WORMWOOD
In Wormwood: a collection of curious Bible stories, The
Residents explore the dark side of the Christian Holy Book
with songs based on twenty of its most disturbing tales.
In the press release which announced the release of the
album, The Residents explain that they are not interested
in criticizing or attacking the Bible, but rather in
reminding listeners that it is not all Love Thy Neighbor
and uplifting morality. It is important to remember, when
zealous, self-appointed arbiters of morality use the Bible
to attack those they disapprove of on moral grounds that
they are using a book which features tales of human
sacrifice, incest, mass murder, torture, and various other
anti-social activities.
Most of the songs are from the Old Testament, with its
short-tempered and vindictive (god) visiting all sorts of
unpleasantness on the Israelites and their neighbors. Three
tracks, How to Get a Head, Judas Saves and Revelation, are
from the New Testament.
Judas Saves explores a Biblical issue which I've often been
interested in: the fact that without Judas Iscariot turning
Jesus over to the Romans in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus
would not have died on the cross and mankind would not have
been saved. Judas's betrayal was ordained -- and required
-- by God's plan, and his reward for having had to perform
the greatest act of betrayal in the Christian mythos is the
greatest punishment: according to Dante's Inferno (Canto
34), Judas has spent the past two thousand years being
chewed on by Lucifer in the center of the lowest circle of
Hell, the home of the sinners who were Treacherous to Their
Masters, Judecca (which was also named for Judas).
In October, 1998, Wormwood became the subject of The
Residents' second series of Halloween concerts at The
Fillmore in San Francisco. Most of the album was performed
(the songs Spilling the Seed and The Seven Ugly Cows were
left out) in a highly successful live production. This live
show was expanded with extra songs and new arrangements
into a successful tour in 1999.
