Many of the songs that make up the second half of the disc (a.k.a. the Buster & Glen EP) toy with the themes of disconnected families ("Birthday Boy," "Lizard Lady") and body dysmorphia that the group would return to in their groundbreaking Freak Show CD-Rom. "Weight Lifting Lulu" features a narrator who's simultaneously appalled and aroused by his girlfriend's physique ("I hated your body but needed your touch."), while "Hello Skinny" describes a noodle-thin entrepreneur who sells a used copy of a Hello Dolly record to a truck driver - climaxing in a tuneless rendition of that musical's show stopping chorus. The whole shmear concludes with "The Electrocutioner," a warped little ditty sung by Ruby of the long-departed Rick & Ruby comedy troupe, a group with ties to Peewee Herman's old live comedy shows.
Depending on your tolerance for willful weirdness, you've either stopped listening to Duck Stab long before the Buster & Glen bits or immediately hit "replay" when you get to the end. To test their admirers' perspicacity, the group would follow this release with Eskimo, a totally tuneless aural collage filled with wind sounds, barks and grunts which purports to tell a tale of life in the frozen North. I still don't know what to make of that puppy - also recently reissued by Mute - but I'll happily cop to loudly singin' along with Stab's "Constantinople."
Article comments
1 - Douglas Mays
My oh my!!!! 'Duck Stab', the first Resident's record I bought back in '79. Yeah, 'Constantinople'. Everybody sing along! "Third Riech and Roll" surely mutilated pop classics.
You know, at the same time some great things of a not mutilsated sense came out also. I am speaking of the 'Eskimo' album. That I thought (even though it my not have been their intent) that it came out as a very well done composition.
And then, they did the 'King and I' album. I think their version of "Heartbreak Hotel" is the best, most creative available.
hhhmmm...the Residents. What a statement. but for the most part, right on the money!!!!
best,
DM
2 - JC Mosquito
This was the first Residents' recording I ever heard. We kept singing, "Bach is Dead (Bach Bach Bach)" 'til the wee hours of the morning, along with "Marquee Moon," and we'd alternate those with an import copy of "White Light/White Heat" we had to drive 40 miles to an import store to find just to see what all the fuss was about. Yep - and everything was all right.