The Third Reich 'n Roll is a 1976 studio album by the American Avant-Garde Music band The Residents. It was released to immediate controversy because of the Nazi imagery used on the album cover and in the lyrics themselves.
However, The Third Reich 'n Roll is a Concept Album poking fun at the Nazis. It features an absurd complot theory that the Nazis actually created rock 'n' roll to brainwash the youth.note They supposedly did so through famous American Bandstand presenter Dick Clark, which explains why he is shown on the cover in a Nazi uniform. In line with this theory The Residents covered a handful of well-known rock and pop tunes from the 1950s and 1960s and sang them in a German-sounding voice with a lot of Teutonic noise and World War II imagery. Pure Nightmare Fuel to some, a hilarious Cover Album to others.
The album remains one of their most popular. It has only two tracks, "Swastikas on Parade" and "Hitler Was a Vegetarian", which take up the whole album. Many well-known pop melodies can be recognized, though this is not always easy.
Tracklist:
Side 1
- "Swastikas on Parade" (17:30)
Side 2
- "Hitler Was a Vegetarian" (18:27)
Tropes on Parade:
- Adolf Hitlarious: On the cover and in the liner notes.
- All Germans Are Nazis: The album uses German as shorthand for Nazism as shorthand for fascism.
- Artistic License – History: Despite the fact that rock 'n' roll only emerged after World War II, this album suggests that the Nazis were behind it.
- Brawn Hilda: The woman singing "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" in German comes across as this.
- Concept Album and Conspiracy Theorist: The Nazis invented rock 'n' roll to seduce the youth. Don't ask.
- Cover Album: Sort of. A lot of songs are covered, but in the form of a medley, with German accents and grotesque deconstructions that make many of them barely recognizable.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: All covers on this album are reimagined as grotesque Nazi propaganda songs.
- Epic Rocking: The album consists of two tracks where all songs fade into each other.
- Fading into the Next Song/Siamese Twin Songs: Most tracks do one or the other.
- Gratuitous German: By way of Those Wacky Nazis.
- Hitler Ate Sugar: One track is named "Hitler Was a Vegetarian".
- Medley: All songs fade into each other.
- Music and Sound Effects: At one point during "Swastikas on Parade", a fire alarm, a crying baby, gun shots and driving cars can be heard.
- The New Rock & Roll: The album satirizes the demonization of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and 1960s by older generations.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Subverted. Apart from Hitler and Dick Clark, countless rock artists have their most famous songs demolished in bizarre covers.
- No Swastikas: In order to get this album released in Germany, a censor bar was slapped onto every swastika and Nazi reference. The ploy would've worked if all of the Nazi references weren't small and scattered everywhere.
- Played straight with the other reissues.
The Mute records cover is a black with the title and a disclaimer while Euro Ralph has new artwork with Hitler, holding a carrot, with Madonna on the forested outskirts of Berchtesgaden. In some cases the album was released in a totally black cover.
- Played straight with the other reissues.
- Propaganda Machine: The Nazis supposedly used rock 'n' roll as propaganda, according to this album.
- Pun-Based Title: The Third Reich 'n Roll
- Reference Overdosed: Have fun trying to recognize which songs are covered.
- Sampling: The break beat of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is an actual sample of James Brown's original song. It may even been the first James Brown sample ever!
- Also, the very first seconds of the whole record are sampled from an actual German-language version of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again".
- Those Wacky Nazis: The Nazis apparently invented rock 'n' roll and decided to sing all hit songs themselves.
- Translated Cover Version: Their cover of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a literal German translation of the song. Other covers on this album tend to be sung in English with a mock German accent.
- Vocal Tag Team: Mostly between Hardy Fox and the Singing Resident.
