The Third Reich 'n Roll
1976 studio album by The Residents
The Third Reich 'n Roll is the second studio album by the American experimental rock band the Residents, released on Ralph Records in 1976. The album consists of two side-long suites of "'semi-phonetic' interpretations of Top 40 rock and roll from the Sixties."
The album generated some controversy due to its cover art and Nazi imagery (promotional photos featured the Residents dressed as giant swastikas and wearing oversized swastika glasses). A window display in Berkeley was met with protests and threats of violence. Regardless, it is considered one of the group's masterworks along with most of their material from the 1970s.
Recording
In 1974, the Residents were considering making their follow-up to Meet the Residents as a cover album. They initially wanted their friend Snakefinger to play guitar on the album but as he was in England at the time, the group instead searched for a local guitarist, and eventually Gary Phillips of Earth Quake was suggested to them. The Residents recorded "Swastikas on Parade" in one week during October 1974. The next year, the Residents returned to the concept and recorded the second track, titled "Hitler Was a Vegetarian".
Music video
In 1972, while on a break from filming Vileness Fats, the Residents produced a short film in which they danced and played in a newspaper-covered room, fully dressed in newspaper suits. Later in 1976, in order to promote their third album (the second one having been recorded in secrecy), the Residents synced this short film up with an edited version of "Swastikas on Parade", and filmed additional scenes on the set of Vileness Fats.
“The Third Reich 'n Roll” enters the record as 1976 studio album by The Residents. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Third, Reich and Roll can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2083421. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1974 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Third Reich 'n Roll” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.