Ralph Records was The Residents' original record label, the name coming from the somewhat colorful phrase "calling Ralph on the porcelain telephone."
Ralph was founded in 1972, shortly after the group had moved to San Francisco, when the band realized that they were the only people who would be willing to publish their work. They "unincorporated" themselves as The Residents Uninc. and managed the new company under that name. One of the group's me...
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Ralph Records was The Residents' original record label, the name coming from the somewhat colorful phrase "calling Ralph on the porcelain telephone."
Ralph was founded in 1972, shortly after the group had moved to San Francisco, when the band realized that they were the only people who would be willing to publish their work. They "unincorporated" themselves as The Residents Uninc. and managed the new company under that name. One of the group's members could draw, so they gave the company a graphic design wing called Porno Graphics, aka Pore-Know Graphics, aka Poor No Graphics, aka Porneaugraphics, etc., and the whole operation was run out of their new two-story building at 18 Sycamore St. in the Mission District. They named their studio El Ralpho, spoofing Sun Ra who had named his El Saturn.
Ralph's first release was December 1972's Santa Dog (RR-1272), a two-disk single which was mailed out for free to about three hundred people — friends, radio stations, even Richard Nixon and Frank...
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