REFUSED: The Pilgrimage of Santa Dog
through the Second Millennium (1999)

The Residents say that the copy of the 1972 Santa Dog single they mailed to upstanding American president Richard Nixon was returned marked "refused". Neither the world nor Tricky Dick were ready for that sort of thing it seems (so what's new?). Anyway, this limited edition CD represents all the Doggies over the years plus some fantastic new versions, which appear to have been recorded with the Wormwood band lineup - Molly Harvey and whoever.

Disturbingly toes are dipped into contemporary musical styles like house and drum and bass, seriously twisting Vinnie's melon in the process. The final track is somewhat of a wonderful epic though, pleasingly, the tracks from those pre-eyeball days of yore still sound inventively fab.

Such was the care, craft, and commitment endowed upon the original four single sides of Santa Dog by The Residents, it has continued to cast a variety of strange shadows throughout their subsequent career. The originals take pride of place here, surrounded by their many and varied offspring. But not all the pups are in attendance - the 'original' unfinished '84 version, and the live NYE performance (both on UWEB CDs) could have been included and, of course, there's already been a SD2000 released, so maybe in 5 or 10 years time there'll be a Volume Two. 'Till then, this will do very nicely. Attractively packaged, too.

The ultimate Santa Dog collection that shows the development of the group.