Meet The Residents(1974)OverviewTracksLiner NotesLyrics
Subtitled The First Album by North Louisiana's Phenomenal Pop Combo, Meet the Residents was released on April 1st, 1974, with a striking cover -- a defaced version of the cover of Meet the Beatles, the Beatles' first album from Capitol Records.
The album had been recorded as a break from the huge Vileness Fats project. Like the band's first release, the 1972 single Santa Dog, this album was produced at home, creating sounds with tape effects and instruments -- which the band still didn't really know how to play. The Residents were not using synthesizers yet. Meet the Residents is more organized than Santa Dog, though, and demonstrated a little more skill with the instruments. The album was fairly close to the traditional album format: a series of songs, some seguéing into the next.
The Residents put a lot of attention into the packaging as well as the music, though the defaced Beatles cover upset Capitol Records greatly. John Lennon proudly displayed his own copy at home. The cover also became the favorite piece of evidence for the old "The Beatles are the Residents" theory.
In addition to the infamous cover art, the record included liner notes on N. Senada's Theory of Phonetic Organization and a promotion for the Vileness Fats film. 1050 disks were made, though 200 had to be scrapped. These barely sold, so the band made 4000 seven-minute 7" flexy-disk samplers which were included in an issue of the February '74 issue of the Canadian art magazine,File, along with a blurb advertising the album at $1.99 per copy. It still didn't sell -- people thought it was a joke. An ad in the May 17, 1974 issue of Friday, a college magazine from San Francisco, offered a free sample, but even so The Residents only sold 40 copies of Meet the Residents in the first year of its release.
Later, as the band became better known, sales of this first album started to pick up. In 1977, The Residents re-worked the tapes, cutting about seven minutes from the playtime, and released a new version. This release had a new cover, to keep Capitol happy, which depicted four figures with non-human heads: three with prawn-heads, the fourth with a starfish. These were identified as George, John, and Paul Crawfish and Ringo Starfish.
- Boots
- Numb Erone
- Guylum Bardot
- Breath and Length
- Consuelo's Departure
- Smelly Tongues
- Rest Aria
- Skratz
- Spotted Pinto Bean
- Infant Tango
- Seasoned Greetings
- N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)
The 2017 pREServed edition includes both the stereo and mono mixes of the album, as well as the following bonus tracks:
- Fire
- Explosion
- Lightning
- Aircraft Damage
- Tuesday #1 / Guylum Bardot Version
- Boots Again
- Numb Erone / Inka
- Tuesday #2 / Smellly Tongues Version
- Consuela's Return
- Breadth And Length Version
- Numb Erone âLiveâ(TM)
- Spotted Pinto Bean / Tuesday #5
- 7733 Variations
- Overlay At High Speed
- Spotted Pinto Queen
- Inka Don't Dry
- Tuesday #3
- Quick Brain Tuesday
- Poisoned Popcorn
- N-ER-GEE Crisis Outro
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 1
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 4
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 5
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 6
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 7
- 1-10 (With A Touch Of 11) Pt. 8
The Residents began collecting interesting and unusual tapes in the early 60's in an effort to expand their awareness of the very nature of sound. The tapes came from everywhere... cassettes of soldiers in Vietnam singing songs with impromptu instrumentation... reels from second hand shops... sounds effects and bird call collections from garage sales... and, yes, even a few bootleg tapes of well known pop artists going avant-garde between takes which were purchased on the black market and stored in a local bank vault.
The Residents not only collected other peoples tapes, but gained widespread notoriety for their unusual recordings. The underground network carried their reputation across the oceans where it finally hit the ears of the then unknown Englishman, "Snakefinger" Lithman. Packing a few clothes, he flew directly to San Mateo, California where the Residents then had their sound studios, in hopes of studying tapes of early Cajun music the Residents were alleged to have recorded while in college in Louisiana. Snakefinger had also brought an acquaintance that he had met in the woods of Bavaria while on an expedition there for Britain. That friend was none other than The Mysterious N. Senada who had developed a complex musical system based upon phonetics.
For six months Snakefinger, N. Senada (who spoke very little english), and The Residents worked together recording and listening to tapes. A few lucky people were even able to catch impromptu performances by The Mysterious N. Senada and Snakefinger at several of San Francisco's folk and jazz clubs.
The Residents negotiated with Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt over the rights to the Snakefinger/N. Senada/Residents tapes, but Warner Bros. hit by a slump in record sales, decided the audience appeal was too limited and at the last minute withdrew their offer.
Snakefinger returned to England to become a rock and roll star, and The Mysterious N. Senada, well he just disappeared one day. The Residents have ventured to guess that he has probably gone to the arctic regions. He believes some musical link is hidden among the Eskimos of the frozen north.
The music on this album is not that of Snakefinger or of The Mysterious N. Senada. The Residents have taken the basic ideas of the phonetic organization but have applied the theories to a more Western style of music. The translation does not always hold intact, though there is more than enough example of this staggering new music style.
The instruments used on this record have been tuned to approximate Western culture harmonies and artistic freedom is assumed for the right to substitute normal instruments where necessary.
Listen closely to the record. Let the strangeness wear off through a couple of plays. Soon you too will whistle the merry tunes and wonder along with The Residents who that old man N. Senada really was.
Expand allBoots
Boots were meant for walkin'
That's just what they'll do.
One of these days
These boots are gonna
Walk all over you
Numb Erone
Instrumental
Guylum Bardot
The love that we've been through
Was splintered and sent to
The end of
The rainbow today
Now that its over
The grass and the clover
Grow over
The ground where I lay
Come back Petonia
Come back I say (Come back Petonia)
I'm hopin' soon ya'll (Come back, I pray)
Be with me to stay (I'm hopin' soon ya'll)
Be with me to stay
Breath and Length
Breath and Length
And
Breadth and Width
And
With and Without
In Our Dance
Consuelo's Departure
Instrumental
Smelly Tongues
Smelly Tongues Looked Just as They Felt!
Rest Aria
Instrumental
Skratz
The bedposts are cool to the touch
The sheets are crumpled into an Oldenburg
Three hairs rolled over his undershirt
A spare tire rolled under his overshirt
But ... Scratz, scratz, scratz
(Dirty Fingernail)
Ollie wasn't young like he was last night
Scratz, scratz, scratz
(Dirty Fingernail)
The sheets still showed the yellow spot
Ann ran her tongue along the ridges by the Gulf
Thoughts slipped into valleys
Concealed by dense Mexicali underbush hair
A flag ran up his pole
And waved firmness with wings
But ... Scratz, scratz, scratz
(Dirty Fingernail)
Ollie wasn't at all as young like he was last night
Scratz, scratz, scratz
(Dirty Fingernail)
The sheets still showed the yellow spot
Spotted Pinto Bean
Spotted Pinto Bean is leaving
Leaving on a midnight streaming
Tears behind him all the way
And all the way arms are folding
Handkerchiefs to pockets holding
Holding yesterday
Infant Tango
Watch
That Infant Tango
See
That Infant Tango
All
That Infant Tango
Is a
Dance for You.
Seasoned Greetings
Merry Christmas, Mom
Merry Christmas, Dad
Merry Christmas, Sis...
I Love You.
Uh, Uhh It's Christmas
But, but there ain't nobody
Raisin' much of a fuss.
Christmas Christmas Christmas
Ain't Nobody
Raisin' no fuss...
Nobody
But
ME!!!
N-er-gee (Crisis Blues)
The, the,
The end of the rainbow
Is a speedin' up news
But the, the,
The knot in the,
The fuse
Is the speed that,
That you lose?
Go home America
Fifty-five'll do
Go home America