My Top 1000 Songs #1002: Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life

Back in the mid-80s, I was making regular trips into Evanston, IL, not far from the Northwestern University campus (and about 20 minutes from my childhood home), where there were a half-dozen used record stores in a two-block stretch. Ah, the golden days of vinyl shopping! I went through a brief period of buying bootleg records--a real crapshoot, often terrible, but with a few gems. I remember buying this one Beatles bootleg full of random rarities (eventually rendered obsolete by the official Anthology series and various reissues). Nothing special, but it included something called "Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life," a collage of soundbites from a couple dozen Beatles songs looped together.

The song was uncredited on the (mostly lame) boot, but was incredibly mind-blowing. These days, of course, it would be called a Mash-Up, and could be assembled by any kid on his laptop, but at the time it was truly unique. It picked up where "A Day In The Life" ends, and the selection of samples with varied moods (perhaps most notably a kinda scary Paul McCartney quote from one of their Christmas fanclub singles) made if feel like more than just an assemblage of random clips--it had actual emotional heft and a fascinating musical narrative. Definitely made a huge impression on me.

I later learned it was a 1977 single from San Francisco's eyeball-headed experimental art-rock legends The Residents. (Discovered this somewhat by chance when I picked up a CD reissue of their 1976 "covers" LP Third Reich 'n Roll and it was tacked on as a bonus track). In an age of easy digital sampling some of the novelty is lost, but it still stands as a pretty damn cool early example of manipulating existing music into something new and amazing.

With video:

As I said, these days you can make your own with the right software. Here's a remake somebody uploaded to YouTube--keeps the original intact, but with improved sound.

As long as we're here: How about the Residents showing their Beatles love by performing a surprisingly faithful rendition of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite," complete with orchestra?