Hanging By His Hair

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"[This] is the story of David's son Absalom, who kills his brother at a family reunion then tries to overthrow his father. The attempted takeover fails and, as he flees from his father's army, Absalom's hair gets caught in the low limb of an oak tree, pulling him off his mule and leaving him helplessly dangling above the ground."
— Mr. Skull at the Fillmore

"Hanging by His Hair" (previously under working titles "Beta" and "Hung by His Hair") is a track by The Residents from their Wormwood project, sung by Wayne Doba from the perspective of Absalom, whose hair got caught in the branch of an oak tree as he fled his father King David's army after defying him by having sex with all of his concubines. (He had already gained the distaste of his father for avenging his sister Tamar by killing their brother Amnon who had sexually assaulted Tamar.)

In the Wormwood Live touring show, the song is the fourth part of a suite of songs about King David and his offspring.

Album notes

King David is driven out of Jerusalem by his son, Absalom, and as a show of his power (and maybe a touch of exhibitionism) Absalom goes up on the roof of the palace and has elaborate sexual intercourse with his father's numerous concubines in sight of all of Israel. When a battle brews with his father, Absalom makes the mistake of riding his mule under an oak tree and gets his head stuck in the tree branch. He is hanging in mid-air by his hair when David's men find, torture, and kill him. Look it up. 2 Samuel 13:20-30, 16:20-22, 18:9-15

Legacy

The song was first performed on the first run of Wormwood shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco on October 1998. The song was originally devised as part of a suite of songs about King David and his sons titled "Like Father Like Sons" — the suite idea was dropped from the album, but resurfaced in the 1999 touring show, and "Hanging by His Hair" was sung by the male Singing Resident wearing a cut-out torso and limbs that made him appear to be dangling in the air. The song was also recorded for the live-in-studio Roadworms album.

The song was later performed in 2013 on the Wonder of Weird tour, in which singer Randy gets hung up on the line "Soon I'm gonna be dead" and has an outburst, ending the song abruptly.

The song was a main element of the track "Hanging by His Habit" in the I AM A RESIDENT! album, and two fan covers of the song — one by Wizards of Boat, and one by Chesty Vulva — appear in the album's bonus disc.

Lyrics

Helpless and hanging around
inches away from the ground,
where I'm gonna be found
by my father.

It's kind of cloudy and gray;
Soon they'll be coming my way.
Maybe it's better this way
for my father.

In front of family and friends,
I killed my brother and then
I tried to do it again
to my father.

Soon I'm gonna be dead,
but I slept in his bed
with his women and said,
"FUCK YOU, FATHER!"

Appearances

• Wormwood (1998)
• Wormwood Live (1999)
• Roadworms (2000)
• Petting Zoo (2002)
• Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town (2003)
• The Residents Play Wormwood (2005)
• The Wonder of Weird (2014)
• I AM A RESIDENT! (2018)
• WOW Demos 1 ‎(2021)
• WOW Demos 2 (2021)
• Wormwood Box (2022)