Duck Stab/Buster & Glen

Duck Stab/Buster & Glen
Studio album by the Residents
Released	November 30, 1978
Recorded	October 1977 – August 1978
Genre	Experimental rock
Length	33:30
Label	Ralph East Side Digital
Producer	The Residents
The Residents chronology
Not Available (1978) Duck Stab/Buster & Glen (1978) Eskimo (1979)
Buster & Glen cover

Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen, later renamed Duck Stab, is the fifth studio album by American art rock group the Residents, released in November 1978.

It is named after the first side of the album, Duck Stab!, a seven-song EP released earlier in 1978; Buster & Glen, the B-side of the album, was intended to follow Duck Stab!. After the first pressing of Duck Stab! quickly sold out, which was an oddity for the band, they decided to re-release it as one side of an album, with the unreleased Buster and Glen as side two. This was also in part due to the poor audio quality of the original Duck Stab! EP. ^[1]

The shorter length of the songs made the album more accessible for fans who had recently heard the band's cover of "Satisfaction", and songs like "Constantinople" and "Hello Skinny" helped cement the band's cult following. Some^{[ who? ]} noted that the Residents were approaching commercial elements with this EP, but they were purposefully avoiding others, such as a traditional chorus/verse structure. ^[2] This album features guitar by Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Christgau's Record Guide	A− [4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[5]
The Great Rock Discography	7/10 [6]
The Independent	[7]
MusicHound Rock	[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10 [10]

Duck Stab was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . ^[11] In 2018, Andy Gill of The Independent wrote that "as nursery rhymes, [the songs on Duck Stab] blend the sinister with the simple; and as cartoons, they’re the musical equivalent of Tex Avery, constantly playing with their medium and breaking the frame." ^[7]

Track listing

All tracks written and composed by the Residents, except "Sinister Exaggerator" by the Residents and Snakefinger.

Side one: Duck Stab

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Constantinople"	2:23
2.	"Sinister Exaggerator"	3:28
3.	"The Booker Tease"	1:04
4.	"Blue Rosebuds"	3:08
5.	"Laughing Song"	2:12
6.	"Bach Is Dead"	1:12
7.	"Elvis and His Boss"	2:29
Total length:		14:56

Side two: Buster & Glen

No.	Title	Length
8.	"Lizard Lady"	1:54
9.	"Semolina"	2:48
10.	"Birthday Boy"	2:41
11.	"Weight-Lifting Lulu"	3:11
12.	"Krafty Cheese"	1:59
13.	"Hello Skinny"	2:41
14.	"The Electrocutioner"	3:20
Total length:		18:34

1987 CD bonus tracks

Tracks 15–18 taken from the 1980 EP Diskomo/Goosebump.

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Disaster"	3:48
16.	"Plants"	3:14
17.	"Farmers"	5:27
18.	"Twinkle"	1:58
Total length:		49:04

2018 pREServed edition

Disc One

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Guylum Bardot '78"	1:07
16.	"Soulful Sax"	2:20
17.	"Ow Boutthat"	0:50
18.	"When Johnny Comes Marching"	1:37
19.	"Unlisted"	2:00
20.	"Santa Dog '78"	1:52
Total length:		44:16

Disc Two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Bach is Dead (1982 rehearsal)"	1:21
2.	"Birthday Boy (1982 rehearsal)"	3:42
3.	"Constantinople (1982 rehearsal)"	2:11
4.	"DS / BaG suite (Tromsø, inconvenienced, 1986)"	13:22
5.	"Semolina (live 1986)"	3:56
6.	"Hello Skinny ( Icky Flix version)"	3:06
7.	"Constantinople (Icky Flix version)"	2:28
8.	"Lizard Lady / Hello Skinny (live 2005)"	5:10
9.	"Semolina (live 2011)"	3:47
10.	"Lizard Lady (live 2011)"	3:42
11.	"Blue Rosebuds (live 2014)"	3:08
12.	"Weight-Lifting Lulu (live 2014)"	3:30
13.	"Blue Rosebuds RMX"	3:24
14.	"The Booker Tease (re-imagined)"	2:24
15.	"Weight-Lifting Lulu (re-imagined)"	3:17
16.	"Constantinople (Adobe)"	1:55
17.	"Bach is Dead (re-imagined)"	2:26
18.	"Laughing Song (re-imagined)"	2:23
19.	"The Electrocutioner (re-imagined)"	2:39
20.	"Hello Skinny (re-imagined)"	4:04
Total length:		1:11:51

Personnel

• The Residents – arranger, producer
• Snakefinger – vocals, electric guitar
• Ruby – vocals on "The Electrocutioner"
• G. Whifler – photography
• Pore No Graphics – cover art

Covers

• "Blue Rosebuds" was covered by Shock Headed Peters on the compilation album Devastate to Liberate in December 1985.
• Primus released a medley of the songs "Hello Skinny" and "Constantinople" on the Caroline Records compilation promotional CD On the Nineties Tip... in 1990, and included it as a bonus track on the 2002 reissue of Frizzle Fry . Shortly afterwards, they covered "Sinister Exaggerator" on their 1992 EP Miscellaneous Debris . In the UK, it was on the CD single "Making Plans for Nigel (Cheesy EP 2)".
• "Bach is Dead" was covered by Idiot Flesh on their 1997 album Fancy .
• "Hello Skinny" and "The Electrocutioner" was covered by Flat Earth Society on their 2000 album Bonk.
• Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People covered "Blue Rosebuds" on their 2010 album The Sacred Prune of Remembrance.

References

1. "Historical - The Residents: Duck Stab" . Retrieved May 14, 2018.
2. gio80. "The Seeds That Turn Into Tomorrow (Duck Stab!) | Grandpa Gio and The Residents" . Retrieved June 7, 2019.
3. McCarthy, Kieran. Duck Stab/Buster & Glen at AllMusic
4. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: R". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved March 10, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
5. Larkin, Colin (2007). "Residents". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music . Vol. 6 (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p.  859. ISBN   978-1-84609-856-7.
6. Strong, Martin C. (2004). "Residents". The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Canongate Books. p.  1281. ISBN   1-84195-615-5.
7. Gill, Andy (March 15, 2018). "The Residents, Duck Stab/Buster & Glen". Reviews. The Independent.
8. Faubert, Shane (1999). "Residents". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. pp.  937–38. ISBN   1-57859-061-2.
9. Coleman, Mark (1992). "The Residents". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. pp.  587–88. ISBN   0-679-73729-4.
10. Salamon, Jeff (1995). "The Residents". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp.  332–34. ISBN   0-679-75574-8.
11. Blacklock, Mark (2006). "The Residents: Duck Stab/Buster & Glen". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p.  405. ISBN   978-0-7893-1371-3.