Chance Meeting
Friday August 15th, 2025 with Heavy Ben
The Fugs

Chance meeting on an exorcism of the evil spirits from the pentagon of a poem from jail and fuggin’ it up The Fugs have been described as "This trio of hairy gross ginch gropers is the most intellectual, sophisticated and literary ensemble in rock" In 1965, for $1.50 you could have participated in a Night of Napalm at Peace Eye Bookstore The FUGS! present a NIGHT OF NAPALM In support of the assembly of unrepresented people Songs against the war Rock & roll bomb shrieks Terror thru the wall! Heavy metal orgasms! Watch all The Fugs die in a napalm raid! See whole intellects disgorged in the new fug spaghetti death! Arguably the first underground rock group of all time, the Fugs formed at the Peace Eye bookstore in New York's East Village in 1964. The nucleus of the band was Peace Eye owner, author, and publisher Ed Sanders and fellow poet and social activist Tuli Kupferberg. Kupferberg, on vocals, notably had an epiphany after an unsuccessful jump from the Manhattan Bridge - an event adapted in Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". The band's drummer, Ken Weaver, became a translator of Russian for the CIA. He later wrote the "'Texas Crude" guide to slang with Robert Crumb, whose cartoon art and 'Mr Natural' adorned much 1960's work such as the Big Brother/Janis Joplin "Cheap Thrills" album. After a number of line-up changes it was Sanders, Kupferberg & Weaver who remained at the core of "The Fugs". Tuli came up with the name Fugs, a fornicatory euphemism taken from Norman Mailer's novel "The Naked and the Dead". Sanders and Kupferberg had strong ties to the beat literary scene. They charged, in the manner of their friend Ginsberg, full steam ahead into the maelstrom of 1960s political involvement and psychedelia. Surrounded by an assortment of motley refugees from the New York folk and jug band scene (including Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders), some of whom could barely play their instruments, the group nonetheless was determined to play rock & roll their way. This was rife with political and social satire, as well as explicit profanity and sexual references, that were downright unheard of in 1965. In 1965, the Fugs were briefly considered by Andy Warhol as the band for his multimedia performance art series the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, alongside the Holy Modal Rounders, before Warhol ultimately chose The Velvet Underground. Starting on the legendary avant-garde ESP label, the Fugs' debut was full of equal amounts of chaos and charm. Their songwriting and instrumental chops improved surprisingly quickly, resulting in a second album that was the most shocking and satirical recording ever to grace the Top 100 when it was released. They unleashed a few more albums of equally satirical material on the Reprise label that were more instrumentally polished, but equally scathing lyrically. By breaking lyrical taboos of popular music, they helped pave the way for the innovative outrage of countless punk-independent-freakout-garage-folk-psychedelic-protest-rock bands. Breaking up in 1970, Sanders and Kupferberg continued to write prose and poetry, and sometimes wrote and performed music both on their own and as part of Fugs reunions. By the mid-'80s, Sanders and Kupferberg officially began touring and recording again as the Fugs, releasing CDs the between 1985 and 2010. Kupferberg died 2010 at the age of 86, which is the birthday # that Ed Sanders will mark this weekend. The Fugs reconvened in 1984, Sanders says, because it was the year that George Orwell’s dystopian novel was named for as well as the start of Reagan’s second term. One can’t help but wonder if besides 2025 being the group’s 60th year, the return of Trump also prompted the decision to reform the famously insurgent band. "It’s extremely important for a society to protect, cultivate, and augment its flow of creativity," Sanders offers, "You gotta do something, right?" The Fugs will perform at the Byrdcliffe Barn in Woodstock on August 22 and 23. Tickets are $30. The Secret Index to the Past is out soon on Olufsen Records. https://www.woodstockguild.org/event/the-fugs-celebrating-the-60th-anniversary-year-of-their-first-concert/ Ed Sanders Celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the Fugs https://www.chronogram.com/arts/ed-sanders-celebrates-the-60th-anniversary-of-the-fugs-24022059 Ed and Miriam Sanders: Poets, Artists, and Change-Makers https://woodstockarts.com/ed-and-miriam-sanders-poets-artists-and-change-makers/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sanders (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")