Perfect Sound Forever

THE FUGS


'From now on, nothing holds us back. Cacaphony forever. No stopping'
Ed Sanders, at the first Fugs recording session


If there's anyone to credit/blame for punk rock and progressive-rock poesy, it's got to be the Fugs, a group of New York City poets who decided to be a rock band in the mid-60's. Even today, their music is as crude as some of their lyrics- even the garbage bands at the time sound like symphony orchestras by comparison. While many other rock bands at the time were indulging in electronic experiments, the Fugs were proudly lo-fi. Years before Frank Zappa and Jim Morrison made bawdy lyrics fashionable, Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg and their group of cohorts were out making trouble, giving the FBI migranes (the Chicago branch contacted the Washington main office at one point to ask if they should arrest the FAGS for obscenity and un-American activities). Far from being babbling idiots though, Sanders and Kupferberg were (and still are) incisive, accomplished poets. Their celebration of free love and marijuana was not done just to titilate but as an honest statement of purpose and freedom: you're not going to find Howard Stern or Marilyn Manson trying to exorcise and levitate the Pentagon.

Many thanks to the inimitable Mr. Levi Asher for his help with this.


ED SANDERS INTERVIEW TULI KUPFERBERG INTERVIEW


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