Since I actually discovered them through my love for the Beatles.. I will have to go with ANY of their beatles-beat-ups like 'Flying' or that mutilation of the Human Beinz's 'Nobody but You' on Meet The Residents.. They ROCK hardest when they fuck with classic rock music!!

Blue Rosebuds is their best song. Amazing poetry, sad and creepy music, tinged with bitterness and remorse.

This is a really difficult question to answer...there are sections on "Not Available" and "Fingerprince" that I get lost in...it's like the wardrobe to Narnia - I climb into the sounds and go somewhere else. I couldn't point out the specific pieces of music that do this - I'd just have to give you the discs and let you find your own way through 'em...!

First, I'd have to list "Hello Skinny", since that's the song that got me hooked sometime in the 80's.

"Death in Barstow" makes my list because of the story behind it. Last summer I was driving through Barstow, yes, a godawful place. I decided to pop in my Fingerprints CD and play "Death in Barstow" over and over until I was out of Barstow. Well, I must have disturbed ye grand spirit of Barstow....just as I was past the last exit for Barstow my car started shaking...I rolled down the window, and sure enough, a flat tire. (This tire was pretty new). Changing a tire on theside of Hwy 15 at 11pm isn't fun. It's all Semi's whizzing past you....whew....

"Santa Dog '78". I just love this version.

I just love ALL of "Not Available" and "Eskimo".

"Firefall" and "Kill Him!" from Wormwood are great...a good website to go along with that album is: www.alternativebiblestories.com/

I like the live version of Kawliga. And the live version of that song from Freakshow on the Residents Tribute CD: "Eyesore". Which song was that?

hm...if I could just say just about everything from the Commercial Album and before was GREAT, after that things are a little spotty...

so...what do people think their worst album is? (Sorry, to offend anyone of the disposition that the Residents have never done anything bad). I'd have to say far and away, it's "The Big Bubble"! Why did they ever release that??? I've owned it for well over 10 years and I don't think I've ever listened to the whole thing once.

The two that get me are tied to memories of their live shows.

When the Residents played the 13th anniversary show at the Warfield my friends and I walked in to Snakefinger playing accordian, seriously bizarre synth chords by Mr Skull, and the singer crooning "Jambalaya!" One of the creepiest/coolest moments of my concert-going life!

The other was during the Cube-E show in the SF marina when they did "Engine 44" and musically recreated a locomotive plowing through the theater! The singer and some dancers acted as train signals and the entire theater was filled with noise, smoke, and flashing signal lights as the "train" passed by.

Fucking amazing!!

A postscript to that last bit was that the electric mandolin/keyboard player was so good that I thought it must have been Nash the Slash! I never found out the truth (and likely never will, nor trust it if I get it) but I love the idea of him and the Residents working together.

Sapphire

Gawd, it would be nearly impossible for me to pick just ONE favorite Residents tune. However...for many years, I've made a point of listening to "Birthday Boy" (from "Duck Stab/Buster & Glen") on my birthday. I'm also partial to many cuts on "The Commercial Album" ("I Wanted To Give It To Someone Else!"), and "Goosebumps"...

all of not available....on heroic dose of mushrooms

I've got several.

I think the title track to "Demons Dance Alone" is amazing, and the various versions of it they did live for that tour were all incredible.

"Amber" off the commercial album is great, as is "Loss of Innocence", though that song has been worked and reworked by the Residents to the point that I almost think of it as a 'standard'.

The Snakey Wake is a piece of music that means a lot to me, as much for the quality of it as the meaning behind it.

Third Reich n Roll, Ive heard the music to it in other songs, but was it the Residents that originally did the sung-a-lung section in it. Icky Flix was one of the all time great DVDs in my collection.