Santa Dog (aka
FIRE)
Santa Dog '78
Santa Dog '84 (unfinished)
Santa Dog '88
SANTA DOG '88
Special Release
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Santa Dog (aka
FIRE) |
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1972's Santa Dog had been the Residents' (and Ralph Records') first release. Six years later, they released "Santa Dog '78." It seemed only natural to record "Santa Dog" again after another six-year interval; however, after completing only the basic track, the Residents canceled the record. They decided that "Santa Dog" (more specifically, "Fire") should only be reinterpreted when the Residents had developed a new sound.
That creative decision bore fruit in 1988, when the "Santa Dog '88" was distributed for free to every member of the Residents' official fan club, Uncle Willie's Eyeball Buddies (UWEB), as a "Welcome aboard" token. This premium release did retain the tradition started by "'78" of including every previous "Santa Dog." As it happened, that included the unfinished "Santa Dog '84."
RATING: 7
It was a tough call between 7 and 8 for this one. If you'd asked me yesterday, it would have been the 8. But I took back one point to honor the Hebrew God whose ark this is.
No, not really. You see, the leap between God in Three Persons and Cube-E was far wider than I realized, and for a while I thought that "Santa Dog '88" was the perfect transition between them.
This, for example, is the touchstone for Cube-E's MIDI sound. Here it's less interesting, sounding more like over-computerized piano, but their approach is impressive. It's rhythmic, melodic, and really almost sneers at you. The rhythm is almost enough to turn it into a weird funeral march, but then there's that attitude to make it more like a mockery of a funeral march (dig that "Auld Lang Syne" at the beginning). The Residents' chanting of the lyric is in a more exaggerated drawl this time out: "Sayanna Dawg's a Jayzus Faytus...." Maybe it's just done to sound like they're goading you; if so, it works. So this "Santa Dog" is a taunt, but it's very good, and makes the group's point about "Santa Dog" as a stylistic milemarker.
I was wrong, though, about the bridge of the two sounds. Because while "Santa Dog '88" captures the droney minor keys of God in Three Persons, it has no use for that project's considerable subtlety or melody. The stormy ambience just is not there. That's why it lost the point. But it's still really cool.
Oh, I should say a word or two about Unfinished '84. It's fantastically produced, the organs and synths are cool, and the Residents pour more into the actual melody than they ever had. Even in '72. Still, they were right: it's got nothing special to offer, no insights, and overall sounds like an outtake from Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?
"'84" gets a 6. "'88" gets a high 7: the musical raspberry (sardonic even for the Residents) seems pretty ugly to listen to, at first, but the stylistics of it override the rudeness.
Eventually.
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