Difficult Listening 18 - Meet The Residents

I can't believe I got this far into this Difficult Listening series without mentioning The Residents. The Residents are possibly the most successful and one of the longest lasting American experimental music groups. They have been together since the early '70s, maybe longer, have released over 60 albums, and are still working. They will likely get a couple more posts before I'm done with them but this was their first album and the obvious place to start.

MEET THE RESIDENTS was released in 1974 on their own Ralph Records label featuring a now famous parody of the MEET THE BEATLES album cover. MEET THE RESIDENTS was released in a mono edition of around 1000 pressings and was not a big seller. Account on their website says they sold about 40 copies. Capitol Records still managed to notice and take offense, issuing a cease and desist order and forcing a redesign of the cover.

The second pressing, released in 1977, and subsequent pressings for a few years, featured a reworked illustration from the backside of the first album.This and following pressings deleted some material that was on the first pressing. In 1985, for the band's 13th anniversary, 3500 pressings of a picture disc showing both covers and restoring the original material was released. Ralph Records finally got the details ironed out with Capitol Records and released a very limited (350 copies) white vinyl edition in 1988 with the original cover. All following editions have the original cover.