The Fourth Crucifixion

B.S. master tape box

Artist

Residents, Uninc.

Album

B.S.

Live show

The Boarding House, Party of '71

Recorded

October 18th - 30th 1971

Venue

The Boarding House, San Francisco and KHSC-FM studio, Arcata, California

Length

3:18

Track chronology
Previous	Next
"N. Senada Tribute"	"James Dean's Death"

“The Fourth Crucifixion” is a chant by Residents, Uninc., supposedly composed by the group's mentor, the obscure Bavarian music theorist N. Senada, which was performed at their early live performances in October 1971. A studio-augmented recording from an October 1971 appearance at the Boarding House in San Francisco was featured as the ninth track on their demo tape Baby Sex (or B.S.), compiled privately in 1971.

The demo circulated among fans as a bootleg for many years after it was broadcast in its entirety during a Residents radio festival on Portland radio station KBOO-FM in 1977. The original Boarding House recording was first released in May 1991 on the UWEB compilation CD Daydream B-Liver.

B.S. was belatedly released as a limited edition vinyl LP on Record Store Day in April 2019, and again later in the year as part of the pREServed two CD compilation A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big, which also features the Boarding House performance and extracts from the otherwise unreleased "Philip's Wedding".

History[]

Background[]

Deltanudes-littlemoronprint — "Why did the Little Moron resurrect Christ", artwork by Residents, Uninc., ca. 1971

The second track on the B-side of Residents, Uninc.'s 1971 demo tape B.S., "The Fourth Crucifixion" is an excerpt from the group's infamous October 1971 appearance at an open mic night held at the Boarding House night club in San Francisco on October 18th 1971, like much of the second side of the demo, which - including the lengthy closing suite "Hallowed Be Thy Wean 1971" - roughly approximates the set list of the group's "guerilla"-style live performances of this period.

For B.S., the Boarding House recording was augmented by Residents, Uninc. in their home studio in San Mateo; the latter part of the track is overdubbed with two excerpts from a live radio interview with Lithman and Senada which had aired on Arcata radio station KHSC-FM on October 30th 1971.^{^[1]}

"The Fourth Crucifixion" was then performed a second time by Residents, Uninc., at the chaotic reception for the green card wedding of Lithman and his friend Deborah Kneadle the following day (Halloween). "The Fourth Crucifixion" had been dropped from the group's early live set list by the time of their following performance, at a friend's party, in February 1972.

Composition[]

"The Fourth Crucifixion" as performed by Residents, Uninc. is structurally similar (if evidently semi-improvised) in both its known performances. It is centered around a simple one-line chant performed by the members of the group: "It's the fourth crucifixion in five years". This lyric has also sometimes been given as the title of a short, otherwise unrelated piece on the second side of the group's previous demo tape, The W***** B*** Album.

In both recordings of the piece, the group are accompanied by their mentor, the little known Bavarian composer and music theorist The Mysterious N. Senada (who is credited with the chant's composition, as with most of the contents of B.S.) on saxophone, and abrasive violin by Philip “Snakefinger” Lithman, both adding to a cacophony which builds gradually as the chant reaches a crescendo.

In both the original Boarding House performance and B.S., "The Fourth Crucifixion" is preceded by another, shorter chant, a group "tribute" to Senada, and is followed by a short poem titled "James Dean's Death"; neither piece is listed on the original demo tape's back cover, and as a result, the latter piece has often been included unlisted as part of "The Fourth Crucifixion" on digital bootleg versions of the demo. Both short pieces are listed and programmed separately on the 2019 vinyl and CD releases of B.S..

Release[]

"The Fourth Crucifixion", like most of The Residents' early home and live recordings, remained officially unreleased for a number of years, with the group preferring to treat their early material with discretion (if not embarrassment). Nevertheless, bootleg copies of B.S. proliferated among fans after the tape was broadcast in its entirety by Portland disc jockey William Reinhardt (at the time a friend of the group) during a Residents "radio festival" on KBOO-FM in 1977.

The complete, unedited recording of Residents, Uninc.'s Boarding House performance (along with a further extract from the otherwise unreleased early radio appearance) were featured on the UWEB compilation CD Daydream B-Liver in 1991; this was first official release of "The Fourth Crucifixion" to the public in any form. Daydream B-Liver was later reissued with additional tracks by Austrian label Klanggalerie in 2016.

On April 9th 2004, webmaster Big Brother released a twenty second excerpt of "The Fourth Crucifixion" on The Residents' Official News BOG, in recognition of thirteen people who underwent devotional crucifixion in the Philippines that day.^{^[2]}

After circulating widely as a bootleg for many years, B.S. eventually saw official release on Record Store Day in April 2019, as a limited edition vinyl LP. It was first truly released to the masses later that year, as part of the two CD pREServed compilation A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big. This compilation also featured the Boarding House recording, as well as a "concentrate" of Residents, Uninc.'s previously unheard performance at Snakefinger's green card wedding on Halloween 1971 (which also features a rendition of "The Fourth Crucifixion").

Lyrics[]

It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years

It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years

It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years

It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years

It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years
It's the fourth crucifixion in five years

A Live Radio Broadcast excerpts[]

Woman: Hello, this is KHSC-FM in Arcata, 90.5 on your FM dial.
Interviewer: Yeah, okay, hello, 1-2, um...
Philip: Are we on the air?
Interviewer: Yeah, we certainly are! [laughs]
Philip: Ha.
Interviewer: So, can we open with, uh... a... a sensible conversation, like...
Philip: Certainly. Well, first of all, let me say how pleased and genuinely proud I am to be in your wonderful, wonderful country, and N. Senada is also pleased and proud to be in your wonderful country. We're having a wonderful time.
Interviewer: N. Senada is here, Ryan, can he get on the other mic?
Philip: Yeah, N. Senada?
N. Senada: [gibberish]
Interviewer: N. Senada has a peculiar language pattern that not everyone can un...

Philip: ...who is, uh... a wonderful, truly wonderful man who I met in the woods of Bavaria whilst I was on an expedition in... for Britain, my country. Um, he worked... he worked with strange instruments that genuinely fascinated me...
Senada: Bedaboda.
Philip: And, uh... he... he... he's asking me to explain about his instruments. He works with, uh, phonetic wood instruments, which he, um... made himself, and... we translated his music into, um... phonetics, and now we play music together with our... with our group... in San Francisco.
Interviewer: Well, what are you doing up--
N. Senada: [gibberish]

List of releases[]

B.S. (1971, released 2019) ^{^{[version 1]}}
Daydream B-Liver (1991) ^{^{[version 2]}}
A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big (2019) ^{^{[version 2]}^{[version 3]}^{[version 1]}}
Warning: Uninc. - Live and Experimental Recordings 1971-1972 (2022) ^{^{[version 2]}}

List of versions[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Open mic night live recording, The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, October 18th 1971 (San Mateo studio mix, 3:18)
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Open mic night live recording, The Boarding House, San Francisco, California, October 18th 1971 (3:36)
↑ Philip's Wedding live recording, The Mad House, Arcata, California, October 31st 1971 ("concentrate" edit, 1:07)