DON'T BE CRUEL

This quaint little 5 track mini CD (or 3 track single) by The Residents was distributed quite widely throughout Europe and given away at The Residents "Cube-E" tour. It would have almost been worth it to see this show just to get this now hard-to-find single. This silly little disc contains 3 Elvis Presley covers done in a deconstructed, striped down and tacky way that only The Residents can pull off. It starts with "Don't Be Cruel", which is taken as is right from "The King & Eye" album. The music is minimal electronics, pretty much what you would expect from The Residents at that time, but even so, quite hilarious. This is followed up by two more Presley covers not found on that album: "Don't" and "Surrender", the last of which is worth finding this single for as the hick-sounding lead singer actually breaks out of his emotion-less singing and actually puts some feeling into the chorus. If you have the mini CD, there are two short instrumental tracks following this which are not covers, but kooky little tracks called "The Toy Factory", which saves it's Christmas spirit for the very end with a wink to "Jingle Bells", and "Ghost Music". These tracks can be found on various other compilations and fan albums which are now scattered throughout the great universe, you just need a rocket ship to find them in most cases. But isn't it cool just to say that "I am the proud owner of this single in it's original form", while regular people look at you with sympathy for your mental state in their eyes. Eyes! They're all staring at me mommy!