The Fugs - The Fugs (1966)

The Fugs was a band formed in New York City in 1965 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Later that year they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders.

The band was named by Kupferberg who borrowed the name from the euphemistic substitute for the word "fuck" famously used in Norman Mailer's novel, The Naked and the Dead. Incidentally, the band is featured in a chapter of Mailer's book, Armies of the Night, as they play at the 1967 march on the Pentagon in protest of the Vietnam War (with Scott Rashap on upright bass). Some of the early history of The Fugs, including the band's essential roots in the culture of New York City's East Village, its difficulties with censorious news media, and its determination to elevate the tone of American rock music are related by Ed Sanders, apparently with tongue firmly in cheek at times, in two segments of video recorded during a tour of Scandinavia in 1968.[1] [2]

The band's original core members, Sanders, Kupferberg, and Weaver, were joined at various times in the 1960s on stage and in the studio by a number of others, some of whom were noted session musicians or members of other bands. These included Weber and Stampfel, bassist John Anderson, guitarist Vinny Leary, guitarist Peter Kearney, keyboardist Lee Crabtree, guitarist Jon Kalb, guitarist Stefan Grossman, singer/guitarist Jake Jacobs, guitarist Eric Gale, bassist Chuck Rainey, keyboardist Robert Banks, bassist Charles Larkey, guitarist Ken Pine, guitarist Danny Kortchmar, and drummer Bill Wolf.

The Fugs were, and are more than thirty years later, a satirical and self-satirizing rock band that in its early years performed at war protests [against the Vietnam War and since the 1980s at events around other US-instigated wars]. The band's often frank and almost always humorous lyrics about sex, drugs, and politics have caused a sometimes hostile reaction in some quarters. Their irreverent humor is comparable to that of a number of musical and comedic groups performing satirical commentary on contemporary affairs (such as Saturday Night Live and other late-night political satire shows).

The Fugs have remained committed to literature and poetry with a socio-political thrust and often mine the history of European and American literature as inspiration for contemporary pop song lyrics. One of their better-known songs is an adaptation of Matthew Arnold's poem, Dover Beach. Others were renditions of William Blake's poems Ah! Sun-flower and How Sweet I Roam'd. These poems-turned-songs are certainly some of the most moving adaptations of the late 20th century.

Het eerste album van the Fugs kreeg van mij maar 2*. Dit album daarentegen scoort zeker een voldoende. Vooralsnog 3*, maar verhoging naar 3,5* lijkt me niet onmogelijk.
Dit is ook weer een album dat zijn tijd ver vooruit is. Die indruk krijg ik bij meer garagerock bands, maar bij dit album is dat zeker zo. Geen strakke lijntjes, geen close harmonies, maar gestructureerd rommelig en rauw zoals in Group Grope of Dirty Old Man. Kers op de taart is het ruim 11 minuten durende nummer Virgin Forest
81e in de 100 Greatest Albums of 1966 en 63 in de BestEverAlbims van dat jaar.