The Fugs
| The Fugs | |
|---|---|
| Origin | New York City, United States |
| Genres | Freak folk, psychedelic rock, proto-punk, experimental rock |
| Years active | 1964–1969 1985–present |
| Labels | Folkways, ESP-Disk, Reprise, Transatlantic |
| Website | thefugs.com |
| Members |
Ed Sanders Steve Taylor Coby Batty Scott Petito |
The Fugs are a band formed in New York City in late 1964 by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for fuck used in Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead.
The band is known for its comedic, even lewd, nature but also earned fame through their persistent anti-Vietnam War sentiment during the 1960s.
Aside from derision for their "scatological" lyrics, the Fugs have also been labeled "avant-rock."
The band's original core members, Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, and Ken Weaver, were joined at various times in the 1960s by a number of others, some of whom were noted session musicians or members of other bands. These included Weber and Stampfel, the bassist John Anderson, the guitarist Vinny Leary, the guitarist Peter Kearney, the keyboardist Lee Crabtree, the guitarist Jon Kalb, the guitarist Stefan Grossman, the singer and guitarist Jake Jacobs, the guitarist Eric Gale, the bassist Chuck Rainey, the keyboardist Robert Banks, the bassist Charles Larkey, the guitarist Ken Pine, the guitarist Danny Kortchmar, the clarinetist Perry Robinson, the bassist Bill Wolf and the drummer Bob Mason.
For most of their career, the Fugs were composed of the primary singer-songwriters Sanders and, until his death, Kupferberg; the composer, songwriter, guitarist and long-time Allen Ginsberg collaborator Steven Taylor; the singer-songwriter and percussionist Coby Batty; and Scott Petito, a musician and music producer.
The band signed a record contract with ESP-Disk in 1965. The Fugs said that "our royalty rate was less than 3%, one of the lower percentages in the history of western civilization". The owner of the label, Bernard Stollman, has frequently faced accusation of not paying royalties to artists. In February 1967, the group was signed to Atlantic Records and recorded one album, The Fugs Eat It, but it was never released.
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