Holy Modal Rounders
| The Holy Modal Rounders | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Lower East Side, New York, NY, USA |
| Genres | Psychedelic folk, freak folk |
| Years active | 1964–present |
| Labels | Prestige, Rounder, ESP-Disk, Elektra, Metromedia, Adelphi, DBK Works, Water, Big Beat |
| Associated acts |
The Fugs The Clamtones |
| Members |
Peter Stampfel Steve Weber John Annas Jeff Baxter Ken Crabtree Robin Remaily Sam Shepard Richard Tyler (deceased) Dave Reisch Michael McCarty Ted Deane Roger North |
The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who began performing together on the Lower East Side of New York City in the early 1960s. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s. For a time the group also included the playwright and actor Sam Shepard.
Stampfel explained the origin of the name in the webzine Perfect Sound Forever:
Stampfel and Weber were introduced to each other by Greenwich Village figure Antonia, who also wrote or co-wrote many of their songs. Their first album, The Holy Modal Rounders, released in 1964, contained their version of "Hesitation Blues", the lyrics of which included the first use of the term psychedelic (here pronounced "psycho-delic") in popular music. Shortly after the release of their second album, The Holy Modal Rounders 2, in 1965, they joined Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg in the Fugs for a short time. Their 1965 recordings with the Fugs are on the albums The Village Fugs, Virgin Fugs, and Fugs 4, Rounders Score. Weber wrote the cult classic "Boobs a Lot" for the Fugs, which the Rounders later recorded on the album Good Taste Is Timeless.
After leaving the Fugs, the Rounders re-formed with Sam Shepard and Lee Crabtree to record their third album, Indian War Whoop, and appeared in Shepard's play Forensic. Their fourth album, The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders, recorded in 1968, included "Bird Song" (essentially Ray Price's "You Done Me Wrong" with altered lyrics), which was featured in Dennis Hopper's film Easy Rider. In 1968 the band performed "You've Got the Right String but the Wrong Yo Yo" on the TV series Laugh-In, with appearances by the park-bench oldtimers played by Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson.
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