The Fugs

The Fugs
Origin New York City
Genres Freak folk, psychedelic rock, protopunk, experimental rock
Years active 1963–1969
1985–present
Labels Folkways, ESP-Disk, Reprise, Transatlantic
Website thefugs.com
Members Ed Sanders
Steve Taylor
Coby Batty
Scott Petito

The Fugs are a band formed in New York City in mid-1963[1] by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for "fuck" used in Norman Mailer's novel, The Naked and the Dead.

Formation

The band's original core members, Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, and Ken Weaver, were joined at various times in the 1960s by a number of others, some of whom were noted session musicians or members of other bands. These included Weber and Stampfel,[2] 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, clarinetist Perry Robinson, bassist Bill Wolf and drummer Bob Mason.

For most of the last twenty-five years, The Fugs have been composed of primary singer/songwriters Sanders and, until his death, Kupferberg; composer, song writer, guitarist and long-time Allen Ginsberg-collaborator Steven Taylor; singer/songwriter and percussionist Coby Batty; and Scott Petito, a musician and music producer.

The band signed a record contract with ESP-Disk in 1965. The Fugs said that "our royalty rate was less than 3%, one of the lower percentages in the history of western civilization".[3] The owner of the label, Bernard Stollman, has frequently faced accusation of not paying royalties to artists.[4]

Career

A satirical and self-satirizing rock band with a political slant, they have performed at various war protests – against the Vietnam War and since the 1980s at events around other U.S. involved wars. The band's often frank and humorous lyrics about sex, drugs, and politics have caused a hostile reaction in some quarters, most notably the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the late 1960s. The group is referenced several times in the F.B.I. file on The Doors, where an excerpt mentions eleven songs from The Fugs First Album that are "vulgar and repulsive and are most suggestive."[5]

Their participation in the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's 1967 March on the Pentagon, at which they and others purportedly attempted to encircle and levitate the Pentagon, is chronicled in Norman Mailer's novel, The Armies of the Night.

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". Another, "Nothing", is a paraphrasing of the Yiddish folk song "Bulbes".

After pursuing individual projects over the years, in 1984 Sanders and Kupferberg decided to reform the band and stage a series of Fugs reunion concerts.[6] On Wednesday, August 15, 1988 at the Byrdcliff Barn in Woodstock, New York, the Fugs performed one of their first real reunion concerts. This incarnation of the Fugs included, at various times, guitarist and singer Steve Taylor who was also Allen Ginsberg's teaching assistant at the Naropa Institute, drummer and singer Coby Batty, bassist Mark Kramer, guitarist Vinny Leary (who had contributed to the first two original Fugs albums), and bassist/keyboardist Scott Petito. The re-formed Fugs performed concerts at numerous locations in the U.S. and Europe over the next several years.

In 1994 the band intended to perform a series of concerts in Woodstock, New York, (where Sanders had lived for many years) to commemorate the 1969 Woodstock Festival, which had actually occurred near the town of Bethel, some 50 miles away. They learned that a group of promoters were planning to stage Woodstock '94 that August near Saugerties, about 8 miles from Woodstock, and that this festival would be much more tightly controlled and commercialized than the original. Consequently The Fugs decided to stage their own August 1994 concerts as "The Real Woodstock Festival", in an atmosphere more in keeping with the spirit of the 1969 festival. The basic Fugs roster of Sanders, Kupferberg, Taylor, Batty, and Petito performed in this series of concerts with additional vocal support from Amy Fradon and Leslie Ritter and also with appearances by Allen Ginsberg and Country Joe McDonald. In 2003, the group released The Fugs Final CD (Part 1) with positive feedback. In 2004, The Fugs began to record their last CD, Be Free: The Fugs Final CD (Part 2).

In 2008 their song "CIA Man" is featured in the movie Burn After Reading by the Coen brothers. In 2009, Kupferberg suffered two strokes, the latter of which severely hindered his eyesight. He was under constant care, but was able to finish recording his tracks for Be Free in his New York City apartment. A benefit for Kupferberg was held in Brooklyn, New York in February 2010, featuring all of the Fugs minus Kupferberg, as well as Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, and others. Be Free: The Fugs Final CD (Part 2) was released on February 23, 2010. The album art featured a snail reading Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl", and was designed by Ed Sanders. The album was produced by Steve Taylor and Ed Sanders.

Kupferberg died on July 12, 2010 in Manhattan, at the age of 86.[7] In 2008, in one of his last interviews, he told MOJO Magazine, "Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."[8]

The remaining Fugs from time to time seriously consider further performances.[9][10] On June 11, 2011, the four remaining Fugs performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as part of the annual Meltdown Festival, curated that year by Ray Davies of The Kinks. Their set received a 4-star review in The Guardian.[11]

Primary lineups

The Fugs went through a number of lineup changes. Below are those that lasted the longest. For instance, guitarist Stefan Grossman was with the band for only several weeks, so this lineup is not included.

July 1963 – February 1965

Summer 1965

September – December 1965

December 1965 – July 1966

July – October 1966

October 1966 – Spring 1967

Summer 1967 – Summer 1968

Winter 1968 – March 1969

1985–2010

2010–present

Discography

References

  1. ↑ Thefugs.com
  2. ↑ Furious.com
  3. ↑ Fugs, The. "History of the Fugs". Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  4. ↑ Weiss, Jason (2012). Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America. Wesleyan. ISBN 9780819571595.
  5. ↑ "The Doors Part 1 of 1". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  6. ↑ Greg Kot, "The Fugs still riotous after all these years", Chicago Tribune, November 27, 2012
  7. ↑ Thedeadrockstarsclub.com – accessed July 2010
  8. ↑ MOJO Magazine #203, October 2010, pg. 34
  9. ↑ TheFugs.com
  10. ↑ Greg Kot, "The Fugs still riotous after all these years", Chicago Tribune, November 27, 2012
  11. ↑ Guardian review of The Fugs
  12. ↑ Baskets of Love at Discogs

External links