The Third Reich 'n Roll

The Third Reich 'n Roll
Studio album by The Residents
Released February 1976
Recorded (A Side) October 1974 (B Side) October 1975
Genre Noise rock, avant-garde
Length 35:37
Label Ralph, East Side Digital, Mute
Producer The Residents
The Residents chronology
Meet the Residents (1974) The Third Reich 'n Roll (1976) Fingerprince
(1977)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

The Third Reich 'n Roll is a 1976 album by the U.S. avant-garde rock group The Residents. Their second (officially) released album, it is a parody and satire of pop music and commercials from the 1960s. The work consists of two side-long pastiches of various songs from the period. The liner notes state that approximately 30 songs have been utilised. Some are obvious, while others are almost unrecognizable. It has been suggested that the following is the album's "true" track listing (none of these songs are listed on the album cover):

Swastikas on Parade (recorded 1974):

  1. Let's Twist Again (German version—sampled)
  2. Land of a Thousand Dances
  3. Hanky Panky
  4. A Horse with No Name
  5. Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)[2]
  6. The Letter
  7. Psychotic Reaction
  8. Little Girl
  9. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (German version)[3]
  10. Talk Talk (The Music Machine)
  11. Telstar/Wipe Out

Hitler Was A Vegetarian (recorded 1975):

  1. Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)
  2. 96 Tears
  3. It's My Party
  4. Light My Fire
  5. Ballad of the Green Berets
  6. Yummy Yummy Yummy
  7. Rock Around the Clock[4]/Pushing Too Hard
  8. Good Lovin'
  9. Gloria
  10. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
  11. Sunshine of Your Love
  12. Hey Jude/Sympathy for the Devil

Some of these songs are played simultaneously. America's "A Horse With No Name" is slightly newer than the rest of the hits on the album, but matches The Swinging Medallions' "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" exactly. Vocals from The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" are performed during a guitar solo to the tune of The Beatles' "Hey Jude", and "Telstar" is played simultaneously with "Wipe Out".

The album generated controversy due to its cover art which featured television entertainer Dick Clark in a Nazi uniform holding a carrot while surrounded by swastikas and pictures of a dancing Adolf Hitler in both male and female dress. A version was marketed in the 1980s for German consumption which heavily censored much of the cover art by stamping the word "censored" over every Nazi reference.

The album was originally released on Ralph Records.

In 1980 a Third Reich 'N' Roll Collectors Box was produced in a limited edition of 30 copies of which 25 were released. These came with a hand pressed red marbled vinyl edition of the record with silk screened sleeve and labels, in a velvet-lined black wooden box with a sliding panel featuring hand-screened version of the cover art. Also enclosed are two signed and numbered lithographs by Irene Dogmatic. The entire box was enclosed in a drawstring bag made from a piece of Christo's work "Running Fence".[5]

An ultimate special edition hardbook containing all the original artwork and the full photo-session was released on Mute Records in September 2005.

Track listing

  1. "Swastikas on Parade" – 17:30
  2. "Hitler Was a Vegetarian" – 18:27
  1. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - 4:30 (mono)
  2. "Loser = Weed" - 2:09 (mono)
  3. "Beyond the Valley of a Day in the Life" - 3:56
  4. "Flying" - 3:22

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ The Residents would later recut a full version of this song during the sessions for God in Three Persons as well as incorporate it into the score of Cube-E.
  3. ^ It is widely considered that the use of a horn hit directly from the original King Records 45 of "...Brand New Bag" on Third Reich & Roll is the first ever commercially released record to sample James Brown, predating rap music's adaptations of Brown riffs, beats, and soundbites by about 15 years.
  4. ^ It is disputed by many listeners as to whether this song actually appears on the album; it may equally as validly be assumed to be a version of B. Bumble and the Stingers's 1961 "Bumble Boogie," their (also 1961) "Boogie Woogie," or Jimmy Dorsey's 1957 "J. D.'s Boogie Woogie".
  5. ^ Residents History