FIRST ALBUM includes the material from The Fugs' 1965 debut and 11 previously unissued tracks.
The Fugs: Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver, Tuli Kupferberg.
Additional personnel: Steve Weber, Vinny Leary, John Anderson.
Includes liner notes by Ed Sanders.
Personnel: Steve Weber, Vinny Leary (vocals, guitar); Peter Stampfel (vocals, fiddle, harmonica); Ken Weaver (vocals, drums, congas); Tuli Kupferberg (vocals, percussion); Ed Sanders, John Anderson (vocals).
Unknown Contributor Roles: John Anderson ; Tuli Kupferberg.
Poets Tuli Kupferberg and Ed Sanders couldn't play any instruments, but they sure knew all about the spirit of rock & roll. Sanders edited and published a profanely titled arts magazine in post-Beat, early-'60s Greenwich Village, and local friends, including Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders, and guitarist Ken Weaver, provide most of the music on this underground classic.
Alternately angry, beautiful, rude, and gut-bustingly hilarious, these songs, recorded in 1965, are both folk classics and among the first and best punk anthems ever recorded. Weaver's "I Couldn't Get High" is a garage-rocking stomper that wouldn't sound out of place in the NUGGETS series, and Weber's ironic masterpiece "Boobs A Lot" says more about locker-room culture in two minutes than volumes of social studies. This essential reissue adds an album's worth of high-quality outtakes.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (11/25/93, p.112) - 4.5 Stars - Excellent Plus - "...FIRST ALBUM finds [The Fugs'] obsessions in full flower: Sanders warbles Blake and Allen Ginsberg; Kupferberg provides awesome existentialism....For all their wallowing in earthly pleasures, transcendence is what the Fugs' are all about..."
