The first time I heard Snakefinger’s “Trashing All The Loves Of History” was from a friend’s Buy Or Die sampler that he got through Ralph Records. It was taken from his Greener Postures album from 1980.I didn’t know what to make of it at first; it’s a very unusual sounding song. Snakefinger wasn’t blessed with the most talented of voices, and it was striking to hear an English accent coming from him, particularly since the most identifiable voice from The Residents came from the dude with the southern accent.
Snakefinger always had special billing on those Resident records, so you knew he a.) wasn’t one of the eyeballs and 2.) probably had his own career outside of Residents’ recordings.
There is a similarity between the two in terms of aural weirdness. It’s quite possible that Greener Postures was cut at the same studio as some of the Residents’ late 70’s material. The guitar tones…while fluctuating throughout the song…sound similar to the tones that Snakefinger creates with his masked friends.
“Trashing All The Loves Of History” literally snakes around with strange, off-kilter riffs that can only be memorable through repeated listening. His vocals are processed through heavy amounts of echo, occasionally giving way to squirrelly effects at the end of a verse. It’s as weird as anything the Residents have made with curios guitar chords, rhythms and sounds that are obviously indebted to Zoot Horn Rollo from Captain Beefheart fame. In other words, if you listen through the weirdness, there’s a lot of difficult shit going on.
Snakefinger died of a heart attack on stage in Austria. Shortly after that, I dropped a few tabs of acid and painted a picture in his memory.
Here's a live video of Snakefinger taken shortly before he passed. Yes, that's Eric Drew Feldman of Captain Beefheart fame on keyboards.
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