The Residents fifth album began life as a 7" EP entitled Duck Stab. Duck Stab elaborated on the sound developed on the first side of Fingeprince, with seven radio-length songs of twisted pop. Duck Stab, thanks to its lead-off track, the exciting and powerful Constantinople, became a big hit for the band. However, because of the large amount of music squeezed onto the EP, the sound quality was rather poor. Rather than force people to listen to a recording with poor sound, The Residents combined Duck Stab with similar songs planned for a second EP Buster & Glen.
Duck Stab/Buster & Glen was a runaway success, even among those who had bought the original EP. The sound quality was greatly improved, and the Buster & Glen side contained even more songs destined to become Residents classics, including the dark Hello Skinny. Due to the runaway success of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, Ralph Records decided to re-release the Satisfaction/Loser=Weed single to cash in. This upset The Residents, who feared that their label and their managers at The Cryptic Corporation were exploiting them. The Residents then disappeared off to England, taking with them the master tapes for their next project Eskimo.
Duck Stab/Buster & Glen was released in 1977, on 12" Vinyl. The first CD reissue, on East Side Digital included the four tracks from Goosebumps (the B-Side to Diskomo) as bonus tracks. The current Duck Stab/Buster & Glen CD uses the original LP tracklist. In addition, EuroRalph has released Duck Stab/Buster & Glen on two 3-Inch CDs, each disc with one side of the album to maintain the separation of the original EPs. A music video was also made of Hello Skinny, and in 2001 a music video was made for Constantinople for the Icky Flix DVD.
Tracklist:
Duck Stab
- Constantinople
- The Sinister Exaggerator
- The Booker Tease
- Blue Rosebuds
- The Laughing Song
- Bach Is Dead
- Elvis And His Boss
Buster & Glen
- Lizard Lady
- Semolina
- Birthday Boy
- Weight-Lifting Lulu
- Krafty Cheese
- Hello Skinny
- The Electrocutioner