Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life

**"Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life"** is a sound collage consisting entirely of Beatles samples, created by The Residents in 1977 and first released as the A-side of the single *The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles* (accompanied by a cover of The Beatles' instrumental "Flying").

Alongside their 1976 album *The Third Reich 'n Roll*, it is often considered to be one of the earliest commercially released examples of what is now known as a "mash-up".

## History

> "The performer of this piece is none other than The Beatles themselves. It is an audio collage built entirely of Beatles."
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> - A Resident
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"Beyond The Valley of a Day in the Life" was compiled by a single member of The Residents in 1977 from tape loops created using the group's collection of Beatles records. In this way it applies the group's satirical pop-art treatment of the Fab Four (previously utilized in the album art design of their debut album *Meet The Residents*) to the prototypical mash-up composition of their 1976 album *The Third Reich 'n Roll*.

The piece was designed to pick up where The Beatles' 1967 album *Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band* left off, and it does so literally, as it opens with a sample of the orchestral swell and final chord of that album's final track, "A Day in the Life".

All of the Beatles songs sampled in the collage were likely sourced from official American releases, other than a brief sample taken from the 1965 fan club flexi-disc "Third Christmas Record", which was released only in the UK.

Upon its completion, The Residents initially felt that the piece was too different from their usual style, but ultimately warmed to it, recording a cover of the Beatles' instrumental "Flying" to accompany it on a 7" single titled *The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles*.

The single was released on Ralph Records on August 16th 1977, in an edition of 500 copies. It was credited on the sleeve of the single as having been performed by The Beatles and composed by The Residents. Perhaps for this reason, it also later appeared on an unspecified (but apparently widely distributed) Beatles bootleg album.

In 2018, Pure Liquid Light created a new version of the piece using sound clips sourced from YouTube, titled "Youtube Plays The Beatles Play Beyond the Valley of a Day in the Life". This piece was submitted to The Residents' collaborative/remix project *I Am A Resident!*. It was briefly made available to stream by the group during the fan-voted selection process, but ultimately was not used on the final release.

## Samples used

***Meet The Beatles***, Capitol, 1964

* "All I've Got to Do"
* "All My Loving"
* "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

**"She Loves You",** Swan, 1964

* "She Loves You"

***A Hard Day's Night,*** United Artists, 1964

* "A Hard Day's Night"
* "Tell Me Why"
* "Can't Buy Me Love"

***Beatles '65***, Capitol, 1964

* "No Reply"
* "I'm A Loser"
* "Mr. Moonlight"

***Beatles IV*,** Capitol, 1965

* "Tell Me What You See"
* "Bad Boy"

***Help!***, Capitol, 1965

* "Another Girl"

***Rubber Soul,*** Capitol, 1965

* "Girl"
* "In My Life"

**"The Beatles' Third Christmas Record"**, The Beatles Fan Club, 1965

* Paul McCartney: "Please everybody, if we haven't done what we could have done, we've tried..."

***Paperback Writer***, Capitol, 1966

* "Paperback Writer"

***Revolver,*** Capitol, 1966

* "Yellow Submarine"
* "Love You To"

***Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band***, Capitol, 1967

* "A Day In The Life"

***Magical Mystery Tour,*** Capitol, 1967

* "I Am the Walrus"
* "Blue Jay Way"

***Lady Madonna***, Capitol, 1968

* "Lady Madonna"

***Yellow Submarine,*** Apple, 1969

* "Hey Bulldog"

***Abbey Road***, Apple, 1969

* "The End"
* "Her Majesty"

***Plastic Ono Band,*** Apple, 1970

* "God"

## Releases

* *The Beatles Play The Residents And The Residents Play The Beatles* (1977)
* *The Residents Radio Special* (1977)
* *The Third Reich 'N' Roll* CD reissue (1987)
* *In Memoriam Torso* (1994)
* *Louisiana's Lick* (1995)
* *Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses* (1997)
* *Twenty-Five Years Of Eyeball Excellence* (1998)
* *Documentation - Tunes In Danger Of Becoming Lost* (2009)
* *80 Aching Orphans* (2017)
* "I Am A Resident! Theme" (2018)
	+ *I Am A Resident!* Version

## See also

* The Beatles
* *The Third Reich 'n Roll*
* "Satisfaction"
* "Flying"
* "Strawberry Fields Forever"

## External links and references

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Charles Bobuck, *THIS Is For READERS*, 2016, pg. 9