Aircraft Damage
"Aircraft Damage" (informally known as "Kick A Cat") is a song by Arf & Omega with The Singing Lawn Chairs, produced by Residents, Uninc. for inclusion in their later-abandoned feature film Vileness Fats, and released on the Santa Dog double 7" EP in December 1972.
History
"Aircraft Damage" was composed by Residents, Uninc. in 1972 for inclusion in the introductory sequence of their (ultimately unfinished) feature film Vileness Fats.
Intended as the film's opening musical number, it is a chant performed by Arf and Omega Berry (portrayed by Palmer Eiland and George Ewart respectively), conjoined twins and tag-team wrestlers, who are invoking Weescoosa (an immortal native American princess) to appear and rescue the village of Vileness Flats from an invasion by a villainous gang of Bell Boys.
The song (the only musical number from the film which is known to have been recorded to completion by the group) was first released on their debut double 7" EP Santa Dog in December 1972, where it featured as the closing track.
On the EP, the song is credited to Arf & Omega with The Singing Lawn Chairs, a group of female vocalists led by Pamela Zeibak, a singer who would go on to perform with the group throughout the 1970s.
Later renditions
"Aircraft Damage" was performed live during The Residents' first official live performance at Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley, California in 1976, with Palmer Eiland and George Ewart both appearing and reprising their roles as Arf and Omega for the performance.
For the group (and song's) 20th anniversary in 1992, it was mixed with Snakefinger's "Picnic in the Jungle" to produce "Kick A Picnic" for the album Our Finest Flowers.
On the 1999 Refused album, the song is referenced on the track "Pestilence". It is also referenced in the 2000 Icky Flix re-recording of the Vileness Fats soundtrack, during the final nightclub scene (a.k.a. "The Knife Fight").
Legacy
"Aircraft Damage" has been reissued a number of times since its initial release on the Santa Dog EP. It first appeared on the 1977 promotional release The Residents Radio Special in a medley of tracks from the EP.
Short samples of the track are heard in the 1984 VHS featurette Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?, where it is heard alongside footage from the sequence the song was originally intended for.
It has since been included on expanded CD reissues of the group's debut album Meet The Residents in 1988 and 2018, as well as compilations centered specifically around the group's early recordings such as The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss in 2013.
Lyrics
Arf & Omega: Weescoosa! Weescoosa! Arf: New Mexico delivers -- Arf & Omega: Weescoosa! Omega: But the message must be anyway; Arf: Adenauer's gilded flower's towered over me for years, Omega: But now I need a new excuse; Arf & Omega: Weescoosa! Weescoosa! Weescoosa! Omega: Knows the way.
Arf: She'll free that tree strewn river gravy -- Omega: Rushin' down the animal death knoll stream; Arf & Omega: Feeding mouths with wings of trouts and wheeling trays of peppered snouts Arf: To inside civil eyed horny totin' baking pies; Omega: Eyes are big for what they wait. Arf: They stand on backs TOO WEAK for stakes! Omega: The game will have to change before the effervescence is real. Arf: And I don't even CARE!!! Omega: Ah boy! Hamburgers... Mayonnaise... Mustard... Kicking cats and Vileness Fats for caviar -- Arf: Do you ever? Omega: Do you ever -- Arf & Omega: Wonder who you are? Omega: Well, kick a cat -- Arf: Kick a cat -- Arf & Omega: Kick a cat today! Omega: Fish are dumb -- Arf: Pluck an eye from one! Arf & Omega: Kick a cat, kick a cat, kick a cat today; fish are dumb, pluck an eye from one!
The Singing Lawn Chairs: Kick a cat Kick a cat today Kick a cat Kick a cat today Weescoosa Knows The Way...[1]
Credits
- Performed by: Arf And Omega featuring The Singing Lawn Chairs
- Written by: B. Barnes and C. America
List of releases
- Santa Dog (1972) [Version 1]
- The Residents Radio Special (1977) [Version 2]
- Mole Show / Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? VHS (1984) [Version 3]
- Meet The Residents Classic Series edition (1988) [Version 1]
- Liver Music (1990) [Version 4]
- Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses (1997) [Version 1]
- Refused (1999)[Version 1]
- Icky Flix DVD (2001) [Version 5]
- Eat Exuding Oinks! Ralph Records' 1977 Radio Special (1977) [Version 1]
- Live! ...On The Outskirts DVD (2002) [Version 4]
- Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town (2003) [Version 4]
- Oh, Mummy! Oh, Daddy! Can't You See That It's True; What The Beatles Did To Me, I Love Lucy Did To You (2010) [Version 6] [Version 7]
- ERA B474 (2012) [Version 1]
- The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss (2013) [Version 1]
- The Residents Present The Delta Nudes (2017) [Version 1]
- Meet The Residents pREServed edition (2018) [Version 1]
- The Third Reich 'n Roll pREServed edition (2018) [Version 6] [Version 7] [Version 8]
List of versions
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 El Ralpho mono studio recording, 1972 (3:53)
- ↑ El Ralpho mono studio recording, 1972 (edited version, 3:45)
- ↑ El Ralpho mono studio recording, 1972 (excerpt, 0:21)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live recording, Longbranch Saloon, Berkeley, California, June 7th 1976 (edited version, 2:18)
- ↑ Icky Flix studio recording, 2001 (4:28)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live recording, Longbranch Saloon, Berkeley, California, June 7th 1976 (5:09)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live recording, Longbranch Saloon, Berkeley, California, June 7th 1976 (reprise, 1:30)
- ↑ Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! instrumental backing tape, 1976 (3:55)
See also
External links and references
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Santa Dog (1972) Side A: "Fire" by Ivory and the Brain Eaters · Side B: "Explosion" by The Delta Nudes |
