Wonder of wonders! That raunchy - and I do mean R-A-U-N-C-H-Y - 1960s group, The Fugs, was featured on NPR.
How ironic. The group that was virtually impossible to hear on radio in the 1960s - except for perhaps WBAI in New York City, and college radio stations - is now on radio. Took long enough.
I remember in 1967 at WCWM when I was going through some of the freebies that record companies sent us. I found I Feel Like Homemade Shit by the Fugs, played it, and was blown away. I played it once on the air but a listener called the dean and I was called on the carpet and told not to play it again, lest we lose our broadcasting license.
I played it a few more times.
After disbanding in 1969, The Fugs re-formed in the 1980s and have toured and recorded ever since then.
Here is what co-founder Ed Sanders says in the story:
"We were not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir," co-founder Sanders says of the group's controversial lyrics. "We were not The Beach Boys. We were The Fugs. And we had our own pizazz and energy and elan, especially early on. Those old records just scream and steam with fun and joy and raising our fists to the sky to demand a new type of American reality."
Perhaps their best known song was Kill For Peace, a tune that got FM airplay.
Right on, guys!
"The only gook an
American can trust
Is a gook that's got
his yellow head bust." -- The Fugs, Kill For Peace
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