The Warner Bros. Album is a demo tape recorded in 1971, before The Residents agreed on a band name. It served as the group's attempt to get signed to a major label (Warner Bros. Records, specifically).
Despite having never been officially released by the band in its entire original format, The Warner Bros. Album was first broadcast to the public on KBOO-FM radio in Portland, Oregon, during a Residents-themed radio festival in 1977. The tape can be easily found on the Internet.
Legacy
In hopes of gaining bigger exposure, the tape was mailed anonymously to Hal Halverstadt, at Warner Bros. Records, who had worked with Captain Beefheart, to which the group held great admiration.
According to Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, Halverstadt was not overly impressed with the tape (describing it as "okay at best"), but awarded it an "A for Ariginality." The tape was returned, and addressed to "Residents, 20 Sycamore St., San Francisco," giving the group a name idea for their band, which first presented itself as "Residents Uninc,." and a few years later as "The Residents."
Track listing
- Strawberry Fields Forever (Lennon-McCartney)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany
- Baby Skeletons & Dogs
- Bop Bop (Shoobop Bop)
- Stuffed Genital
- Every Day I Masturbate on A Merican Fag
- Oh Mommy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See that it's True?
- Baby Skeletons & Dogs (reprise)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (reprise)
- Love & Peace
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (reprise)
- Black Velvet Original
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (reprise)
- Christmas Morning Foto
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (reprise)
- In the Still of the Night
- Maggie's Farm (B. Dylan)
- Snot and Feces: Live at the Grunt Festival
- Sweet Meat
- Oh Yeah Uhh Bop Shoobop
- Ohm is Where the Art is
- Concerto in R Flat Minor
- Gagagapiggaeioupe
- Sell American
- Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture
- Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone and French Horn
- Oh God You're a Pie in the Sky
- Short Circuit Comes to Town
- Marching Toward AEIOU Blues
- In the Still of the Night Again
- (unknown title)
- Oh Mommy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See that it's True Again
- Art the White Elephant
- Psychedelic and Orgasmic Finale
Other appearances
- In 2004, a remix album of the entire tape, WB:RMX, was released by The Cryptic Corporation as a response to the increasing demand for the original tape's release, which spawned various unauthorized bootleg recordings on the Internet.
- ERA B4-74 - "Mad Sawmill" (Tracks 11-15), "Sweet Meat" (as "Goodbye Lover"), "Maggie's Farm"
- The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss - "Baby Skeletons & Dogs" (Tracks 3-5), "Mad Sawmill" (Tracks 11-15), "Sweet Meat" (as "Goodbye Lover"), "Maggie's Farm"
- It is possible that "Sell American" was sampled in the track "Pink," found in the Chicken Scratching with The Residents compilation, sold in the 2010 Talking Light tour. Arguably, it could have been a WB:RMX outtake.