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The exclamation mark‽[]
So, yeah, the sticker that was on the shrink wrap of the EP has an "!". However the center label and the back cover don't. The 1987 ESD CD release doesn't. Anything using the original cover art - like all of
MVD Audio – NRT005, Cherry Red – NRT005, New Ralph Too – NRT005
Series: The Residents pREServed
don't.
Only the '78 LP cover (and subsequent releases based on it) does, and even then the track listing and the small print there don't.
(Of the 37 covers pictured on [[1]], 28 use the original (some with the sticker still in place), 5 use the '78 LP art, and the rest... are different in various ways)
I'd argue that there shouldn't be a "!" in the name of the album.
Jbsegal (talk) 17:52, 22 August 2021 (UTC)
- The titling of Duck Stab! has been quite inconsistent since the original release, especially where Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen is concerned - this is pretty common for a number of Residents releases (Commercial Album vs. The Commercial Album etc.). We tend to follow the Discogs way of doing things and present the titles as they were printed on the cover art but even this isn't a super solid rule. Personally though, I'm in favor of the Duck Stab! titles retaining the exclamation mark (also present in Duck Stab! Alive!). ImaginaryJacques (Admin) 💀 (talk) 13:08, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
Notes From Ralph[]
"DUCK STAB is the most accessible Residents record, period.
This 7 inch EP is surprising everyone who had The Residents pegged as just "weird". The Residents explained that they did not work to please any faction, whether they be serious avants or blatant MoR's. They just do what they do, and do it the best that they can.
Imagining how DUCK STAB could have possibly been done better, would be difficult, indeed!"
- Buy Or Die!, February 1978
"When Eskimo had run into one of its many problems back in late 1977, The Residents saw that the planned release date was impossible.
They agreed to release two new EP discs - one for the Spring and one for the Fall - in order to work on on Eskimo. So Duck Stab was introduction in February of '78.
As it turned out, the handling and manufacture of the Duck Stab EP proved that EP's are too awkward and expensive for marketing efficacy. Therefore, the two EP's are now Siamese twins, forever locked in a 12 inch format."
- Buy Or Die!, February 1979
"A 7 Inch 33 1/2 rpm EP of material recorded in a lull of new material and as a break from routine during the ESKIMO sessions. Original pressings (distinguishable by shiny coated stock used on labels) were of inferior quality. Copies of this release were marked alone and in sealed packages with a folded 2 color poster & matching t-shirt with font & back designs. 20,000 copies pressed."
- The W.E.I.R.D. Complete Discography & Recording History, 1979
"DUCK STAB was recorded and released to alleviate the lack of recent Residents output created by the ESKIMO album, which by this time was almost two years old, and still remained unfinished. DUCK STAB was surprising to everyone who had simply labelled The Residents as "too weird" -- the tunes were catchy and snappy, and even got some radio airplay. In addition, the lyrics to all the songs are printed on the back cover, making the record unique among all the currently-produced Residents recordings. The front cover does not picture a real duck, as some animal lovers had feared at the time.
The record was intended to be the first of two EPs to be released in 1978; but it was soon discovered that the sound quality of DUCK STAB was only mediocre, as the recording contained too much musical material (over 16 minutes) for a 7" release. The EP was also quite difficult to market, and it did not sell very well.
Consequently, DUCK STAB was simply combined with the unreleased material intended for the other EP to later form the DUCK STAB / BUSTER AND GLEN album.
The first pressings of DUCK STAB (2,500 copies) had bright, coated stock record labels, and were of inferior sound quality. Later pressings (12,500 copies total) had duller matte stock labels, and were marginally improved. The first 750 of these later copies were packaged in a special "promo gift pack' , consisting of a Duck Stab T-shirt and poster, along with the EP. The record was then sold separately, and was soon phased out after the DUCK STAB / BUSTER AND GLEN album was released. Upon moving from Grove Street, Ralph Records unearthed a few boxes of the records (which had been lost), and the EP was again offered for sale, until the new-found supply was exhausted.
In general, Ralph was very careless with the DUCK STAB records, having been disillusioned with the below-par sound quality of the recording. Many copies were lost, broken, warped, and destroyed for various reasons; because of this, how many records still exist will always remain a mystery. (perhaps 6000-9000.)
In 1978, Ralph also pressed six 1-sided copies of DUCK STAB on 12" clear vinyl. The other side (which was blank) was to be silkscreened with some type of design -- probably the album cover -- but the project was never completed. Most of these ultra-rare albums reside in the Cryptic Corporation archives."
Cosmichobo1 (Admin) (talk) 15:34, February 18 2023
Duck Stab started life in February, 1978, as a seven-song EP. It featured songs sung clearly, with understandable (if nonsensical) lyrics -- a first for The Residents. The EP was a runaway success, selling out the first pressing very quickly. The band had to press more, which for them was very unusual.
Unfortunately, the sound quality of the EP was poor because The Residents had tried to squeeze sixteen minutes of music onto the record. The band decided to re-release the songs in an album in order to improve the sound. They took a similar, unreleased EP called Buster & Glen and made it into side two of the new album. Duck Stab / Buster & Glen was released the following November, and was later renamed as simply Duck Stab.
The album was as big a success. It was also a critical success thanks to the accessibility of the music and the clever, Lewis Carroll-flavoured lyrics (not to mention Snakefinger's amazing guitar work).
"I think it just has a lot of elements that sort of clicked for people. You know, it was done really in a very sort of casual, off-hand way. I mean, a lot of The Residents' projects can have a certain feeling of self-importance about them, or even be seen as pretentious, I suppose. And you know, The Residents really believed that if you don't... attach a certain level of importance to what you do, well then why bother? So really Duck Stab! was created a lot because of Ralph Records and The Cryptic Corporation felt like we needed new Residents product. And you know, they were working on Eskimo... it took four years to create Eskimo. And so, you know, that's a long time for a record company to go without any cash flow, or without much cash flow... And we knew that The Residents had some fragments of songs that they had been playing around with during breaks in Eskimo and stuff like that. So ultimately we told them, we said 'hey, we know you've got some material, why don't you just take this stuff and take a break from Eskimo, put in some time, and just have some fun, and give us something we can put out there and sell."
"We certainly never saw The Residents as punk. Punk was kind of a narrow category. New wave was a very broad category that punk was part of. So we were certainly marketing The Residents as a new wave act, and Duck Stab! felt like it fit into that. So once again, maybe part of its popularity has to do with the fact that we successfully marketed it, and marketed it to the audience at a time when they were open to it."
"I think most of it already existed, at least in terms of backing tracks... once again, they worked on Eskimo for a long time, but Eskimo was very challenging and very demanding. So they would take a break from it and just do something else that seemed more like fun. But once again, these were just kind of instrumental backing tracks. And so when Ralph Records approached them to create this, well, they already had the backing tracks, all they had to do was write some lyrics, and once again, a lot of the time they had lyrics around. You know, somebody would be inspired and write some stuff down, and they had a box they would throw lyrics into. So ultimately, they had to write lyrics or match lyrics up, and then they had to do some solos, and get Snakefinger in to do solos... So once they decided to do it, it came together quite quickly."
"The Residents would come into the studio and he would record things, and they would just leave lyrics laying around. So he's the one that would gather that stuff up and put it in the box, and when he retired several years ago, that box came to me, and it's here somewhere."
"The photo session that Graeme did was one of the earliest - maybe the earliest photo session The Residents ever did. They were in their studio, they had a bunch of weird costumes and stuff around, so Graeme came in, they just started, almost like a band jamming or something... that was one of the pictures that came out of it."
- Homer Flynn, Cacophony Podcast - Obscure Music for Obscure People, Episode 1 - "Homer Flynn on The Residents and Duck Stab", January 13th 2022
ImaginaryJacques (Admin) 💀 (talk) 07:42, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
"I still don’t like the track order on most versions. I love the original 7” order for DS. I just don’t think Constantinople is a good album opener."
- Vincent Presley, comment posted in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, July 21st 2023
ImaginaryJacques (Admin) 💀 (talk) 05:59, 23 July 2023 (UTC)