JB@45
"JB@45" was a limited-time[1] digital single released by The Residents through their Robot Selling Device store on February 4, 2011. It is a 'remixed' version of their James: Live At The Apollo covers medley from their 1984 album George & James. As the title suggests, the remix is designed to imitate how the side would've sounded when played at 45 RPM speed instead of the 33 RPM speed standard for LPs. The James side on the original album features The Singing Resident's voice pitched down to a much deeper tone. Hence, JB@45 presents the vocals at a pitch similar to the original.
Background
Recording
The Residents launched their American Composers Series in 1984. This recording project ultimately resulted in a duology of albums featuring covers of material by four American composers. The first of this duology, George & James, features an abridged cover of James Brown's influential 1963 live album, Live at The Apollo. James Brown had been an essential figure in The Residents' musical upbringing. It was likely an obvious choice for the group.
The resulting tribute was a 19-minute suite, the vocals on which had been pitched deep and low, seemingly to contrast Brown's high vocal range. George & James was released on March 13th, 1984.
Remixing
Twenty-five years after the album's release, The Residents installed a chat room on their website. Eventually, the discussion turned to George & James, and some fans pointed out that the side was "pretty cool if played at 45rpm." The Residents were eventually approached about this alternative way of hearing the release, and they admitted to playing their copy at said speed. After some discussion, The Residents agreed to a limited-time re-release of James, remixed to 45rpm, just for people who didn't own record players in 2011.
There was a brief error with the release in that there were options to download it as an album (At $1.99) or to download the track (At 99 cents.)
Reception
Retrospective
Richard Anderson (later to become The Residents' product manager at Cherry Red Records) referenced "JB@45" in his June 2012 review of George & James, noting that the remix "fixes the vocals, but nothing else", and calling it "a sad example of what could have been, but not enough to redeem a failed experiment."[2] On Discogs, the single has a user rating of 3.67 / 5. On RateYourMusic, it has 3.24 / 5.
Track listing
- JB@45 (15:44)
- Intro
- I'll Go Crazy
- Try Me
- Think
- I Don't Mind
- Lost Someone
- Please, Please, Please
- Night Train
Release notes
There has been talk on the chat about the "James" side of "George and James" being pretty cool if played at 45rpm. The Residents were asked about it and they were familiar with the idea and admitted to playing it at 45 as well. So they agreed to this limited time release for all those who no longer have vinyl players. [1]