Infant Tango

"Infant Tango" is a song by The Residents, featured as the opening track of the B-side of their debut album, Meet The Residents, released April 1st 1974 by Ralph Records.

History

"Infant Tango" was recorded between February and October 1973 by Residents, Uninc. in sessions for their debut album Meet The Residents, released on April Fool's Day 1974 as the first full-length album release from Ralph Records.

The song, described by a Resident as a "shuck and jive soul number featuring Chinese instrumentation (properly wah-wahed) and electronically altered jazz saxophone", consists of a repeated verse (with some seemingly improvised scat vocals from The Singing Resident) followed by a suite-like series of instrumental sections, driven by bass guitar from noted early collaborator Bobby Tangney.

Originally mixed and released in mono, in 1977 Meet The Residents was remixed into stereo; the stereo mix of "Infant Tango" is more than thirty seconds shorter than the mono version.

The song was excerpted on the compilation CD Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents (as part of a short Meet The Residents concentrate) in 1993.

A new arrangement of the song was demoed in 2014 by the group's long-time composer Charles Bobuck for a planned (but abandoned) 40th anniversary re-recording of Meet The Residents; this recording was later issued on the EP Clank Clank Clank in 2017.

Lyrics

Watch
That Infant Tango
See
That Infant Tango
All 
That Infant Tango
Is a 
Dance for You.

Watch
That Infant Tango
See
That Infant Tango
All 
That Tnfant Tango
Is a 
Dance for You.

Watch
That Infant Tango
See
That Infant Tango
All 
That Infant Tango
Is a 
Dance for You.

List of releases

• Meet The Residents (1974)
• Meet The Residents stereo remix (1977)
• Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents (1993)
• Clank Clank Clank EP by Charles Bobuck (2017)
• Meet The Residents pREServed CD edition (2018)
• Meet The Residents pREServed vinyl edition (2018)

Buy Or Die!

Listen online

• "Infant Tango" (original mono version) on Spotify
• "Infant Tango" (pREServed mono version) on Spotify
• "Infant Tango" (pREServed stereo version) on Spotify

External links and references

• Meet The Residents at The Residents Historical
• Meet The Residents at RZWeb (archived via archive.org)

Meet The Residents (1974) Side A "Boots" · "Numb Erone" · "Guylum Bardot" · "Breath and Length" · "Consuelo's Departure" · "Smelly Tongues" · "Rest Aria" · "Skratz" · "Spotted Pinto Bean" Side B "Infant Tango" · "Seasoned Greetings" · "N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)" Personnel The Residents · Ruth Essex · Barry "Wool" Eiland · Pamela Zeibak · Philip Friehofner · Jim Whitaker · Bob Tangney · James Aaron Related works "Russian Love Song" · 1-10 (With A Touch of 11) · "7733 Variations" · Tuesday tapes ("Sokurha") · "Overday" · "Inka Don't Dry" · "Horny Song" · "George's Horn" · "The Ralph Records Guided Tour" · Meet The Residents Sampler · "Saint Nix" · Clank Clank Clank · "Poisoned Popcorn" Related articles N. Senada (Theory of Phonetic Organization) · Residents, Uninc. · Sycamore St. studio · Santa Dog · Ralph Records · Porno/Graphics · Vileness Fats · "Nobody But Me" · The Beatles Resources Image gallery