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An Øbscüre Treat

Santa Dog is a song (project-series) by an American artist collective that was/is/and perhaps sometime in the future will be again called The Residents. They are interesting in many ways, they are recognised as being culturally important (e.g. by MOMA, the Museum Of Modern Art New York) and are appreciated as innovative artistic avantgarde (exploring arts forms, distribution formats or media technologies and it's platforms) by many.

Yet throughout their 50+year history, The Residents have cloaked their lives and music in obscurity. Band members (mostly four in number) do not identify themselves by name (or even individual pseudonyms), they never appear without masks (often sporting giant eyeballs instead of heads with top hats) and refuse to grant interviews.

Talking about their body of work (music, dance, film, new media ...) would be beyond the scope of this Adwendt's-post, but one could inspect just one atom to gain some understanding of the bigger structure of the Resident's creative output. We shall focus on their first published song, that was produced and reproduced again and again over the years – Santa Dog.

In 1972  Santa Dog a song about a Wiener Dog in a Santa suit was published by The Residents, perhaps as Xmas song, perhaps as antidote to the annual "mass hysteria" surrounding the end-of-year celebration. Some people bewildered by their art have noted the anagram of the song's title "Satan God". But this might be a little far-fetched.

 

Exhibit 1 "Fire"Santa Dog, 1972 :

The 1972 package consisted of two vinyl 45s in a hand silk-screened gatefold sleeve which was printed to look like a Christmas card from an insurance company. (Appealing?)

Exhibit 2 "Santa Dog" 1978 :

 

If you cannot sing along just yet, use the lyrics:

Santa Dog's a Jesus Fetus
Has no presents,
Has no presence
In the future...
...In the future

A fleeting and a sleeting scene of snowness and of sleeves

Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong, Snowness severed sleeves

A fleeting and a greeting scene of effervescent eves
Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong, Effervescent eves

Greeting and a meeting team of hoarse and frosty words
Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong, Hoarse and frosty words

A greeting and a cheating team and other noxious herbs
Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bong, Other noxious herbs

A fleeting and a sleeting scene of snowness and of sleeves

Santa Dog
Has no presents
Has no presence
In the Future!

The variations of the song do not only indicate the Residents' creative progress over the years, but these variations reflect also the technological advances of music production techniques (and technologies) in general.  And yet their creators' criticism of popular culture and music productions of the mainstream remains intact throughout. It is clearly audible whatever version they decided to release.

Exhibit 3 "Santa Dog" 1988 :

 

The Residents are also know (and loved) for their "Easter eggs" – a term used metaphorically for hidden songs, extra content, often found by chance, mistake and seemingly at random. Not really an Easter egg, more a musical reference, the 1988 version begins with another popular song, popular particularly in the English-speaking world. It is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Which song it is is revealed at the bottom* of this post, but keep reading and listening. The next version takes you to the East, which kind of relates to (*) too.

 

Exhibit 4 "Santa Dog" 1999 :

(for Gamelan Orchestra )

Exhibit 5 "Santa Dog" 2012 :

 

Many more versions of Santa Dog exist, ... but would anybody need more to get into festive mood ?  If you have not warmed yourself enough just yet to the Santa-Dog-idea, ... , or you are intrigued to find out more about the Residents, and their idea of obscurity as creative device, ... take a look at Theory of Obscurity. (2016) It is a crowd-funded movie that shed a little light onto the Residents myth, at least as much as you can in one-and-a-half-hour. I saw it appears on the Tube to test stream.

Theory Obscurity movie here

 

 

*Auld Lang Syne has been translated into many languages, and the song is widely sung all over the world. The song's pentatonic scale matches scales used in Korea, Japan, India, China and other East Asian countries, which has facilitated its "nationalisation" in the East.  

The words auld lang syne literally mean "old long since," though in practice it means "old times, especially times fondly remembered," as well as an "old or long friendship ." It's from the Scots language, and the expression was first recorded in 1660-1680. Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland wrote his “Auld Lang Syne” version in 1788 and published it in 1796.