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This article is about the the 1976 studio album. You may be looking for the the 1977 short film of the same name. |
The Third Reich 'n Roll is the second (or third) album by The Residents, recorded in two separate sessions in October 1974 and October 1975, and released on Ralph Records on February 1st 1976. Intended as a scathing satire on the pop music industry,[1] the album consists of two side-long suites, containing "semi-phonetic" interpretations of well-known garage rock and bubblegum pop hits, mostly dating from the 1960s.
The album's notorious cover art by Porno/Graphics shows American Bandstand host Dick Clark dressed in a Nazi uniform and clutching a carrot, and the original pressing prominently features numerous swastikas; as such, the album has been subject to censorship in the years since its release, and remains somewhat controversial.[2]
Initially unsuccessful at the time of its release,[2] The Third Reich 'n Roll would eventually become one of the earliest of The Residents' releases to gain wider recognition. The group created a short film of the same name to promote the album, which premiered in 1977; it would later be recognized as a particularly early example of the medium later known as music video.
History[]
Background[]
Test collage for The Third Reich 'n Roll album cover, 1976
The Third Reich 'n Roll was conceived during production of The Residents' troubled feature film Vileness Fats, when the group realized that they would need to release a follow-up to their 1974 debut album Meet The Residents sooner rather than later.[3]
The album was largely recorded in two dedicated sessions in 1974 and 1975, each lasting roughly a week in length and taking place over the course of the Major Baseball League World Series in October of each year. The year-long gap between sessions is due to the difficulty The Residents experienced in co-ordinating a week's vacation from their day jobs at the same time,[3] in addition to the time they were spending on Vileness Fats (which had already been in production for two years by the time The Third Reich 'n Roll was conceived).
The Residents were also experiencing a number of personal tensions at this time, some of which had been resolved with the development of their unreleased second album Not Available in early 1974, but which nevertheless left some members of the group convinced that the Third Reich 'n Roll sessions would be the last project they worked on together.[3]
Concept[]
Original "dancing Hitler" art by Porno/Graphics
The process The Residents used to create The Third Reich 'n Roll was simple: using their four-track tape equipment in the first session, and a newly-acquired Tascam 8-track tape machine in the second, they took recordings of various well-known 1960s bubblegum pop and rock 'n' roll songs, then built on those by laying their own overdubs on top.
After layering overdubs, they then removed the original versions of the songs from the master, resulting in suitably mangled cover versions performed entirely by The Residents. These miniature covers (as well as a handful of more free-form recordings) were then cross-faded, overdubbed and edited into two roughly 18-minute long suites; "Swastikas on Parade", featuring the results of the 1974 session, and "Hitler Was a Vegetarian", with the results of the 1975 session.
With these cover recordings and other sound elements, such as the sample of the German-language version of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" which opens the album, and stock sound effects including air raid sirens, dive bombers and machine gun fire, The Third Reich 'n Roll was intended to satirically illustrate that the popular music industry (which had already rejected their efforts) had "brainwashed" the youth of America in a manner similar to the effect the fascist Nazi Third Reich had on the people of Germany when it ruled the country between 1933 and 1945.
Some of the cover versions are immediately obvious to most listeners, while others are rendered almost unrecognizable. Most often, the covers appear one after the other, or segue together in a simple medley format, although some feature elements borrowed from entirely different songs - for example, the version of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" which closes the album also features backing vocals derived from The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil". A small number of covers recorded for the project (such as "Wooly Bully") were ultimately not included in the final version of the album.
The album was also contains some of The Residents' first experiments with synthesizers. By the time of the October 1974 session, they were already in possession of an ARP Odyssey and were also renting a Solina String Ensemble.[4]
Guest appearances[]
Guest vocals were provided by the group's friends Pamela Zeibak (who had previously appeared on Meet The Residents) and Margaret Smyk (credited on the album as her Vileness Fats character Peggy Honeydew).
The Residents had wanted to ask their friend Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman to perform on the record, but at the time of recording he was in the United Kingdom touring with his group Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers. Snakefinger returned to America around mid-1976, and appeared with the group at their first live performance in June, and made his first appearance on an official Residents release on the "Satisfaction" single. Despite this, Snakefinger insisted that he was, in fact, on The Third Reich N Roll when asked about it in 1981, saying that The Residents sent parts of the suites for him overdub guitar onto and that you can hear his playing scattered throughout.[5]
Instead, the album features an appearance from guitarist Gary Phillips, an employee of Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley who had responded to a phone call from a Resident to the store.[3] Phillips volunteered his services, and appears on the "Hey Jude"/"Sympathy For The Devil" section of "Hitler Was a Vegetarian" - he recorded his contribution by plugging his guitar directly into a portable tape recorder he owned, without an amplifier.[6] On the original pressing of the album, Phillips is credited as "The Former Bass Player From The Front Line".
Cover art and imagery[]
Original artwork by Porno/Graphics
"The Residents are not neo-Nazis in case you, too, were wondering."
Uncle Willie, 1992[7]
The packaging and promotion of The Third Reich 'n Roll by Porno/Graphics made prominent use of Nazi imagery, in keeping with the album's concept and the arresting, confrontational imagery previously produced by The Residents.
The album's front cover depicts Dick Clark, host of the long-running TV program American Bandstand, dressed in a Nazi uniform and holding a carrot, in front of a landscape depicting miniature Hitlers dancing with each other on clouds. The back cover and record labels of the first pressing prominently depict swastikas (which were replaced on later pressings with a variety of more generic symbols and imagery).
Promotional photos released at the time showed the members of the group dressed in giant swastika-shaped neck collars, Hitler moustaches and swastika-shaped glasses; these photographs were ultimately withdrawn from circulation as they "just disturbed too many people",[7] but have since been occasionally reprinted in a variety of Residents-related texts and reissues of the album.
The use of such controversial imagery continued to cause problems for The Residents and their management company The Cryptic Corporation for years to come. As swastikas were (and remain) banned from public display in Germany and Austria, Ralph Records initially could not release or distribute the album in Europe.
Censored versions[]
Art for the 1993 censored edition of the album, depicting Hitler and Madonna
Ralph finally released The Third Reich 'n Roll in Europe in 1981 with altered cover art which featured "CENSORED!" stickers placed over every appearance of the swastika, Adolf Hitler, or the word "reich". In 1993, Porno/Graphics' lead graphic designer Homer Flynn created entirely new cover art for the 1993 Euro Ralph CD reissue, featuring Hitler and Madonna in place of the original figure of Dick Clark.
The album was again reissued with newly "censored" cover art in 2005 by Mute Records (with the original artwork encased in a plain black box marked only by a sticker displaying the title and a "parental advisory" warning), as part of their series of deluxe "hardcover" reissues of classic Residents albums. A similar plain black design was first conceived (but not used) in the 1970s for the album Not Available. The idea was implemented again in 2018 and 2019, with the limited edition vinyl releases of the group's demo tapes The W***** B*** Album and B.S..
The expanded pREServed CD and vinyl editions of the album (released in 2018 and 2023 respectively) feature a newly edited design with no visible swastikas or Hitlers, and "censored" bars (borrowed from the 1981 censored edition) covering the word "Reich" and the face of Dick Clark.
Release and promotion[]
Newspaper men, 1976
The Third Reich 'n Roll was released on Ralph Records on February 1st 1976, in a limited edition of 1000 copies. The cover art on the first edition features a hand-colored carrot in green and orange, and is marked "First Pressing - 1000 Discs" in the border text on the front cover.
The Third Reich 'n Roll was The Residents' first concept album proper, and their second album in order of release - the album officially considered to be their "second", Not Available, had been at least partly recorded in early 1974, but would not be released until 1978. For this reason, The Third Reich 'n Roll is canonically considered to be The Residents' third studio album.
Although the album apparently "bombed" upon release,[2] and while it did not open The Residents to a great deal of wider mainstream publicity, the album would eventually sell its entire first pressing, and also helped to encourage sales of their debut, Meet The Residents, which had sold only 40 copies in its first year of release.
Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley (whose employee Gary Phillips had contributed guitar to "Hitler Was a Vegetarian") promoted the release of the album by installing a prominent swastika-themed display (designed by Homer Flynn of Porno/Graphics)[8] in their front windows. This remained in place for only two days before "shrill local outrage" caused the store to remove it.[3]
By way of thanks, however, The Residents agreed to perform live at Rather Ripped's fifth anniversary party on June 7th 1976 - their first "official" live appearance as The Residents. The ensuing performance, titled "Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! Can't You See That It's True; What The Beatles Did To Me, 'I Love Lucy' Did To You", featured a number of the group's collaborators (including Snakefinger, The Mysterious N. Senada, and Pamela Zeibak) but was ultimately not considered a success by the group, and it would be another six years before the group played live again.
Promotional video[]
Still from The Third Reich 'n Roll short film, 1977
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The wiki has a page dedicated to this topic. For more information, read this article. |
In early 1977, The Residents created a short film promoting the album, after having received a request from an Australian music program Flashez, a largely pop-centric magazine-style music program which ran on the Australian ABC network between 1976 and 1977.[9]
The first half of the film had been shot over a long weekend a couple years prior to the album's release,[3] on newspaper-covered sets, with The Residents appearing in costumes and with instruments which were also made of newspaper. The large amount of newspaper required to build the set, costumes and props had been left in the group's Sycamore Street studio by their friend Palmer Eiland, who had lived with them in an unpainted room at the studio until suffering a mental breakdown.[10]
The second half of the film, consisting of stop-motion live action animation, was shot after the album's release when the group decided to re-purpose the earlier footage for the creation of the film. It was shot on the Banquet Hall set they had built for their soon-to-be-abandoned feature film Vileness Fats, and included props from that production including an Atomic Shopping Cart, giant pork chops, and oversized skulls.
The newspaper costumes worn by The Residents in the film caused further public relations issues for the group, since the tall conical hoods of the costumes closely resembled the hooded costumes worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan. This, in conjunction with the album's Third Reich cover art and theme, led some to think that the group were promoting extremist right-wing ideologies. In fact, the creation of the costumes preceded the development of the Third Reich 'n Roll concept, and appeared this way simply because it was the easiest means of making a functional head-covering from newspaper; as such, the resemblance to the hoods worn by the Ku Klux Klan was purely accidental.[3]
The completed film, which was set to a six-minute "concentrate" edit consisting of a number of pieces from the album, would eventually be considered one of the earliest examples of a music video; preceding the popular adoption of the medium by around five years. The film (as well as the group's entire catalog of releases) is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. It has since been made widely available through its inclusion in most of the group's home video compilations, including the Video Voodoo Volume I VHS and Icky Flix DVD.
Related singles[]
The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles, 1977
Rather than releasing any edited extracts from the album as promotional singles, The Residents instead opted to further develop the concept of the album by recording two new singles, "Satisfaction" (released in September 1976) and The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles (released in August 1977).
"Satisfaction" included a distorted and abrasive cover of The Rolling Stones' song of the same name, backed by a Residents original, "Loser ≅ Weed", which featured the group's first experiment with their recently-purchased ARP Odyssey synthesizer.[11] The single was originally pressed in a small edition of 200 copies, but a later pressing in 1977 (after the explosion of punk music) was a significant early success for the group.
The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles featured a sound-collage by The Residents titled "Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life" on the A-side, which consisted entirely of short samples of segments from The Beatles' releases combined in a manner which is often considered to be a pre-cursor to what is now known as the "mash-up", representing The Beatles performing a Residents composition. The B-side is a near-acapella Residents rendition of The Beatles' 1967 instrumental "Flying", from the soundtrack to their television film Magical Mystery Tour - the only song The Residents could find in The Beatles catalog which was credited to all four members of the group.
Reissues[]
Collectors' box edition (1980)[]
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The wiki has a page dedicated to this topic. For more information, read this article. |
"Running Fence" by Christo
In the Spring of 1977[12], The Cryptic Corporation's graphic designer Homer Flynn conceived of a series of extremely limited edition collectors' box sets aimed at the high-end art collectors' market. The series was intended to include lavish treatments of The Third Reich 'n Roll, Tourniquet of Roses, and the then-upcoming Eskimo.
The Third Reich 'n Roll was chosen to be the first in the series, and the set was released after a number of delays in production in August of 1980[12]. The box set contained the original version of the album (with no additional tracks or previously unheard material) hand-pressed on red marble vinyl with a silk-screened sleeve and labels.
The box opened via a sliding panel which had been silk-screened by hand with the album cover art, and also contained two signed and numbered lithographs. Finally, the box was contained in a draw-string bag crafted from the plastic bags used by artist Christo in his piece "Running Fence", which is seen on one of the included lithographs. The other lithograph included in the box features an artwork by the group's friend and occasional collaborator Irene Dogmatic.
The boxes used for the sets had been spray-painted black by hand by Flynn, who ultimately ended up in the emergency room when the combination of the spray-paint fumes and the tightness of the rubber band holding back his hair almost caused him to lose consciousness. He decided to abandon production of the Collectors' Box series as a result, but Ralph Records had already received 13 orders which had to be fulfilled. In the end, only 25 complete copies were made available (with a further five kept as artist proofs, and an additional 20 rejected due to misprints).
"Interactive book" multimedia edition (1994)[]
The Third Reich 'n Roll multimedia edition floppy disks
In 1994 The Third Reich 'n Roll was reissued by Euro Ralph in an "interactive book" package, which bundled the original album on CD (in a digipack with the newly updated "Madonna and Hitler" cover design by Porno/Graphics) and two 3.5" floppy disks.[13]
The floppy disks contained a 15 slide multimedia presentation, which featured additional notes related to the album presented by "Dick Klark" alongside newly created digital graphics, and the option to play the CD (if inserted into the computer) while viewing it.
The Third Reich 'n Roll was one of only two Residents albums released in this format; a similar "interactive book" CD and floppy disk edition of the 1984 album George & James was also released by Euro Ralph in 1994.[14] A complete "walkthrough" of the Third Reich 'n Roll multimedia slide show was uploaded to The Residents' official YouTube channel on January 19th 2018 in the lead-up to the release of the expanded pREServed edition of the album.[15]
The Third Reich 'n Roll pREServed[]
CD edition (2018)[]
Postcard included with early copies of the pREServed edition
The Third Reich 'n Roll was the second album to be released as part of The Residents' pREServed series of remastered and expanded CD reissues, alongside Meet The Residents in January 2018. Early copies were shipped with a bonus postcard.
The pREServed CD edition of The Third Reich 'n Roll features updated, censored cover art (which refers to their upcoming film project Double Trouble in the same way that the original sleeve promoted the upcoming release of Vileness Fats).
It includes the original album, the "Satisfaction" and The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles EPs, the previously unknown German Slide Music recordings (dating from July 1975), the complete Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live performance (plus a "concentrate" of the backing tape used during the show), as well as later live and studio versions of pieces from this period.
Vinyl edition (2023)[]
Following the release of the pREServed two CD edition of The Third Reich 'n Roll, further releases related to the album were considered for release, originally as (at least) one entry in a series of limited edition vinyl releases sold entirely via mail order, including material such as the complete German Slide Music tape,[16] and stripped back "multi-track explorations" derived from The Residents' original multi-track tapes, which the group had begun working on in late 2019.[17]
After a number of delays, this series was retooled to become an ongoing sub-series of the pREServed campaign focusing on expanded vinyl reissues of the group's "classic" era albums. The first instalment in the series, a three LP edition of Meet The Residents, was released in January 2023, followed by a two LP reissue of The Third Reich 'n Roll, released February 10th 2023.
The Third Reich deluxe vinyl set contains the pREServed remaster of the original album, with a second disc containing "Groovy Greats RDX", the previously announced "new, alternative redux mix" derived from the Third Reich multi-track tapes, as well as the Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live show. The RDX suite will likely include alternate mixes of "Land of 1000 Dances" and "Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)", as teased in the sampler track "RDX Sampler" in November 2021, and a "weird different version" of "In a Gadda da Vida".[17] German Slide Music is not included in the vinyl edition, despite having previously been mentioned as having been considered for release as part of this series.
A limited number of copies sold through the Cherry Red website included a bonus white label 7" featuring the 1977 limited edition single The Beatles Play The Residents and The Residents Play The Beatles, the first time that single has been reissued in its original 7" vinyl format. Some copies of the single were later made available separately via The Residents' official online store.
"Classic Series" collectors' vinyl edition (2023)[]
The Third Reich 'n Roll was released as the second instalment in Psychofon Records' "Classic Series" of limited edition collectors' vinyl reissues at the end of February 2023, in an edition of 200 hand-numbered copies on "extraordinary" orange splatter/dotted vinyl (with uncensored swastika record label graphics).
The sleeve of the Psychofon "Classic Series" edition reproduces the uncensored album art on glossy cardstock, with only 200 hand-numbered copies on "extraordinary" orange splatter/dotted vinyl (with uncensored swastika record label graphics), housed inside a red "Classic Series" branded tote bag.
Legacy[]
The Third Reich 'n Roll promotional image, 1976
Today The Third Reich 'n Roll is sometimes considered a precursor to the modern "mash-up", and The Residents have also been credited with popularizing the practice of sampling in commercial music; the album features what is thought to be the first sample of a James Brown song on a commercially released record ("Swastikas on Parade" borrows a horn hit directly from "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"), pre-dating hip-hop's samples of Brown riffs, beats, and soundbites by about fifteen years.
The practice of covering well-known songs would later become a regular staple of The Residents' musical work. Other cover-based projects include the American Composer Series, released in two instalments in the mid-1980s, The King & Eye, a album of Elvis Presley covers released in 1989, and the related tour Cube-E, which combined a suite of selections from The King & Eye with two additional cover-based suites, "Buckaroo Blues" and "Black Barry".
The group's 2018 collaborative/remix album I Am A Resident! was produced with reference to The Third Reich 'n Roll; as a deliberate inversion of the original album's concept, the group commissioned their fans to record and submit cover versions of Residents originals, which then were mixed and edited by The Residents into a collection of mash-up suites. Illustrating this, the album's introduction opens with the same Chubby Checker sample used at the beginning of "Swastikas on Parade".
Later versions[]
Unused Third Reich promo photo: "The Residents, usually in tents, are seen here in a secret propaganda planning session."
The Residents first performed pieces of music featured on The Third Reich 'n Roll (specifically, "Wipe Out" and "It's My Party") live during their Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! show in June 1976. A new arrangement of "The Letter" was rehearsed by the group for their never-produced 10th Anniversary tour in 1982.
In 1988, the melody of "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" was used as a recurring theme in their concept album God In Three Persons, and to accompany the release of this album the group recorded a single featuring a newly-recorded version of the song. In the same year, The Residents arranged a short medley consisting of "Land of a Thousand Dances" and "Double Shot", which they performed live in November of 1988.
In 1992, engineer Scott Colburn created a new mix of "Land of a Thousand Dances", which remained unreleased and unheard of until it was included on the pREServed edition of The Third Reich 'n Roll (which itself was remastered by Colburn) in 2018.
For their Icky Flix retrospective project in 2001, the group recorded a six-minute medley featuring elements from "Swastikas on Parade" as an optional alternate soundtrack to the Third Reich 'n Roll short film. This version included "Land of a Thousand Dances", "Psychotic Reaction", "Telstar", and "Wipe Out". The Icky Flix "Third Reich 'n Roll" medley was released on the accompanying soundtrack album, and performed live during the Icky Flix tour.
After repeated delays due to the global COVID-19 pandemic which began in November 2019, The Residents' planned Dog Stab! tour (pairing tracks from their 2020 studio album Metal, Meat & Bone with selections from the 1978 album Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen) evolved to become their 50th Anniversary show, as the amended September 2021 start date was now much closer to the 2022 anniversary. To emphasize this theme, the group added an encore to the set list featuring truncated live arrangements of "Swastikas on Parade" and "Hitler Was a Vegetarian".[18]
Track listing[]
All tracks composed and/or arranged by The Residents unless otherwise noted.
Original release (1976)[]
Side A: Swastikas on Parade (17:30)[]
- Sample: Chubby Checker - "Der Twist beginnt" (Mann/Appell)
- "Land of a Thousand Dances" (Kenner)
- "Hanky Panky" (Barry/Greenwich)
- "A Horse with No Name" (Bunnell)
- "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" (Smith/Vetter)
- "The Letter" (Carson)
- "Psychotic Reaction" (Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michalski)
- "Little Girl" (Baskin/Gonzalez)
- "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (Brown)
- (includes samples from the original version at 12:03 and 12:25)
- "Talk Talk" (Bonniwell)
- "I Want Candy" (Berns/Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer)
- "To Sir, with Love" (London)
- "Telstar" (Meek)
- "Wipe Out" (Berryhill/Connolly/Fuller/Wilson)
- "Heroes and Villains" (Wilson/Parks)
Side B: Hitler Was a Vegetarian (18:27)[]
- "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" (Gourrier/Bernard)
- "96 Tears" (Martinez)
- "It's My Party" (Gold/Gluck/Weiner/Gottlieb)
- "Light My Fire" (Morrison/Krieger/Densmore/Manzarek)
- "Ballad of the Green Berets" (Moore/Sadler)
- "Yummy Yummy Yummy" (Kasenetz/Katz/Levine/Resnick)
- "Rock Around the Clock" (Freedman/De Knight)
- "Pushin' Too Hard" (Saxon)
- "Good Lovin'" (Clark/Resnick)
- "Gloria" (Morrison)
- "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (Ingle)
- "Sunshine of Your Love" (Bruce/Clapton)
- "Hey Jude" (Lennon/McCartney)
- "Sympathy for the Devil" (Jagger/Richards)
"Classic Series" CD reissue (1987)[]
- Swastikas on Parade (17:30)
- Hitler Was A Vegetarian (18:27)
- Satisfaction (4:30) (Jagger/Richards)
- Loser ≅ Weed (2:09)
- Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life (3:56)
- Flying (3:22) (Harrison/Lennon/McCartney/Starkey)
pREServed CD edition (2018)[]
(*) indicates tracks which are previously unreleased.
Disc 1[]
The Third Reich 'n Roll + Third Reich ephemera
- Swastikas on Parade (17:28)
- Hitler Was a Vegetarian (18:21)
- Satisfaction (4:32) (Jagger/Richards)
- Loser ≅ Weed (2:11)
- Beyond The Valley of a Day in the Life (3:59)
- Flying (3:24) (Harrison/Lennon/McCartney/Starkey)
- German Slide Music Pt. 1 (*) (3:29)
- German Slide Music Pt. 2 (*) (1:27)
- German Slide Music Pt. 4 (*) (2:17)
- German Slide Music Pt. 5 (*) (4:09)
- German Slide Music Pt. 6 (*) (4:17)
Disc 2[]
Third Reich ephemera
- The 'Oh Mummy' Show (Live, 1976) (*)[19] (29:35)
- The Letter (1982 Rehearsal) (*) (1:39) (Carson)
- Satisfaction (Live, Madrid, 1983) (*) (3:49) (Jagger/Richards)
- Land of 1000 Dances (Scott Colburn 1992 mix) (*) (4:10) (Kenner)
- Loser ≅ Weed (Live 2013) (2:56)
- Third Reich (Icky Flix DVD mix) (4:28)
- Third Reich (Live 2001) (4:44)
- 'Oh Mummy' Backing Tape Concentrate (*) (11:04)
- Third Reich Outtakes Reel (*) (6:05)
- 'Oh Mummy' Radio Ad (Unlisted) (*) (1:25)
pREServed vinyl edition (2023)[]
(*) indicates tracks which are previously unreleased.
Disc 1 - The Third Reich 'n Roll[]
Side A[]
- Swastikas on Parade (17:28)
Side B[]
- Hitler Was a Vegetarian (18:21)
Disc 2[]
Side C[]
- Groovy Greats RDX (*)
Side D[]
Liner notes[]
Original release (1976)[]
"Why do The Residents hate The Beatles?"[]
The Residents, 1976
That was a popular question several years ago when Ralph Records released The Residents' first album, Meet the Residents. Not everyone appreciated seeing their Beatle-Gods with fangs and cross-eyes - not to mention the erratic non-music music. But after all, that was a couple of years ago.
Then there was the second album. Produced in total secrecy, the album is reportedly a conceptualization of the theory of obscurity, as applied to phonetic organisation, as originally put forth by the Bavarian avant gardist, N. Senada, with whom The Residents are known to have worked about five years ago. According to the theory of obscurity, the LP cannot be released until its makers literally forget it exists.
Now, in the more traditional vein, The Residents announce the release of their third LP, The Third Reich 'n Roll. Already people are speculating whether The Residents are hinting that Rock 'n' Roll has brain-washed the youth of the world. When confronted with this possibility, they replied, "Well, it may be true or it may not, but we just wanted to kick out the jams and get it on."
The Third Reich 'n' Roll consists of two suites, Swastikas on Parade and Hitler Was a Vegetarian. Both are semi-phonetic interpretations of top 40 rock 'n' roll from the sixties. "Our roots", say The Residents.
One critic has suggested that The Residents are jumping on the German rock bandwagon. "What?" exclaimed one Resident while three others started singing "God Bless America", "Es eben ein reichsfall von gut alt Amerikaner kennenweiss,"[Note 1] he preached with a wink.
Classic Series CD reissue (1987)[]
The Residents' third album was released in 1976. The love/hate relationship the eyeball-ones have with pop music has, perhaps, never been better stated than in this scathingly satirical look at '60s bubble-gum rock somehow twisted into shocking '70s bubble-gum avant-garde. With a swift kick in the balls, The Residents leave rock and roll as fodder for tomorrow's dough-brains.
Credits[]
Original release (1976)[]
- Vocals, Drums, Soprano Sax, Alto Sax, Cornet, French Horn, Clarinet, Trombone, Synthesizers, Pipe Organ, Xylophone, Piped Snooter, Electric Violin, Piano, Organ, Guitars, Oud, Garbage Drums, Stretch Globel, Koto, Accordian, Hanging Lamp & Rubber Board by The Residents
- Additional Vocals by Pamela Zeibak and Peggy Honeydew
- Fancy Electric Guitar by The Former Bass Player From The Front Line
- The Poodles almost appear courtesy of Rather Ripped Reccords
- The Third Reich N' Roll was produced by Residents, Uninc.
- Jacket by Porno/Graphics
LP reissue (1985)[]
- The Residents play all the instruments on this album except for additional vocals by Zeibak and Peggy Honeydew, and some fancy guitar by Gary from Beserkeley
- Produced by The Residents 1974-75
- Jacket by Porno/Graphics
Release history[]
| Year | Label | Format | Region | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Ralph Records | LP | US | 35:57 |
| 1977 | ||||
| 1979 | ||||
| 1980 | ||||
| 1981 | ||||
| 1985 | ||||
| 1987 | Cass | |||
| East Side Digital | CD | 36:04 | ||
| Torso | CD | NL | ||
| LP | ||||
| 1993 | Euro Ralph | CD | EU | 36:19 |
| 1994 | CD (with 2x 3.5"
floppy disks) | |||
| 1997 | East Side Digital | CD | US | |
| Bomba Records | JPN | 36:17 | ||
| 2005 | Mute | UK, EU & US | 36:24 | |
| 2007 | Cryptic Corporation | Digital | USA | 36:19 |
| 2009 | Birdsong & Hayabusa Landings | CD | JPN | |
| 2012 | MVD Audio | CD/LP | US | 36:23 |
| LP | ||||
| 2013 | Music On Vinyl | EU | ||
| 2018 | New Ralph Too & Cherry Red | 2xCD | UK, EU & US | 35:51 |
| 2023 | 2xLP | UK, EU & US | 35:51 | |
| Psychofon Records | LP | EU | 35:51 |
See also[]
- The Third Reich 'n Roll (video)
- "Satisfaction"
- The Beatles Play The Residents And The Residents Play The Beatles
- German Slide Music
- Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! (live performance)
- Collectors' Box series
- Dick Clark
Buy Or Die![]
Listen online[]
Resources[]
- The Third Reich 'n Roll Mute CD reissue booklet (PDF, 6.45 MB)
Notes[]
- ↑ The phrase "Es eben ein reichsfall von gut alt Amerikaner kennenweiss" can be roughly translated as "It's just a rich display of good old American know-how".
External links and references[]
- The Third Reich 'n Roll at The Residents Historical
- The Third Reich 'n Roll at RZweb (archived February 9th 2005 by archive.org)
- The Third Reich 'n Roll at Discogs
- The Third Reich 'n Roll pREServed edition at Cherry Red Records
- ↑ The Third Reich 'n Roll Classic Series CD reissue liner notes, 1987
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The idea for this album is so foreign to anything that was being done at the time that it could have come from a different planet. Stringing hooks from 1960s bubblegum music together to form side-long suites was revolutionary. Having the entire thing played by people who were musically challenged took it totally to another level. Even the package with its controversial swastikas and dancing Hitlers ran so far ahead of "punk" trends that it could have been the thing that started it all. Of course it bombed when it was released, and only over time did people manage to start appreciating this album. It is still considered controversial." Big Brother, "Scars", The Last Word, 2008
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jim Knipfel, "Ignorance of Your Culture is Not Considered Cool", The Third Reich 'n Roll pREServed edition liner notes, 2018
- ↑ Ian Shirley, "Never Known Questions", 2015
- ↑ Snakefinger Interview, Houston, TX 1981-10-31 (Part 2/2)
- ↑ Ian Shirley, Never Known Questions: Five Decades of The Residents, 2016, pg 40
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Uncle Willie, Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, pg 58, 1992
- ↑ "Homer Flynn on Swastikas and NFTS" by Make Weird Music on YouTube
- ↑ "Flashez" at Nostalgia Central
- ↑ "The End of Arf" video on YouTube
- ↑ Charles Bobuck, "Synth City", Codgers on the Moon liner notes, 2012
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Dave Warden, The Cryptic Guide to The Residents, 1986, pg. 17
- ↑ Bach Is Dead discography via RZWeb, archived February 3rd 2005 by archive.org
- ↑ "Interactive Books" at RZWeb (archived February 16th 2005 by archive.org)
- ↑ "The Residents' Third Reich 'N Roll - Multimedia Edition Walkthrough (1994)" on The Residents' YouTube channel
- ↑ "I know there are plans afoot for some mail order only obscure vinyl too, but The Residents were slightly unsure what the demand would be, so this all bodes well. The complete '1-10 (With A Touch Of 11)' tape, the complete 'German Slide' tape, the complete 'Commercial Album' commercials tape (which I think is a mono mix of the album too) and so on..." - Richard Anderson, The Residents Facebook group, March 19th 2019
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "You know, they just dug out the multitrack tapes for Third Reich N Roll and sent me some things they'd done this week. Kind of stripped down versions, and also some versions with the original playing alongside them. A weird different version of 'In A Gadda Davida' too. They sounded great! No idea what their plan is with it, though. Vinyl I think." - Richard Anderson, Ralph Records Facebook group, September 6th 2019
- ↑ Homer Flynn, "Homer Flynn (Spokesperson for The Residents) on WZRD Chicago 88.3FM" on Mixcloud, August 5th 2021
- ↑ The release marks this track as previously unreleased, however it was previously released in its entirety as an RSD MP3 only release in 2010.
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The Third Reich 'n Roll (1976) Side A: "Swastikas on Parade" |
