Customer Reviews

Fingerprince

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fingerprince, aka Tourniquet Of Roses, now that it includes much of what was on the Babyfingers E.P., is a classic seminal Residents release. Much of what is on this album is expanded upon exponentially on later Residents albums. The twisted nursery rhyme pop ditties paved way for Duck Stab/Buster & Dave and The Commercial Album. The narrative pop opera of Walter Westinghouse led the way for such epics as Mark Of The Mole and God In Three Persons. The bookends of You Yesyesyes point towards their later work with Snakefinger on The Big Bubble and Snakefinger's early albums.

Besides being a launching pad for the Residents' further creativity, this is also a fascinating and enjoyable album. What was once considered strange and avant garde is almost quaint these days I suppose, but the soundscapes behind the odd strange humourous lyrics and ideas is sheer aural pleasure. Six Things To A Cycle is a brilliant fusion of western composition and Indonesian Gamelan syncopation that has combines several haunting themes that burn into one's mind and lingers for weeks on internal autoplay. The aforementioned You Yesyesyes and it's sister piece You Yesyesyes Again are beautifully funny and sad melancholy themes.

An album where that charts out the group's future journey as it begins its travels all over the muiscal map, I recommend this to any acsual or adventurous listener.

This album is one of their best, along with the commercial album and duck stab/buster and glen. It's got all the things that make the residents what they are. The wacky instrumentation and the funny voices especially. Some nice enough tunes here. Yesysyes is pretty good, and has a bit when they play the 'third man' theme tune ...couldn't tell you what instrument though, it sounds very strange. Godsong is very good, my personal favourite. Really good lyrics and vocals, heavy thudding bass playing, and crappy sounding piano. walter westinghouse is a good song with loads of funny voices. six things to a cycle is a decent exercise in percussion. There are other enjoyable tunes too like tourniquet of roses and bossy, there are no really bad songs here..it's worth the listen. Thank you

i think the title of the review sums it up quite nicely.

the early "residents" recordings are their best,imho and "fingerprince" might be the best of all.

les claypool must've listened to this record 10,000 times.

This is one of the best records I own. The songs tie together so well it is hard to beleive that this was once actually two albums combined to one for cd release. Very unexpectedly this has become the most lisened album I own!

Having been a Residents fan for almost 20 years, it's impossible to pick a favorite recording. But for first time listeners, I have to recommend "Fingerprince" as the most representative of the Residents music and styles. Except for the forgettable and downright boring "Six Things to a Cycle," this CD illustrates all of the Residents' trademarks. From the the almost-perfect harmonies on "Death in Barstow," to the treated voices in "Home Age Conversation" and the concept example of "Walter Westinghouse," all of the classic Residents signatures are here.

I hate to inform the other reviewer that he is completely wrong. Fingerprince was original Tourniquet of Roses, but sense they could not fit all the material onto 1 record, they released Fingerprince (LP) and Babyfingers (EP). Later, after the CD came out, they could fit it all onto one. They left the name at Fingerprince though

Fingerprince was my first Residents LP (the format that came about before the CD, kiddies) It was purchased back in 1979, in the days before Rolling Stone became the new People magazine and reviewed the Residents, and Hunter S Thompson was actually writing articles for them.

The album consists of a few songs, Walter Westinghouse of which is the most infamous, and one twisted opera, "Six Things to a Cycle". If you get this album for anything get it for "Six Things" which is a opera made for those with advance Alzheimers or mild braindamage (I believe I fall into the latter). Its lyrics are "chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew gum" or some such nonsense.

Other songs fall somewhat short of brilliant in this album, but follow concepts that will be fleshed out later. For instance, "Godsong" is the predecessor of the "Wormwood" album, claiming that we really put it upon God who just wanted to be another deity. Poor fellow.

The instrumentation is organic. No moogs or other artificial instrumentation is used in this album. The Residents will wait until "Mark of the Mole" before they made that error, and wouldn't correct it until their recent "Demons Dance Alone", at least partially.

Get this album if you want to see their development.

CONTRARY TO WHAT THAT ONE REVEIWER SAID YESS THEY USED THE N WORD< BUT ONLY TO MAKE FUN OF THE SOUTHERN TYPE PEOPLE THEY WERE PORTRAYING. SECONDLY FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE ROACH HAS NO HATEFULL WORDS> I OWN THIS CD. I KNOW. IM A HUGE REZ FAN ALONG WITH MY STEP FATHER. SO PLEASE TAKE A LISTEN TO SOME OF THEIR MATIRIAL AND ENJOY!! ^ ^ -

The first track is nice. The percussive ballet has its moments. Much of the rest veers towards silliness. It's kind of the start of the end here. The Residents started out as performance artists with some bite to them (I cite as evidence Side 2 of "Baby Sex" most of which was eventually released on a collection); they ended up as institutionalized goofy silliness, songs about cows and so forth.

"Walter Westinghouse" could have been a nice dadaistic poem but it gets points off for using the n-word. The "Bumble Roach" piece also has hidden in it an offensive and prejudiced set of words, making one question what these people are trying to do.