Author Topic: SANTA DOG '72 (Project of the Week for 18th of December)  (Read 421 times)

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Meisekimiu

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SANTA DOG '72 (Project of the Week for 18th of December)
« on: December 18, 2017, 11:00:21 am »
Ho! Ho! Ho! In the beginning, there was... SANTA DOG! And perfection ends when life begins.

(Please keep discussion mainly to Santa Dog '72... we'll have plenty of time to discuss the other dogs later)
レジデンツはほとんど日本人だけど、誰も知らない。

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goatie

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The first Meet The Residents CD had the original Santa Dog as bonus tracks, and that's how I first heard it (other than the short samples of each Dog on RzWeb).  This was among my first batch of Rz albums, and I distinctly remember liking Santa Dog more than the album.  (I suppose I still do, but back then I know my feelings on Meet were "well, I like that piano piece in the middle but not much else."  These days I like a few more songs.)

I suppose I was struck most by the sharp contrast in musical ability.  Santa Dog is so much more competent, and knowing it was from a year or two earlier made me think they had taken a step backwards (this was way before I learned that much of Santa Dog is sampled, so of course the musicianship is better).  I had also heard about some mysterious four unreleased albums, and I figured that's what Meet was: a compilation of the best(?) bits from those, because they had to get an album out and they had nothing.  But I digress, let's talk some dogs...

"Fire" is pure and lovely, and nobody can take that away (not even if you retool it to be a theme song for a Comedy Central cartoon).  Surfy goodness that's sure to please everybody.  Fun fact: I was in a high school play and they wanted cast members to get on the PA system in the morning to advertise it over the course of a week, so I wrote new lyrics to "Fire" and sang it with two friends for the whole school.  We weren't asked back. 

"Explosion" and "Lightning" have had their names swapped on different releases, so I honestly don't know which is which.  But I like them both, with the one with groovy organ to percussion to "when everyone lives in the future" edging out as my preferred track.  It's very often randomly playing in my head (that and "Smokebeams" from Tunes of Two Cities seem to be my default internal soundtrack).

And as for "Aircraft Damage" - this is our first real taste of how The Residents love to play with the sounds and rhythm of language.  This really appealed to me at the time, and while it's probably not responsible for my degree in Linguistics, The Residents and I were definitely kindred spirits, just separated by a quarter century of time.  Oh, if only I'd known you way back when... I'd have been running your website for over 20 years now.  Yikes.
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moleshow

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for a while, i refused to get through the entirety of Santa Dog- im not sure why. i would get through Fire, and think "yeah thats enough of that".

that being said, there is some really fun and beautiful stuff that happens on the other tracks. i think in skipping them, stuff like Our Finest Flowers made a whole lot less sense. like, Kick A Cat? why would i do that? wheres that from?

it's interesting to see how a lot of the musical techniques used are consistently present in their later works, too. unfortunately, Santa Dog really doesn't hold any amazing personal meaning for me. but maybe someday it will.
"All our lives we love illusion, neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive."

Meisekimiu

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I really dig the original Santa Dog. It's just a quick bit of early Rz goodness. My favorite part is the "when everyone lives in the future, the present is au revoir" part. Something about the way everything sounds in that part just sort of sums up what I like in music. I don't actually listen to Santa Dog that much though... I try to keep at least Santa Dog '72 exclusively a Christmas track.

Random note. I actually just listened to Santa Dog the other day after waking up hungover from a fun Christmas party and... boy was it irritating in that state! Is that what Santa Dog sounds like to people who have "normal" taste in music?!
レジデンツはほとんど日本人だけど、誰も知らない。
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