Duck Stab(1977)OverviewTracksLyricsUncle Willie
Duck Stab started life in February, 1978, as a seven-song EP. It featured songs sung clearly, with understandable (if nonsensical) lyrics -- a first for The Residents. The EP was a runaway success, selling out the first pressing very quickly. The band had to press more, which for them was very unusual.
Unfortunately, the sound quality of the EP was poor because The Residents had tried to squeeze sixteen minutes of music onto the record. The band decided to re-release the songs in an album in order to improve the sound. They took a similar, unreleased EP called Buster & Glen and made it into side two of the new album. Duck Stab / Buster & Glen was released the following November, and was later renamed as simply Duck Stab.
The album was as big a success. It was also a critical success thanks to the accessibility of the music and the clever, Lewis Carroll-flavoured lyrics (not to mention Snakefinger's amazing guitar work).
- Laughing Song
- Blue Rosebuds
- Constantinople
- The Booker Tease
- Sinister Exaggerator
- Bach Is Dead
- Elvis and His Boss
Expand allLaughing Song
An oily ole egg with a red peg leg
Thought a porquepine was his daughter.
But he soon found out
that she had the gout,
And often would wink underwater.
A red red rose saw a big pig pose
On the edge of a silver dollar.
The end of his tail
Was a long necked nail.
In place of his face was a scholar.
Blue Rosebuds
I love you and cause I do
My skies have changed
From grey to blue.
But blue's not just
A color of the rainbow.
It's shade is not a hazy hue
But pure and hard
My blue sky blue
It's like a Roman candle
Coming rosebuds.
"Your words are empty hollow bleatings
Of a mental crutch.
They're open festered indigestion
With a velvet touch
An ether eating Eskimo
Would gag upon your sight,
Convulsed into oblivion
from laughter or from fright.
A coma with a sweet aroma
Is your only dream,
Malignant with the
misconception
That a grunt can gleam.
Your lichen covered corpuscles
Are filthy as a fist.
Infection is your finest flower
Mildewed in the mist."
I love you and cause I do
My skies have changed
From grey to blue.
But blue's not just
A color of the rainbow.
It's shade is not a hazy hue
But pure and hard
My blue sky blue
It's like a Roman candle
Coming rosebuds.
Blue Rosebuds.
Constantinople
Here I come, Constantinople.
Here I come, Constantinople.
I am coming, Constantinople,
Here I come.
All the leaves are off of the oak and
All of the sheep have followed the spoken
Word. I'm coming
Constantinople.
Here I come.
So I stand out in the open.
All my friends are with you I hope and
Pray. I'm coming Constantinople.
Here I come.
Here I come, Constantinople.
Here I come, Constantinople.
I am coming, Constantinople,
Here I come.
The Booker Tease
Instrumental
Sinister Exaggerator
Your life is leaning downhill
Sloping off the outer edge.
Your undetermined oyster beds
Were found to be a hedge.
You case the kids of Elmer Fudd
To feed the farmer whose
Cadaver's filled with onion rings
And feet are filled with glue.
Now Sinister Exaggerator,
What's your claim to fame?
Is still your favorite Ferlinghetti
Found in Auntie Maim?
Your alter life is superceded
Only from above.
Your heart is like a silken sponge
That calls saliva love.
Bach is Dead
Walking women want to see
The Southern Cross at night.
And so they set aside a sock
And tie their laces tight.
Yes, mournful is the melody
That echoes in their heads.
Without a beat they march along
Believing Bach is dead.
Elvis and His Boss
Oh, I'm gonna be my baby, baby
Baby, but you see.
My mamma said
My mamma said
My mamma said to me
"My son I see the Sunset lies
About a baby bee."
So if you see me
I'll be standing
Out on ole Broadway.
Amused, abused, but not confused,
I'm making my own way.
Straight to the top
I'll never stop
I'll die before my day.
Duck Stab is the seven-song EP that lifted many people across the country out of the slumber of the Seventies. Never before had we heard such words, such rhymes, such rhythms, and such instruments whose origins were unknown.
This EP stands out in contrast to The Residents' earlier albums. The songs are short and concise. The misty veil has been lifted, revealing clear lyrics which are well crafted to a fanciful perfection. The music, complex and commanding, cooperates with the lyrics to create a most startling and vivid world.
After Duck Stab was released in February of '78, the follow-up EP, Buster & Glen, was added to it to form a single album, which was later released in November of that year.
Musically, it's difficult to describe this diverse album. There is the silky, seductive, and murky aspect which appears on "Blue Rosebuds" where the music creates a supporting liquid background upon which the lyrics float. As found on most of the album, there is a balance between the music and the lyrics. They never step on each other as they take turns moving in and out of the foreground.
There are many moments when the music brings itself into the foreground. A fine one, is the hypnotic and sparkling metallic percussion sequence which occurs three times on "Elvis And His Boss". Another, is the percolating bass and percussion on "The Laughing Song".
Special notice should be paid to the supreme sensual mastery of the analog electronics on "Krafty Cheese". Due to the primitive technology available at the time, it required great skill and patience to synthesize these sounds. In addition, The Residents possessed a certain artistic sensibility which allowed them to create sounds which were distinctively their own.
The lyrics play a very dominant role on this album. They are like rhyming instruments that project pictures before our eyes. There is a style emerging in the imagery and particularly in the rhythm of the lyrics. The Residents use words for the sake of their sounds, for the images they create, and for how they feel when leaving the tongue. Who could tamper with the following verses?
An oily ole egg with a red peg leg Thought a porcupine was his daughter.
A red red rose saw a big pig pose On the edge of a silver dollar. - Laughing Song
Skinny found a "Hello Dolly" Record in the hall. He sold it to a truck driver In the fall. - Hello Skinny
Every word is perfect. The images created are strong, and the words that were lucky enough to have been chosen may not themselves understand why they were. Why is it important that we know where he found the record? And why should we care in what season he sold it, or that he sold it at all?
Duck Stab represents the crystallization of a style. A style which will re-emerge, fully developed, on the Commercial Album.
- David Willenbrink
