Talk:Santa Dog

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Notes From Ralph

"The 1972 two disk "single" Santa Dog, supposedly about "a weiner dog in a Santa suit" and with a title that's an anagram of "Satan God", was the first published recording by The Residents.

The package was the founding release from Ralph Records and consisted of two 45s in a hand silk-screened gatefold sleeve which was printed to look like a Christmas card from an insurance company. This sleeve included '50s-ish drawings illustrating each song surrounded by text saying "Season's Greetings from Residents Uninc." and announcing the upcoming Vileness Fats project. 500 copies were pressed but only 400 were usable because of various problems. In addition, some of the sets were shrink-wrapped before the varnish on the silk-screening was dry and the packages had to be torn apart to be opened. Of the 400 usable copies, 300 were sent out to friends, record companies, and anyone else who came to mind. Richard Nixon was sent a copy, as was Frank Zappa, whose copy was returned "No Longer At Address" and was later given away in a contest.

In 2014 the original single was recreated by Superior Viaduct."

- Santa Dog at The Residents Historical

ImaginaryJacques _(Admin) 💀 (talk) 10:44, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

"[Ralph had] probably about twenty [copies of Santa Dog remaining at Grove Street by late 1979]. But... it was a nightmare project for them, because... they really didn't have no idea what they were doing, so... they pressed all this stuff, but then they shellacked everything, and... you can't shellac things and then shrink-wrap things, so... they destroyed so much stuff putting them together, and that's why it's really hard to get a pristine original Santa Dog picture sleeve... when you take it and separate it, you know, like a gatefold thing, it's usually always ripped on the inside, because of the varnish, you know, and the way it didn't dry correct, and then it got wrapped... And then they were never sent out correct, either, you know. They didn't ship them in mailers, you know, they didn't have no idea what a mailer was, so... Some of them got shipped in envelopes, but some of them only just got a sticker put on the outside of it... Not a very good way to send a record in those days, because, you know, they put a piano on top of it, you know, forget about it... That's why... very few really exist... It was like a nightmare. Everything had to be a nightmare... Like I said, I wasn't there, but I heard all the stories about it... and how it was just a hard and tiring project to do..."

- Tom Timony, "Ep 137: Ralph Records with Tom Timony", The Vinyl Guide, September 10th 2018

ImaginaryJacques _(Admin) 💀 (talk) 16:42, 23 June 2023 (UTC)