Doctor Dark

***Doctor Dark*** (possibly stylized as ***Dr. Dark***) is the working title of a studio album and "modern theater piece/opera" currently being developed by The Residents. The album is said to be in post-production as of December 2023, and is expected for release in summer 2024, with the theatrical production expected to premiere in 2024 or 2025.

The opera's plot is said to revolve around "two... or... really, three" primary characters, and was inspired by an unsuccessful 1990 civil action in which heavy metal band Judas Priest were sued by the family of James Vance, a teenager in Reno, Nevada, who had attempted suicide by shotgun after listening to the band's music, as well as the life of Armenian-American pathologist and euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian, who assisted in the suicides of 130 terminally ill people, and was often referred to as "Dr. Death" at the time of his murder trial and conviction in 1999.

The Residents had wanted to use the Vance story as the basis for a project for thirty years, and began actively pursuing the idea in 2021. By June 2022, The Residents had recorded "about an hour's worth" of demo material for the project, and were developing the project with classical conductor Edwin Outwater, current musical director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

## History

### Background

#### James Vance and Jack Kevorkian

The *Doctor Dark* project was first inspired in the early 1990s when The Residents saw the documentary film *Dream Deceivers*, which tells the story of James Vance, a young man in Reno, Nevada, who had attempted suicide with a 12-gauge shotgun in December 1985 after drinking heavily, smoking marijuana and listening to the English heavy metal band Judas Priest. Vance survived the attempt; horribly disfigured by the shotgun blast to his face, he died three years later.

In 1990 the incident became the subject of an unsuccessful (and now infamous) civil action brought against Judas Priest and their record label CBS by the families of Vance and Belknap, which alleged that the band had hidden subliminal messages (such as "try suicide", "do it" and "let's be dead") in the song "Better By You, Better Than Me" on their 1978 album *Stained Class*. The suit was ultimately dismissed, however the case cost Judas Priest $250,000 in legal fees, and CBS were made to pay $40,000 to the plaintiffs' attorneys.

The Residents had wanted to do "a piece" based on the story for the three decades after having first seen the interview footage of the disfigured Vance featured in *Dream Deceivers*, which Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation compared to "a train wreck that you can't take your eyes off of".

In March 2023, Homer Flynn stated that the project was also inspired by Jack Kevorkian*,* an Armenian-American pathologist and proponent of physician-assisted euthanasia, who is said to have assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people between 1990 and 1998, using self-devised euthanasia devices, which allowed the user to administer fatal drugs, chemicals or gases to themselves which would cause their deaths. Between May 1994 and June 1997, Kevorkian was tried four times for assisting suicides, and was acquitted three times, with the fourth trial ending in a mistrial. As his notoriety grew in the media, Kevorkian was often referred to as "Dr. Death".

### Development and recording

In December 2020, Homer Flynn noted that ideas developed by The Residents while recording the soundtrack for their feature film *Triple Trouble* had "opened up a door for what they might want to do with the next album". By December 2021, The Residents were discussing producing the opera with classical composer and conductor, Edwin Outwater. Outwater, a "huge Residents fan" and the current musical director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, had considered working with The Residents one of his primary goals since moving to San Francisco at the start of the decade.

In June 2022, Flynn announced that The Residents had recently recorded approximately an hour of demo material and backing tracks for the project, stating that the material would "almost undoubtedly" form the basis for their next album, as well as a "modern theater piece/opera", which Flynn suggested would premiere around 2024-2025. The project is said to have "two primary characters, or... really, three characters". Describing the sound of the new album, Flynn has said "part of it is kind of punk-ish, and part of it is kind of classical-ish. So you have those... two different forms... in a way kind of clashing with each other" as "part of the idea of the album".

In June 2023, The Residents were said to be "working out and spending hours in the gym in preparation" for the album's upcoming recording sessions, with "producers and collaborators [having] been assigned their official identification numbers", and a suggested release date of "maybe" early 2024. By the end of the year, the album was in post-production with an anticipated release in summer 2024.

## See also

* James Vance
* Jack Kevorkian
* *Triple Trouble* (album)
* Edwin Outwater
* San Francisco Conservatory of Music
* 50th Anniversary secret show

## External links and references

* The Judas Priest subliminal message trial at Wikipedia
* *Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest* at IMDb
* Jack Kevorkian at Wikipedia

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Homer Flynn (interviewed by Bob Lee), "LA Beat Interview: The Residents", The Los Angeles Beat, June 9th 2022
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Greetings Eyeballers!", Cherry Red Residents mailing list newsletter, December 1st 2023
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Greetings Eyeball Fans!", Cherry Red Residents newsletter, June 16th 2023
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Residents are playing... with two different music forms on this. It has... two primary characters, or... really, three characters. But part of it is kind of punk-ish, and part of it is kind of classical-ish. So you have those... two different forms... in a way kind of clashing with each other. It's just a part of the idea of the album." Homer Flynn, "EP168: Homer Flynn / The Residents", *Electronically Yours with Martyn Ware*, November 3rd 2023
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Noud Jansen, "50 Years of The Residents", Humo, December 27th 2021
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Man Who Sued Rock Group Over Suicide Attempt Dies", Los Angeles Times, December 1st 1988
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Homer Flynn (interviewed by Allan Macinnis), "Faceless Forever at 50: The Residents, 'Triple Trouble', and a Setlist to Die, Die, Die For: A Homer Flynn Interview", Stereo Embers, March 25th 2023
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Residents right now are working on a new album. They have connected with a guy who is a classical conductor, and he is the musical director for the San Francisco Conservatory, and... you probably heard about this concert of Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, and so he's the guy that was behind that. So... anyway, he's going to be involved in the new album..." Homer Flynn, "EP168: Homer Flynn / The Residents", *Electronically Yours with Martyn Ware*, November 3rd 2023
9. ↑ Kory Grow, "Judas Priest's Subliminal Message Trial: Rob Halford Looks Back", Rolling Stone, August 24th 2015
10. ↑ "Homer Flynn Interview 12/17/20", Esoterica the Podcast, YouTube, January 21st 2021
11. ↑ "[Outwater]" lived here several years ago, moved away, went different places... and then moved back about, I don't know, three years ago, something like that. [...] And he's a huge Residents fan, and when he came back... one of his primary goals was to collaborate with The Residents." Homer Flynn, "EP168: Homer Flynn / The Residents", *Electronically Yours with Martyn Ware*, November 3rd 2023