gordonl@microsoft.UUCP (Gordon Letwin) (11/07/85)
"I couldn't get high" is a veritible classic of modern music by the infamous Fugs! The Fugs recorded several albums in the mid-late '60s, and perhaps early '70s. Their stuff at first listen sounded crude, obscene, and nearly amusical. Those that had the stomach to listen to a range of their "work" gradually came to the realization that they were doing some reasonably sophisticated musical statements, usually satirical and usually cloaked in obscenity (real) and poor musicianship (deliberate). Drugs often played a central role in their songs, to say nothing of a character by the name of "Johnny Pissoff". Much of their work was very sophisticated and "intellectual", but it was all cloaked in a "drugs, sex, and obscenity" mileau. The Fugs were responsible for such classics as: "My baby done left me (and I feel like homemade sh*t)" - their version of a C&W song "Ramses II is dead" - a sh*t-kicking religious revial piece. When they say "gimme that old time religion", they mean it "Super Girl" - a take off on "I want a girl just like the girl..." Their super girl has a variety of interesting attributes, some obvious and some original "The Belle of Avenue A" - A poignant tail of love lost - "Its about a truck driver for the red ball express who decides to go to the lower east side to get some hippy nookie." "Johnny Pissoff Meets the Red Angel" - the red angel is, of course, death. A real tear-jerker: "When the Red Angel comes and the TV is cold..." Some of their pieces were re-recorded by romantic "mainstream" artists... "Morning, Morning" is an example. The Fugs version, naturally, sounded a bit different... Any fellow fugs fans care to compare notes? gordon letwin decvax!microsoft!gordonl uw-beaver!microsoft!gordonl