Santa Dog

Santa Dog is a double 7" EP and the first official release by Residents, Uninc. (who would become known simply as The Residents three months later). It was issued as the inaugural release on the group's newly-founded record label, Ralph Records,"Santa Dog was The Residents' first pressed record; it represents their 1972 Christmas card, as well as being the first official Ralph Records release." Jay Clem, The Residents Radio Special, 1977 in a limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies on December 20th 1972, with a number of copies sent in the mail to selected recipients (including The Beatles, Frank Zappa and Richard Nixon)."...yes, we did send one to President Nixon and yes, he did refuse it." - Blog by Randy Rose, Maurice and Me, 2016"Santa Dog was a two-record set of 45rpm discs. Now for all of you out there that don't remember 45s, they were these round black things about that big, with a hole in the middle. We recorded Santa Dog at Christmas in 1972, and we sent it out to all of our friends. And a few wannabe friends too. We sent Santa Dog to The Beatles, Frank Zappa, and even President Nixon got one. We didn't get too many thank you notes, but we were having a great time." Randy Rose, "Loser ≅ Weed / Picnic In The Jungle", The Wonder of Weird live at Muziekgebouw Aan Het IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 20th 2013
The two 7" vinyl singles were presented in a silk-screened gatefold package designed to resemble a Christmas card from an insurance company; the EP included four songs, recorded by Residents, Uninc. and friends between October and November, with each song attributed on the labels to a different, apparently fictional, recording group (with the vocalist of each being one of the four members of Residents, Uninc.).Mr. Riggsy's ResTube, "Santa Dog - Res History Ep. 1", YouTube, April 27th 2021
Today, Santa Dog is usually considered by The Residents to be the official beginning of their discography; its tracks have often been reissued on expanded CD versions of their 1974 debut album Meet The Residents. The EP's lead track "Fire" has been regularly re-recorded by The Residents in the years since, with the group using the song as a signifier of their progress and history. 
To date, Santa Dog has only been reprinted once in its original format, in a limited edition in 2014 by label Superior Viaduct; in 1999 the EP was revisited and reprised by The Residents in the form of a compilation album titled Refused. A double LP compilation featuring the original EP with the collected later renditions of "Fire", titled Santa Dog 50th Anniversary Collection, was released by Secret Records in May 2022. 
== History ==
Santa Dog (alongside the group's debut album Meet The Residents) is considered by The Residents to be the first entry in their official catalog of recordings. The group had earlier recorded the demo tape B.S. in 1971 under their newly-adopted moniker, Residents, Uninc., and up to this point, had been a loose assembly of friends with a rotating membership, apparently numbering at five during the recording.The Cryptic Guide to The Residents (Pg. 14) 
Between October and December 1972, the group recorded four songs which were their most elaborate and sophisticated recording efforts to date. The songs were compiled into a double 7" EP, entitled Santa Dog (after a phrase which recurs heavily in the opening song "Fire"). 
For the EP, the group made extensive, prominent and pioneering use of sounds sampled from other records; for instance the bridge of "Fire" samples "Peter Gunn" by The Ventures (taken from the 1967 instructional LP Play Guitar With The Ventures Volume 7), "Explosion" samples "Hunters of Heaven" from the 1968 album of the same name by Japanese musician Harumi, and the rhythm section heard on "Lightning" is sampled from the 1961 recording of Amadeo Roldán's Ritmica no.5 (Tiempo de son) by the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble. 
"Aircraft Damage" was originally written and recorded for the soundtrack of the group's feature film project Vileness Fats. In the film, the song features as a chant used by Arf and Omega to summon the Indian princess Weescoosa in order to help them save the town of Vileness Flats. 
== Cover art ==
The Santa Dog EP consisted of two 7" vinyl singles housed in a gatefold sleeve designed and silk-screened by hand by Homer Flynn, in the guise of his recently founded graphic design company Porno/Graphics."There’s always been an interest in creating cool things. The first Residents release was Santa Dog, a two record set of 45s with silk-screened covers. It’s part of The Residents’ ongoing war with Pop Culture in that they like things to be more individualized and have a sense of being done by a human being, whereas the culture likes everything to be uniform and homogenized." Homer Flynn interviewed by Steven Cerio, Seconds no. 43, 1997 
The EP was intended by Residents, Uninc. to function as their Christmas card for 1972; to this end, the sleeve was designed to look like a Christmas card from an insurance company; apparently this was a reference to the fact that one member of the group had previously sold insurance."Santa Dog - Res History Ep. 1" by Mr. Riggsy's ResTube on YouTube, April 27th 2021 
The album's title and cover art (as well as the lyrics of the EP's lead track "Fire") are derived from a Polaroid photo of a small dog in a Santa Claus costume, which was found by the group in the former dog photography studio which had previously occupied part of their new Sycamore Street headquarters. Each of the four songs appearing on Santa Dog is credited to a different artist (including Ivory and the Brain Eaters, The College Walkers, Arf and Omega with The Singing Lawn Chairs, and The Delta Nudes), with additional fictional songwriting credits for each track. The listed artists and composers are all essentially The Residents, though each track features a different member of the group on lead vocals. 
The inner gatefold included artwork illustrating each song, surrounded by text wishing "Season's Greetings from Residents, Uninc." and announcing the upcoming Vileness Fats film project ("coming soon to a theater near you"). 
== Release ==
Five hundred copies of Santa Dog were pressed. One hundred copies of the gatefold cover had to be discarded due to printing defects, and a further hundred copies of the records were lost in transit (though later recovered).Ralph Records Catalogue No. 1, February 1977 Of the four hundred usable copies, three hundred were sent out to friends, record companies, and anyone else who came to mind. 
Known recipients of Santa Dog included then-President of the United States Richard Nixon, whose copy was returned to the group unopened, stamped "Refused", and Frank Zappa, whose copy was also returned unopened as Zappa no longer lived at that address. Residents, Uninc. are also said to have sent a copy to The Beatles, who at that time had been disbanded for two years; their reception (or lack thereof) of the EP remains unknown to the public record. 
The remaining hundred (still sealed) copies of Santa Dog were sold as collectors items in the first Ralph Records mail-order catalog, printed in February 1977. The Cryptic Corporation recommended in the catalog that "as a collector's piece, [Santa Dog] should remain sealed to retain its greatest value"; to enable this, Ralph Records supplied additional copies of both 7" singles with each package (from the hundred lost but recovered copies). By the time the second issue of the catalog was printed in August, Santa Dog had entirely sold out. 
Some copies of Santa Dog were shrink-wrapped before the varnish on the cover art had dried, causing the two sides of the gatefold to become glued together, with some copies having to be torn apart to be opened. As a result of this, original copies of Santa Dog with undamaged cover art are among the most valuable Residents items on the collectors' market, with prices being known to reach as high as $5000."Santa Dog Box", The Residents' News Machine, October 30th 2019
In 2014 Santa Dog was reissued in its original double 7" format for the first (and, to date, only) time by Superior Viaduct, in a package which closely replicated the original pressing.
=== Santa Dog deluxe box set ===
As of 2019, only seventeen copies of the original pressing of Santa Dog (all from the hundred "orphaned" copies with discarded artwork) remained in the Cryptic archive. 
At the start of the year, wood-burning artist Dustin Edwards (producer of the wooden boxes for the extremely limited edition Classic Vinyl Series Box Set) volunteered to personally produce seventeen handmade wooden boxes to house the coverless Santa Dogs. 
Each set contains the two 7" records housed inside a wooden box with a Santa Dog graphic hand-burned into its lid, which is secured shut with a metal clasp affixed to the bottom side of the box. 
In October 2019 one of these deluxe Santa Dog box sets was sold (to noted collector Jannis Tsakalis)Post by Jannis Tsakalis in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, September 18th 2021 as a crowdfunding premium for The Residents' God in 3 Persons - Live! Indiegogo campaign. In April 2024, the box sets were made available for sale through The Residents' online store, as part of a special sale of archive items.
== Reception ==
=== Contemporary ===
Due to its limited distribution, very few contemporary listener reactions to Santa Dog have survived. Residents, Uninc.'s occasional correspondent Hal Halverstadt (then merchandising director of Warner Bros. Records) responded to the EP, saying he was "stimulated by what sounds like PROGRESS for the guys who comprise Residents, Uninc.", and congratulating them on the opening of their "art factory" and record label.Hal Halverstadt, letter to Residents, Uninc., ca. 1972-1973 
One recipient of the EP, an independent music collector, "Grandpa Gio", reviewed the "strange little recording" for his personal journal in December 1972,"About Gio", Grandpa Gio and The Residents, July 1st 2013 calling Santa Dog "a collection that begins sounding like it could be a radio hit with a bit of work, and slowly delves further away from the mainstream towards the avant garde. But it’s not cowering away from the effort needed to produce pop hits, nor is it all-out rejecting that aspect of music. What is happening is a growing confidence in doing it differently."Grandpa Gio, "Perfection Ends When Life Begins (Santa Dog)", December 22nd 1972
=== Retrospective ===
Santa Dog has an average user rating of 4.63/5 on Discogs,Santa Dog at Discogs and 3.9/5 on Rate Your Music.Santa Dog at Rate Your Music
In his 2010 review,Mark Prindle, "The 'What's New?' Page", Mark's Record Reviews, March 13th 2010 (archived via archive.org) freelance music reviewer Mark Prindle described Santa Dog as four "audio collages composed of catchy musical parts surrounded by avant-garde experimentation", noting that, while too "unstructured" to be "completely satisfying", "it's also one of the few Residents releases that sounds 'natural,' as opposed to synthetic".Mark Prindle, "Santa Dog", Mark's Record Reviews, March 13th 2010
== Legacy ==
As The Residents' first official release, Santa Dog has assumed an important position within their iconography, with the group referring to the EP's imagery repeatedly in the years since its release; it has been noted as "probably the only recording in existence to have a commemorative sponge issued on its anniversary".
"Fire" (aka "Santa Dog") has frequently been revisited by The Residents as a means of marking their musical progression across their career. Initially, they had planned to create a new version of the song every six years, which they began to implement with the recording of "Santa Dog '78", but after a version recorded in 1984 failed to proceed past the demo stage, they decided instead to revisit the track whenever their outlook or musical direction had changed sufficiently to justify a new version.
After this decision, The Residents went on to re-record the track in 1988 and 1992; all of the versions of the song (including the complete original EP) were collected on the 1999 compilation album Refused, which also featured several newly-recorded renditions, and an augmented version of the aborted 1984 demo. Further versions of "Fire" followed in 2006, 2012 and 2017; these three versions were collected on the 2019 Klanggalerie CD reissue of Refused, which excised "Explosion", "Lightning", and "Aircraft Damage" and included a gamelan orchestra version of the song, a 2013 live version, and a version titled "Santa Cow" which had been left off the 1999 edition of the album. 
A 50th Anniversary arrangement, "Santa Dog 2022", was released through mail order as a 7" single in December 2022, and a unique orchestral arrangement was performed at The Residents' 50th Anniversary secret show at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in January 2023. 
=== Santa Dog 50th Anniversary Collection ===
On February 25th 2022, Secret Records announced the release of a double LP compilation, the Santa Dog 50th Anniversary Collection, featuring the four tracks from the original EP as well as every successive version of "Fire" recorded by the group since - similar in concept to the earlier compilation album Refused, which to this point had only been issued on CD. 
The compilation was available in an edition of 350 hand-numbered copies on red and green splattered vinyl, and another 150 copies on white and red "peppermint" splattered vinyl, and was also made available for streaming and digital download from the Secret Records Bandcamp page on the day of its announcement. The album's cover art is a 12" gatefold reproduction of the original 7" EP picture sleeve.
The 50th Anniversary Collection was originally intended to include a newly recorded version of "Fire" titled "Santa Dog 2022", however the album had to be pressed and released early to avoid an anticipated eight month delay in vinyl production, and the song could not be included, instead being issued on a stand-alone mail order only single in December 2022."This was originally proposed to be on the Santa Dog 2xLP that we released but vinyl pressing was claiming 8 months production time so we decided to have separate releases. That's also why the 2xLP ended up getting released early. I didn't want to risk it not being done in time." Secret Records, comment in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, October 27th 2022
==Track listing==
# Ivory and the Brain Eaters - Fire <Sub>(Play)</Sub> (1:43)
# The Delta Nudes - Explosion <Sub>(Gnue)</Sub> (2:15)
# The College Walkers - Lightning <Sub>(Givens)</Sub> (3:17)
#Arf and Omega featuring The Singing Lawn Chairs - Aircraft Damage <Sub>(Barnes/America)</Sub> (3:45)
== Credits ==
* The Ventures appear courtesy of Dolton Records
* The Singing Lawn Chairs appear courtesy of San Mateo County
* "Aircraft Damage" - from the Ralph film "Vileness Fats" coming soon to a theater near you
* Artwork - Porno/Graphics
* Ralph Records and Porno/Graphics are divisions of Residents, Uninc. 18 Sycamore St Bldg SF CA 94110 (415) 863 5896
* © 1972
== Release history ==
Year	Label 	Format	Region	Notes 	Length
1972	Ralph Records 	7" 	US 	 	11:00
1988	East Side Digital 	CD 	US 	Bonus tracks with
Meet The Residents	11:16
1988	Torso 	CD 	NL 	Bonus tracks with
Meet The Residents	11:17
1999	Ralph America 	CD 	US 	Part of Refused	11:12
2009	Birdsong & Hayabusa Landings 	CD 	JP 	Bonus tracks with 
Meet The Residents	11:14
2014	Superior Viaduct 	7" 	US 	 	11:14
2018	New Ralph Too, MVD Audio & Cherry Red	CD 	US 	pREServed - bonus tracks with 
Meet The Residents	11:29
== See also ==
* "Santa Dog '78"
* "Santa Dog '84"
* "Santa Dog 88"
* "Santa Dog '92"
* Refused
* "Santa Dog 17"
* Meet The Residents
== External links and references ==
* Santa Dog at The Residents Historical
* Santa Dog at RZWeb (archived via archive.org)
* Santa Dog at Discogs
Category:EPs and singles
Category:The Delta Nudes
Category:Santa Dog
Category:Christmas
Category:1972
Category:Ralph Samplers
Category:Eiland brothers
Category:Vileness Fats
Category:Albums Produced By Residents, Uninc.
Category:Arf and Omega Berry
Category:Rare Releases