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Was not disappointed. What can you say about songs like "Ah, Sunflower Weary of Time," "Supergirl" (perhaps my favorite), "Swinburne Stomp," "I Couldnt' Get High," "Boobs A Lot" or "Nothing"? They're too hilarious for words. This album and The Fugs Second Album are really historical snapshots of the Beat Generation coming into the hippie age, brilliant, totally irreverant, intellectual (two poems of William Blake put to music) and juvinile (e.g., "Boobs A Lot") at the same time.
Don't expect musical genius. The quality of musicianship is crude, and studio conditions are garage, but the energy, wit and spontineity of these tracks couldn't be improved upon.
Listening to them again now, I totally hear the Fugs in the music of the Ramones, Ween, the Residents, the Jazz Butcher, Robyn Hitchcock and others. I'm surprised I haven't heard more (or for that matter any) contemporary covers of these songs. "Supergirl" or "Nothing," for example, would be very stylish for some neo-punk band to cover.
Better than the original LPs I had, these two CDs have great liner notes and lots of extra tracks.
This is definitely not to everyone's taste. My wife, for example, was appalled when I put this on. But if you appreciate humor in music and are interested in the sound of the irreverant '60s anti-establishment, by all means go for it.
As a teenager I owned all the Fugs' LPs on ESP. "The Fugs Second Album" is more polished. It should be since actual musicians were playing on it. Ed, Tuli, and Ken are writers, not musicians (unless you want to call Tuli's erectorine a musical instrument). "Virgin Fugs" was my all-time favorite ESP album by the Fugs. It's musically as crude as the "First Album", but the lyrics were more blantantly obscene and simply hilarious! I hope some bold recording company will re-release it someday.
I remember being amazed when Warner Brothers/Reprise signed the Fugs in the late sixties. I couldn't believe a major label had signed the band. Imagine something like this happening now- impossible! The Reprise Fugs albums were enjoyable, but they lacked the creative intensity and sheer chutzpah of the ESP albums. The Fugs tried like hell to sound as polished as your ordinary rock band back in those days. But it was like spraying gold paint on a pile of manure. The gold paint may look pretty, but it's what's underneath that's closer to the true essence. The Fugs were renegade satirists who did their best work on a small, independent label, ESP. They were never destined for "The Ed Sullivan Show".
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