992)
• Blowoff (1992)
• In Memoriam Torso (1994)
• Freak Show CD-ROM (1994)
• Live At The Fillmore (1998)
• Live! ...On The Outskirts (2002)
• Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town (2003)
• Freak Show DVD (2006)
• 1997: The Missing Year - The Fillmore Dress Rehearsal (Act One) (2009)
• Freak Show Instrumental Tracks & Outtakes (2010)
• Prague and Beyond (2010)
• Sculpt (2016)
• Freak Show pREServed (2021)

External Links and References

• Freak Show CD-ROM on archive.org
• Freak Show at The Residents historical

See Also

• Freak Show (Graphic Novel)
• Freak Show (Album)