The Warner Bros. Album (also known as The W**** B*** Album) is a demo tape, compiled in 1971 by the group who would later become known as The Residents.
The Warner Bros. Album was compiled as a demo reel to showcase the talents of the then unnamed group, and sent to Hal Halverstadt, the executive who signed Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band to Warner Bros. Records.
The Warner Bros. Album was first officially released by The Residents in April 2018, as a limited pREServed vinyl edition for Record Store Day.
History
The Warner Bros. Album is perhaps better known for its role in the history of the group who recorded it than for its contents (which are not considered by The Residents to be at all representative of their later direction).
In hopes of gaining wider exposure, the tape was compiled from recordings made between September 1970 and May 1971, and mailed anonymously to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. Records.
The group had hoped that Halverstadt, who had signed Captain Beefheart to the label, would appreciate their earnest experiments and, ideally, offer them a budget and a major label platform.
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"), politely rejecting it but awarding it an "A for Ariginality".
The Warner Bros. Album was returned and addressed to "Residents, 20 Sycamore St., San Francisco," which led the group to take the name Residents Unincorporated, and then after the advent of The Cryptic Corporation a few years later, The Residents.
Availability
"Coupon" included with the original tape, 1971
Both The Warner Bros. Album and Baby Sex were broadcast to the public in their entirety by the group's friend Bill Reinhardt on KBOO-FM radio in Portland, Oregon, during a Residents-themed radio festival in 1977.
Most versions of these two tapes that were widely available amongst fans are home recordings of this broadcast, although higher quality copies from an earlier generation copy since became available, in a limited series of bootleg CD-Rs.
It is said that the group's early reels were stolen from The Cryptic Corporation's archives by a former associate and later made available for profit, and as with their other early demo tapes and reels, The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation do not approve of their availability.
Excerpts from the original The Warner Bros. Album would first become officially available on the ERA B474 and The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss compilations in 2012 and 2013 respectively, before the tape's complete remaster and release in 2018 as a Record Store Day limited installment in the group's pREServed series.
2003 remix
In 2004, a remix album, WB:RMX, was released by The Cryptic Corporation. This remix was created by The Residents as a direct response to the increasing demand for the original tape's release, and the fact that bootleg recordings of the tape were already being circulated on the Internet.
WB:RMX features radically remixed versions of a handful of the songs from the original tape, with a more modern production style.
The W***** B*** Album, 2018 pREServed limited vinyl edition
2018 pREServed limited vinyl edition
In April 2018, The Warner Bros. Album was finally remastered and issued in its original, unedited form for the first time by The Residents as a limited edition vinyl release for Record Store Day.
Released as The W***** B*** Album as a special entry in the group's pREServed reissue series, the LP features a black outer sleeve hiding the original cover art within.
Rather than featuring extensive historical liner notes like other reissues in the pREServed series, this release includes the previously unseen (and pornographic) original liner art for the tape as sent to Hal Halverstadt, as well as previously unseen artwork on the labels of the record.
The W***** B*** Album was released in a limited edition of 1500 copies. The demo is also expected to be included in an upcoming pREServed set of Pre-Residents recordings.
Track listing
- Strawberry Fields Forever (Lennon/McCartney) (0:27)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (1:08)
- Baby Skeletons & Dogs (1:28)
- Bop Bop Shu Bop Bop (0:38)
- Stuffed Genital (0:27)
- Christmas Morning Foto (0:06)
- Every Day I Masturbate on A Merican Fag (1:15)
- Oh Mommy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See that it's True? (0:51)
- Baby Skeletons & Dogs #2 (1:52)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (0:28)
- Going to Arcata Blues (1:56)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (0:06)
- Black Velvet Original (0:13)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (0:08)
- Jimi Hendrix Dildo (0:39)
- The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany (2:01)
- In the Still of the Night (0:19)
- Maggie's Farm (Dylan) (1:23)
- Snot and Feces Live at the Grunt Festival (0:49)
- Sweet Meat (2:29)
- Oh Yeah Uhh Bop Shoo Bop (0:45)
- Ohm is Where the Art Is (3:03)
- Concerto in R Flat Minor (1:23)
- Gagagapiggaeioupe (0:38)
- Sold American (0:39)
- Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture (0:38)
- Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone and French Horn (0:30)
- Oh God You're a Pie in the Sky (0:55)
- Short Circuit Comes to Town (0:13)
- Marching Toward AEIOU Blues (0:47)
- In the Still of the Night Again / Rumba (2:01)
- Oh Mommy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See that it's True Again (1:05)
- Art the White Elephant (1:11)
- Psychedelic and Orgasmic Finale (5:58)
Original back cover art proof for The Warner Bros. Album by Porno Graphics
Trivia
- "Sold American" was sampled in the track "Pink", found in the Chicken Scratching with The Residents compilation.
- A 2011 EYEFUL download of a Talking Light rehearsal included "Baby Skeletons and Dogs", indicating that the song was considered for the tour, but eventually not included in the set list.
See also
- The Delta Nudes
- The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger
- Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor
- Baby Sex
- WB:RMX
- ERA B474
- The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss
- pREServed