The Simple Song
"The Simple Song" is the twentieth track on The Residents' Commercial Album, released by Ralph Records on October 29th 1980. It closes Side One of the LP and, like all songs on the album, it is exactly one minute long.
It was one of four songs selected for the One Minute Movies short film; the video for this song was directed by Graeme Whifler.
History
An instrumental mix of the song was featured on the soundtrack for the 1984 Bruce R. Cook film The Census Taker.
In 2000, all four songs from One Minute Movies were re-recorded for the Icky Flix DVD. The four songs were subsequently performed live on the 2001 Icky Flix tour. "The Simple Song" has not been performed live again, but Randy Rose — singer for The Residents — briefly sang it during a monologue on the Wonder of Weird show.
Music video
"The Simple Song" is the fourth and final song in the One Minute Movies video, and this section was directed by Graeme Whifler. In the video, The Residents dance around a pig on a spit decorated by birthday candles, inside of a red-lit room. During the vocal part, the film cuts to the group wearing sort of freakish fluorescent body suits, squirming like a type of baby creature. dancing and clapping.
A second video was made for the song by Korean animator Eun-Ha Paek for the Commercial DVD in 2004.
Lyrics
We are simple You are simple Life is simple, too[1]
List of releases
- Commercial Album (1980) [Version 1]
- Ralph Video Volume I (1983) [Version 2]
- The Census Taker OST (1984) [Version 3]
- Heaven? (1986) [Version 3]
- Video Voodoo Volume I [Version 2]
- Twenty Twisted Questions (1993) [Version 2]
- Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses (1997) [Version 1]
- Icky Flix (2001) [Version 2] [Version 4]
- Live! ...on the Outskirts (2002) [Version 5]
- Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town (2003) [Version 5]
- Commercial DVD (2004) [Version 2] [Version 6]
- Icky Flix Live (2009) [Version 7]
- 80 Aching Orphans (2017) [Version 1]
- Commercial Album pREServed (2019) [Version 1] [Version 4]
- Icky Flix - The Original Soundtrack Recording (2020) [Version 4]
- Commercial Book bonus disc (2024) [Version 8]
List of versions
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Grove Street studio recording, late 1979 (1:00)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Video directed by Graeme Whifler for One Minute Movies, c.1980
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Instrumental mix, c.1984
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Icky Flix studio recording, c.2000 (1:04)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Icky Flix live recording; San Francisco, October 2001 (1:00)
- ↑ Animated short by Eun-Ha Paek, 2004
- ↑ Icky Flix live recording; Seattle, March 2001 (1:00)
- ↑ 1980 Radio ad (1:00)
