Prelude To "The Teds"

Prelude To "The Teds" is a 1993 EP by The Residents, released as the August 1993 instalmlent in They Might Be Giants' Hello Recording Club series of limited releases.
The EP was later reissued in 1997 on the Our Poor, Our Tired, Our Huddled Masses special edition, and in 2014 by MVD Audio, alongside the 2004 digital release The 12 Days of Brumalia. This release also features an otherwise-unrelated remix, "Boneless Boy", as a bonus track.
== History ==
Prelude To "The Teds" was commissioned in 1993 by known Residents fans They Might Be Giants, for their series of short, mail-order CD releases, the Hello Recording Club. 
The EP contained material teasing their in progress film project 'The Teds', which was being developed with David Lynch at the time. The actual songs are made up from unused tracks from their latest album 'Our Finest Flowers'."Prelude to The Teds came about with the joining of a couple of different things. First, and probably most important, They Might Be Giants "commissioned" a piece for a CD series they were doing. We had some left over music sketches from Our Finest Flowers which had not been used for that project plus we had some ideas to shape into lyrics for a project called The Teds about two guys that together made one person. We saw an opportunity to test some Ted ideas so we took the opportunity to combine these three things into "Prelude to the Teds."
It turned out much better than anticipated." - Hardy Fox, Hacienda Bridge newsletter
 The outtake 'I Can't Get No Spot' (which combines The Spot with Satisfaction) is used as the basis for The Cry Of a Crow, and Struggle is speculated to have originated out of a re-working of 'My Second Wife'. The EP was intended by The Residents to function as a "test" for the eventual Teds project, but the full project was never realized. Despite this, Fox felt that the Prelude To "The Teds" EP turned out "much better than anticipated".
=== Legacy ===
For such an obscure release, Prelude to The Teds is oddly prevalent in the group's career. The earliest fruit form The Ted's seeds is the song 'The Confused Transexual' which adapts the lyrics of the song The Cry of A Crow to fit the Gingerbread Man concept. A music video for the song Teddy was created around 2003, and in 2006 a RMX version was created and included on the RMX album. During The Residents' 40th anniversary tour, half of the EP was performed, with 'Teddy' and 'Struggle' appearing.
== Track listing ==
# Teddy (3:57)
# I Tried To Cry (2:03)
# The Cry Of A Crow (3:21)
# Struggle (2:53)
== Credits ==
*Written & Performed By: The Residents
*Published By: Pale Pachyderm Publishing
*Produced By: The Cryptic Corporation
*(P): The Cryptic Corporation
== Release History ==
Year	Label 	Format	Region 	Note
1993	Hello Recording Club 	CD 	USA 	
1997	Euro Ralph 	CD 	Europe 	As part of 'Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses' box-set
1997	Bomba Records 	CD 	Japan 	As part of 'Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses' box-set
2001	Ralph America 	CD 	USA 	On the 'Roosevelt 2.0' compilation
2014	MVD Audio 	CD 	USA 	Bonus tracks on The 12 Days Of Brumalia CD.
2021	Cherry Red , New Ralph Too	CD 	US / EU	Included on Gingberbread Man pREServed
== See also ==
* The Teds
* The 12 Days of Brumalia
* Ted (Bad Day On The Midway)
* Ted (song)
== Buy or Die ==
*Gingerbread Man / Hunters / Prelude to the Teds at MVDShop
*Gingerbread Man / Hunters / Prelude to the Teds at Cherry Red Records
*The 12 Days of Brumalia + Prelude to The Teds at the MVDShop.
==External links and references==
*Prelude To "The Teds" at RZWeb
*Prelude To "The Teds" at Discogs
*The 12 Days of Brumalia + Prelude To "The Teds" at Discogs
Category:EPs and singles
Category:Prelude To "The Teds"
Category:The Teds
Category:1993