The Residents are San Francisco’s legendary and enigmatic performance artists/band (though precise classification is impossible). I first had the pleasure of working with them to edit their long-languishing project “Vileness Fats,” helping to edit “Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?”, and when they decided to cover James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” they asked me to direct the live studio shoot and edit the video, working with Director of Photography Phil Perkins, another old friend.

For those unfamiliar with the Residents, they always appear in disguise. Yes, I know who they are, and no, I ain’t telling. (I will say that the dancers in the video were not the actual Residents. One of the dancers came up to me during a break in the shooting and asked me if any of the actual Residents were on the set. I assured her that there were, but that was it.) Several students from the college television production class I was then teaching performed as the “smoke pushers.”

The Residents have made news in recent years with their interactive CD-ROM projects, beginning with the beautiful and innovative “Freak Show,” followed by “Bad Day on the Midway.” They’re still going strong, as evidenced by their official web site, and I thank them for their permission to post “Man’s World” here.

           Lon McQuillin