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This day-by-day diary of The Fugs' live, studio, broadcasting, and private activities is the result of three decades of research and interview work by Bruno Ceriotti, but without the significant contributions by other kindred spirits this diary would not have been possible. So, I would like to thank all the people who, in one form or another, contributed to this timeline: Ed Sanders, Jonathan Kalb, Peter Stampfel, Deena Canale, Louis Bruno, Ken Adamany, Kenny Weber, Sam Frantz, Greg Vick, Rob Branigin, Shigemi Sho, Mike Delbusso, Jeffrey Lewis, The Concert Database, Ann Arbor Sun, Los Angeles Free Press, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Village Voice, The Daily Californian, The Broadside, and Splatt Gallery.
November 1964
The story of the Fugs, arguably the first underground rock group of all time, begins in the Lower East Side, an historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan, New York City. It was there that, in the spring of ’64, a well known poet, author, publisher, and social activist named James Edward ‘Ed’ Sanders, started thinking about forming a group. “[One evening] I wrote a series of poems depicting the life and times of ‘Tillie the Toe Queen’ on white, elongated slats of thin cardboard from cigarette cartons,” recalls Sanders in his autobiography Fug You (Da Capo Press; 2011). “By the next weekend I had published The Toe-Queen Poems. When I read them at Le Metro, the response, in applause and overwhelming laughter, was the first I had received for anything I’d ever read in public, and I think it was an impetus to form a satiric proto-folk-rock group called The Fugs a few months later. One of the first Fugs songs, never, unfortunately, put on an album, was a ditty called ‘Toe Queen Love’.” As recalled by Ed, it was only a few months later, in late ‘64, that the idea of a group started to take form after another poetry reading night at Cafè Le Metro in the East Village. Along with him, that time, it was his friend Naphtali ‘Tuli’ Kupferberg, another well known poet, author, publisher, cartoonist, and pacifist anarchist that he had known since the summer of ‘62. “One night after a poetry reading at Cafè Le Metro, Tuli Kupferberg and I visited the Dom, where we watched poets such as Robert Creeley and Amiri Baraka (then still known as LeRoi Jones) dancing to the jukebox,” recalls Ed. “Then Tuli and I retired to another bar on St. Mark’s [Place], where I suggested we form a musical group. ‘We’ll set poetry to music,’ I proclaimed. Tuli was all in favor of it.” “We drew inspiration for The Fugs from a long and varied tradition,” he continues, “going all the way back to the dances of Dionysus in the ancient Greek plays and the ‘Theory of the Spectacle’ in Aristotle’s Poetics and moving forward to the famous premiere performance of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi in 1896, to the poèmes simultanés of the Dadaists in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, to the jazz-poetry of the Beats, to Charlie Parker’s seething sax, to the silence of John Cage, to the calm pushiness of the Happening movement, to the songs of the civil rights movement, and to our belief that there were oodles of freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution that were not being used.” “At first we didn’t have a name,” he concludes. “An early one I came up with was ‘The Yodeling Socialists.’ Tuli was too anarcho for that, and even though I am the only Beatnik who can yodel, he wasn’t into the Great Yod. Another early name for The Fugs was ‘The Freaks.’ Tuli and I immediately began writing a bunch of songs. In a notebook in late 1964, I jotted: Songs for the Freaks: 1. Banana 2. Little Mary Bell (Blake’s poem) 3. I Love to Tell the Story (Christian hymn from my youth) 4. How Sweet I Roamed from Field to Field (Blake) 5. Take Me Away to That Land of Peace. On the next page of the notebook were some possible lyrics to number 5: Take me / take take / away / way way / to that land / of peace / come o come with me / to that land of peace / where we meet / all rainy / under the / ashen tree / peace o peace / come stomp me on! Wish I had finished it and put it on the first Fugs album.”
THE YODELING SOCIALISTS (NOVEMBER 1964) / THE FREAKS #1 (NOVEMBER 1964 - DECEMBER 1964)
1) Ed Sanders vocals (saloon tenor), guitar, organ, sex-organ, harmonica, maracas, dick chimes, percussions
2) Tuli Kupferberg vocals (baritone), farto-phone, harmonica, Brillo box, finger cymbals, tambourine, various percussion instruments
December 1964
The Freaks added a third member, a real musician, a drummer named Kenneth ‘Ken’ Weaver. “Tuli and I decided to invite a young man named Ken Weaver to join us in our new rock-and-roll/poetry adventure. (The term ‘folk rock’ had not yet been invented),” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Weaver had been a drummer with the El Campo, Texas, Rice Birds marching band when in high school, and he owned a large buffalo hide drum. He had been tossed out of the air force for smoking pot, and he proudly displayed his discharge papers on the wall of his pad. He had been a volunteer typist for various Fuck You Press projects and, with his drumming skill, was soon an eager participant in the unnamed group with the very tentative title ‘The Freaks.’ I told the Folklore Center’s Israel Young about my plans to form a band. His advice was ‘Don’t do it’.”
The Freaks added a third member, a real musician, a drummer named Kenneth ‘Ken’ Weaver. “Tuli and I decided to invite a young man named Ken Weaver to join us in our new rock-and-roll/poetry adventure. (The term ‘folk rock’ had not yet been invented),” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Weaver had been a drummer with the El Campo, Texas, Rice Birds marching band when in high school, and he owned a large buffalo hide drum. He had been tossed out of the air force for smoking pot, and he proudly displayed his discharge papers on the wall of his pad. He had been a volunteer typist for various Fuck You Press projects and, with his drumming skill, was soon an eager participant in the unnamed group with the very tentative title ‘The Freaks.’ I told the Folklore Center’s Israel Young about my plans to form a band. His advice was ‘Don’t do it’.”
THE FREAKS #2 (DECEMBER 1964 - JANUARY 1965) / THE FUGS #1 (JANUARY 1965 - FEBRUARY 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver vocals (high tenor), drums, bongos, congas, maracas
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver vocals (high tenor), drums, bongos, congas, maracas
January 1965
The Freaks became The Fugs. “As for the name, my main ideas, ‘The Freaks’ or ‘The Yodeling Socialists,’ were set aside when Tuli Kupferberg came up with ‘The Fugs,’ named after Norman Mailer’s euphemism for ‘Fuck,’ which he utilized in his World War II novel, The Naked and the Dead,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. At that point, “The Fugs began to rehearse at the Peace Eye Bookstore,” he adds, “and they became popular events as scads of friends began to show up to hang out during run-throughs.”
February 1965
Ed Sanders’ late poet friend Bill Szabo joined The Fugs on amphetamine flute and recorder.
THE FUGS #2 (FEBRUARY 1965 - MARCH ?, 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Bill Sazbo amphetamine flute, recorder
Sunday, February 21, 1965
That night someone broke into Ed Sanders’ Peace Eye Bookstore “and stole Fugs equipment, including Ken Weaver’s groovy wide buffalo hide drum,” recalls Sanders in his autobiography.
Wednesday, February 24, 1965: Peace Eye Bookstore, 383 East 10th Street, b/w Avenues B and C, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played their first gig together at the grand opening of the Peace Eye Bookstore (which was also a celebration of the third anniversary issue of Ed Sanders’ Fuck You / A Magazine of the Arts). The Holy Modal Rounders, a folk duo constiting of Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel, also agreed to perform at the event which lasted from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. “The store was totally packed for the Opening,” recals Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I affixed the three Andy Warhol silkscreened flower images to the walls of Peace Eye. Time magazine sent a team of reporters. A limousine arrived, depositing author James Michener in evening attire. He told me that Andy Warhol had urged him to attend. I asked the crowd to stand back, and The Fugs set up. I made sure the performance was taped. We did about twenty minutes, with ditties such as ‘Nothing,’ a tune called ‘Bull-Tongue Clit,’ also ‘The Ten Commandments’ and the ‘Swinburne Stomp,’ featuring a few stanzas from A. C. Swinburne’s play Atalanta in Calydon. One of my professors from NYU, Frank Peters, was there. His favorite tune from The Fugs set that night, he told me, was ‘Swinburne Stomp.’ William Burroughs asked me, ‘Which one is from Time?’ I pointed out the reporter with the first name Chris. He stared at the guy and replied, ‘I thought so.’ Burroughs disliked Time intensely. I think it had to do with Time’s coverage of Burroughs shooting his wife, Joan Vollmer, to death in September 1951.”
Saturday, February 27, 1965: Gallery 111, 111 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs’ second gig started at 4:00pm.
March ?, 1965
Bill Szabo left the band because he was hooked on heroin at the time, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact non-sweaty schedule. He was replaced by another Ed Sanders’ late poet friend named Aulden Jay ‘Al’ Fowler (b. Albany, New York). Also the Holy Modal Rounders, aka Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel, joined The Fugs as ‘auxiliary members.’
That night someone broke into Ed Sanders’ Peace Eye Bookstore “and stole Fugs equipment, including Ken Weaver’s groovy wide buffalo hide drum,” recalls Sanders in his autobiography.
Wednesday, February 24, 1965: Peace Eye Bookstore, 383 East 10th Street, b/w Avenues B and C, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played their first gig together at the grand opening of the Peace Eye Bookstore (which was also a celebration of the third anniversary issue of Ed Sanders’ Fuck You / A Magazine of the Arts). The Holy Modal Rounders, a folk duo constiting of Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel, also agreed to perform at the event which lasted from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. “The store was totally packed for the Opening,” recals Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I affixed the three Andy Warhol silkscreened flower images to the walls of Peace Eye. Time magazine sent a team of reporters. A limousine arrived, depositing author James Michener in evening attire. He told me that Andy Warhol had urged him to attend. I asked the crowd to stand back, and The Fugs set up. I made sure the performance was taped. We did about twenty minutes, with ditties such as ‘Nothing,’ a tune called ‘Bull-Tongue Clit,’ also ‘The Ten Commandments’ and the ‘Swinburne Stomp,’ featuring a few stanzas from A. C. Swinburne’s play Atalanta in Calydon. One of my professors from NYU, Frank Peters, was there. His favorite tune from The Fugs set that night, he told me, was ‘Swinburne Stomp.’ William Burroughs asked me, ‘Which one is from Time?’ I pointed out the reporter with the first name Chris. He stared at the guy and replied, ‘I thought so.’ Burroughs disliked Time intensely. I think it had to do with Time’s coverage of Burroughs shooting his wife, Joan Vollmer, to death in September 1951.”
Saturday, February 27, 1965: Gallery 111, 111 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs’ second gig started at 4:00pm.
March ?, 1965
Bill Szabo left the band because he was hooked on heroin at the time, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact non-sweaty schedule. He was replaced by another Ed Sanders’ late poet friend named Aulden Jay ‘Al’ Fowler (b. Albany, New York). Also the Holy Modal Rounders, aka Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel, joined The Fugs as ‘auxiliary members.’
THE FUGS #3 (MARCH ?, 1965 - MARCH 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Al Fowler amphetamine flute, recorder
5) Steve Weber vocals (amphetamine soprano), guitar
6) Peter Stampfel vocals, fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica
Monday, March 8, 1965: East End Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played their third gig together (which started at 9:30pm) with a new lineup which featured another Ed Sanders’ late poet friend named Aulden Jay ‘Al’ Fowler (b. Albany, New York), plus as ‘auxiliary members’, The Holy Modal Rounders, aka Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel. By the way, this was the first and only gig with Al Fowler in the band because, just like Bill Szabo before, he was another one hooked on heroin, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact, non-sweaty schedule.
March 1965
Al Fowler left the band because, just like Bill Szabo, he was also hooked on heroin at the time, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact non-sweaty schedule.
The Fugs played their third gig together (which started at 9:30pm) with a new lineup which featured another Ed Sanders’ late poet friend named Aulden Jay ‘Al’ Fowler (b. Albany, New York), plus as ‘auxiliary members’, The Holy Modal Rounders, aka Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel. By the way, this was the first and only gig with Al Fowler in the band because, just like Bill Szabo before, he was another one hooked on heroin, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact, non-sweaty schedule.
March 1965
Al Fowler left the band because, just like Bill Szabo, he was also hooked on heroin at the time, which made it difficult for him to come to rehearsals or keep to an exact non-sweaty schedule.
THE FUGS #4 (MARCH 1965 - SPRING 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) Peter Stampfel
Monday, March 29 - Tuesday, March 30 and Monday, April 5, 1965: ‘A three day FUG-festival’, East End Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
One show each day, started at 9:00pm. “I sometimes wore the cloth flower banners Andy Warhol had made for the opening of Peace Eye as a kind of shawl, especially at Fugs shows” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “At the three-day festival Tuli wanted to sing a ditty he’d just written. It was not my favorite tune, so I had him sing it bent over, with his head near the floor. During his bent-over crooning, I draped the yellow Warhol Flower silkscreen over him. He crooned a cappella to the melody of the James Bond movie theme Goldfinger, his tune with the title “Pussy Galore.” It began: They call her Pussy Galore / She’s a girl from the Eastern Shore / And she flew out to fame / And her name it is Pussy Galore / A fink named Goldfinger / Tried to play some stinkfinger / With our Pussy but she wouldn’t give in / to a coldfinger . . . / et al. Later in the concert, during the freakout we always provided at the end of ‘Nothing,’ when we rolled on the floor and broke things - I was always smashing up tambourines - that very night, perhaps in a pique of self-abnegation, I tore up the beautiful Warhol banner, the very one I had used to drape the bent-over Tuli during ‘Pussy Galore,’ at the conclusion of ‘Nothing.’ It was a very expensive tearup. Another of the Warhol colored silk-screened flowers, the green one, I used as a rain cape and accidentally left in a deli near the Peace Eye Bookstore. The single red Warhol banner I managed to keep. Decades later [my wife] Miriam and I sold it. It’s now called ‘The Peace Eye Diptych.’ Not long ago I saw it in a Sotheby’s auction listing, where it sold for $250,000. That’s why I say a Fugs show in which I tore up a Warhol banner cost me $250,000, and if I count the time I left the Warhol flower screen in the deli, that places my loss at $500k!!”
April 1965: Cue Recordings Inc., 117 West 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Ed Sanders’ avant-garde filmmaker, artist, and occultist friend Harry Smith arranged for The Fugs an afternoon recording session for Folkways Records that month. “Harry came to a number of early Fugs performances,” recalls Ed in his autobiography. “I usually called out to him from the stage. He liked it when I introduced, say, Tuli’s song ‘Nothing,’ ‘In the key of Metaphysical Distress —Nothing!!’. Then he told me he could arrange for a recording session for Folkways Records. I went to the Folkways office at 165 West Fortysixth Street, where I met Moe Asch, the owner. He okayed Harry supervising a Fugs recording session. Harry examined a list of tunes I had lying on the Peace Eye desk. He chuckled at a proposed Fugs tune (never recorded) ‘Whenever I’m in an Airplane Crash, I Reach for My Fly’.” “[For the session] I had prepared a sequence of twenty-two songs, in a certain order, and we recorded them in one long flow, then recorded them a second time,” he continues. “Steve and Peter also recorded some of their Holy Modal Rounder tunes during the session. At first we set up our positions — but seemed uncertain on how to proceed. ‘Just get going,’ Harry Smith commanded from the control booth, and so we did just that. We arrayed ourselves in front of microphones and began recording the sequence of twenty-two. In the middle of the session a guy from Folkways showed up with a contract and modest cash for each player. The contract was for ‘The Fugs Jug Band.’ I scratched out the words ‘Jug Band’ on the contract. Harry, as far as I know, received no financial reward for the recording. He asked for a bottle of rum, which I bought. During the session, I think perhaps to spur us to greater motivity and energy, he came in from the recording booth to the room where we were singing and smashed the bottle of rum against the wall. We took no breaks (except to sign the contracts), and Harry instructed the recording engineer just to let the tape keep running to catch the patter between takes. Little did I know that the tunes from this initial quick, maybe three-hour session would stay in print through the rest of the century and beyond.” Peter Stampfel also recalled the band’s first recording session in his regular column ‘Holy Modal Blither’ for The Broadside magazine (issue date June 9, 1965): “In April, Weber and I cut a record with a group called 'The Fugs' who we are auxiliary members of. The record was done by Folkways and is supposed to be out this summer. The other Fugs are Ed Sanders, who edits that lurid magazine mentioned on the back of our record, Tuli Kupferberg, who puts out 'Yeah,' 'Birth,' 'Swing' and other publications, and Ken Weaver, a mad Oklahoma drummer who has had four drums stolen from him this year. The last one I heard of was stolen by two cats on East 10th Street who attacked him with a hammer. Honest to God. Hary Smith arranged the recording and broke a wine bottle in the middle of 'The Swineburn Stop [sic]’ [actually ‘Nothing’], which is pretty noisy, so I don't know if you'll be able to hear it on the record. All the Fugs hits on the record were written by the Fugs, and they usually glorify anti-social behavior, anarchy, peace-stomping, lust, and the expanding universe. Pester record dealers for it, and watch their shock when the record really appears.” “I’m just on two cuts (‘Swinebourne Stomp’ [sic] and ‘Nothing’),” added Peter in his later column ‘The Veer City Rider’ for The Broadside magazine (issue date March 16, 1966). “The cut of ‘Nothing’ is where Harry Smith (of anthology fame) broke a wine bottle in the middle.” Anyway, among the 22 songs recorded that day, there were: ‘Defeated,’ ‘Home Made Yodel,’ ‘Saran Wrap,’ ‘Supergirl,’ ‘Kill for Peace,’ and the aforementioned ‘Nothing,’ and ‘Swinburne Stomp.’
Spring 1965
Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel left the band because they had some gigs to play around the country as The Holy Modal Rounders. The Fugs replaced them with a local blues guitarist named Bill Barth.
One show each day, started at 9:00pm. “I sometimes wore the cloth flower banners Andy Warhol had made for the opening of Peace Eye as a kind of shawl, especially at Fugs shows” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “At the three-day festival Tuli wanted to sing a ditty he’d just written. It was not my favorite tune, so I had him sing it bent over, with his head near the floor. During his bent-over crooning, I draped the yellow Warhol Flower silkscreen over him. He crooned a cappella to the melody of the James Bond movie theme Goldfinger, his tune with the title “Pussy Galore.” It began: They call her Pussy Galore / She’s a girl from the Eastern Shore / And she flew out to fame / And her name it is Pussy Galore / A fink named Goldfinger / Tried to play some stinkfinger / With our Pussy but she wouldn’t give in / to a coldfinger . . . / et al. Later in the concert, during the freakout we always provided at the end of ‘Nothing,’ when we rolled on the floor and broke things - I was always smashing up tambourines - that very night, perhaps in a pique of self-abnegation, I tore up the beautiful Warhol banner, the very one I had used to drape the bent-over Tuli during ‘Pussy Galore,’ at the conclusion of ‘Nothing.’ It was a very expensive tearup. Another of the Warhol colored silk-screened flowers, the green one, I used as a rain cape and accidentally left in a deli near the Peace Eye Bookstore. The single red Warhol banner I managed to keep. Decades later [my wife] Miriam and I sold it. It’s now called ‘The Peace Eye Diptych.’ Not long ago I saw it in a Sotheby’s auction listing, where it sold for $250,000. That’s why I say a Fugs show in which I tore up a Warhol banner cost me $250,000, and if I count the time I left the Warhol flower screen in the deli, that places my loss at $500k!!”
April 1965: Cue Recordings Inc., 117 West 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Ed Sanders’ avant-garde filmmaker, artist, and occultist friend Harry Smith arranged for The Fugs an afternoon recording session for Folkways Records that month. “Harry came to a number of early Fugs performances,” recalls Ed in his autobiography. “I usually called out to him from the stage. He liked it when I introduced, say, Tuli’s song ‘Nothing,’ ‘In the key of Metaphysical Distress —Nothing!!’. Then he told me he could arrange for a recording session for Folkways Records. I went to the Folkways office at 165 West Fortysixth Street, where I met Moe Asch, the owner. He okayed Harry supervising a Fugs recording session. Harry examined a list of tunes I had lying on the Peace Eye desk. He chuckled at a proposed Fugs tune (never recorded) ‘Whenever I’m in an Airplane Crash, I Reach for My Fly’.” “[For the session] I had prepared a sequence of twenty-two songs, in a certain order, and we recorded them in one long flow, then recorded them a second time,” he continues. “Steve and Peter also recorded some of their Holy Modal Rounder tunes during the session. At first we set up our positions — but seemed uncertain on how to proceed. ‘Just get going,’ Harry Smith commanded from the control booth, and so we did just that. We arrayed ourselves in front of microphones and began recording the sequence of twenty-two. In the middle of the session a guy from Folkways showed up with a contract and modest cash for each player. The contract was for ‘The Fugs Jug Band.’ I scratched out the words ‘Jug Band’ on the contract. Harry, as far as I know, received no financial reward for the recording. He asked for a bottle of rum, which I bought. During the session, I think perhaps to spur us to greater motivity and energy, he came in from the recording booth to the room where we were singing and smashed the bottle of rum against the wall. We took no breaks (except to sign the contracts), and Harry instructed the recording engineer just to let the tape keep running to catch the patter between takes. Little did I know that the tunes from this initial quick, maybe three-hour session would stay in print through the rest of the century and beyond.” Peter Stampfel also recalled the band’s first recording session in his regular column ‘Holy Modal Blither’ for The Broadside magazine (issue date June 9, 1965): “In April, Weber and I cut a record with a group called 'The Fugs' who we are auxiliary members of. The record was done by Folkways and is supposed to be out this summer. The other Fugs are Ed Sanders, who edits that lurid magazine mentioned on the back of our record, Tuli Kupferberg, who puts out 'Yeah,' 'Birth,' 'Swing' and other publications, and Ken Weaver, a mad Oklahoma drummer who has had four drums stolen from him this year. The last one I heard of was stolen by two cats on East 10th Street who attacked him with a hammer. Honest to God. Hary Smith arranged the recording and broke a wine bottle in the middle of 'The Swineburn Stop [sic]’ [actually ‘Nothing’], which is pretty noisy, so I don't know if you'll be able to hear it on the record. All the Fugs hits on the record were written by the Fugs, and they usually glorify anti-social behavior, anarchy, peace-stomping, lust, and the expanding universe. Pester record dealers for it, and watch their shock when the record really appears.” “I’m just on two cuts (‘Swinebourne Stomp’ [sic] and ‘Nothing’),” added Peter in his later column ‘The Veer City Rider’ for The Broadside magazine (issue date March 16, 1966). “The cut of ‘Nothing’ is where Harry Smith (of anthology fame) broke a wine bottle in the middle.” Anyway, among the 22 songs recorded that day, there were: ‘Defeated,’ ‘Home Made Yodel,’ ‘Saran Wrap,’ ‘Supergirl,’ ‘Kill for Peace,’ and the aforementioned ‘Nothing,’ and ‘Swinburne Stomp.’
Spring 1965
Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel left the band because they had some gigs to play around the country as The Holy Modal Rounders. The Fugs replaced them with a local blues guitarist named Bill Barth.
THE FUGS #5 (SPRING 1965 - JUNE 2?, 1965 (?))
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Bill Barth guitar
Saturday, June 12, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show. An ad published in The Village Voice dated June 10, 1965, said: “Who are The Fugs? What are The Fugs? When do The Fugs strike? Sources indicate The Fugs are a semi-deranged folk singing organism which includes Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver and Bill Barth. This organism will (?) at The Bridge to encounter you. Come early - but not too early.”
Thursday, June 17, 1965
The Village Voice columnist John Wilcock interviewed Ed Sanders for his regular column ‘The Village Square,’ which was published in the today issue of the nation’s first alternative weekly newspaper based in New York City. In the interview, Ed speaked about everything, from his private life to his several activities which included, of course, The Fugs. About them, he said: “The Fugs are a rock and roll, folk, and poetry spew-singing group operating as an emanation of the culture of the lower East Side. All of their 40 or so songs are original creations or adaptions of poems. We believe in BODY POETRY. That is, the Fugs work through the genitals and the Big Beat to get to the brain, and through the brain and the Big Beat to get to the genitals, thus creating a thrilling cross-current. You can freak all this out in our forthcoming Folkways record album.
Saturday, June 19, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show. An ad published in The Village Voice dated June 17, 1965, said: “Who are The Fugs? What are The Fugs? When do The Fugs strike? Sources indicate The Fugs are a semi-deranged folk singing organism which includes Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver and Bill Barth. This organism will (?) at The Bridge to encounter you. Come early - but not too early.” Supposedly this was the second and last gig with Bill Barth in the band.
June 2?, 1965 (?)
Bill Barth left The Fugs and went to form a jazz-based rock band called The Insect Trust. The band replaced him with two guitarists, Vincent ‘Vinny’ Leary and Moe Mahoney.
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show. An ad published in The Village Voice dated June 10, 1965, said: “Who are The Fugs? What are The Fugs? When do The Fugs strike? Sources indicate The Fugs are a semi-deranged folk singing organism which includes Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver and Bill Barth. This organism will (?) at The Bridge to encounter you. Come early - but not too early.”
Thursday, June 17, 1965
The Village Voice columnist John Wilcock interviewed Ed Sanders for his regular column ‘The Village Square,’ which was published in the today issue of the nation’s first alternative weekly newspaper based in New York City. In the interview, Ed speaked about everything, from his private life to his several activities which included, of course, The Fugs. About them, he said: “The Fugs are a rock and roll, folk, and poetry spew-singing group operating as an emanation of the culture of the lower East Side. All of their 40 or so songs are original creations or adaptions of poems. We believe in BODY POETRY. That is, the Fugs work through the genitals and the Big Beat to get to the brain, and through the brain and the Big Beat to get to the genitals, thus creating a thrilling cross-current. You can freak all this out in our forthcoming Folkways record album.
Saturday, June 19, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show. An ad published in The Village Voice dated June 17, 1965, said: “Who are The Fugs? What are The Fugs? When do The Fugs strike? Sources indicate The Fugs are a semi-deranged folk singing organism which includes Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver and Bill Barth. This organism will (?) at The Bridge to encounter you. Come early - but not too early.” Supposedly this was the second and last gig with Bill Barth in the band.
June 2?, 1965 (?)
Bill Barth left The Fugs and went to form a jazz-based rock band called The Insect Trust. The band replaced him with two guitarists, Vincent ‘Vinny’ Leary and Moe Mahoney.
THE FUGS #6 (JUNE 2?, 1965 (?) - JULY or AUGUST 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Vincent ‘Vinny’ ‘Vin’ Leary vocals, guitar, harmonica
5) Moe Mahoney guitar
Tuesday, June 29, 1965: ‘The Cino’s Not for Burning - Benefit for The Caffe Cino’, The Caffe Cino, 31 Cornelia Street, West Village, Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
Two benefit shows, 8:00pm and 12 midnight. Also on the bill: Al Carmines, Ellen Stewart (MC), Warren Finnerty, John Herbert McDowell, and others.
Friday, July 2, 1965: ‘Freak with The Fugs’, Ego East, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Saturday, July 3, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 10, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 17, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 24, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 31, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
July or August 1965
Moe Mahoney left The Fugs and was replaced by Steve Weber who re-joined them after the break up of The Holy Modal Rounders in July ’65. Also the band added a bass player named John Anderson. “A Yale student named John Anderson started performing with us,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “He was an excellent bass player and could sing excellent harmonies. He was also an artist and designed the red, white, and blue Fugs logo, which we spray-painted on sweatshirts, using a stencil John created. We also sold black Fugs panties, with a gold ‘Fugs’ on each and an arrow leading downward to the mons veneris. I designed and printed The Fugs Songbook on the Peace Eye mimeograph, which we sold at performances and in the Peace Eye book catalogs.”
Two benefit shows, 8:00pm and 12 midnight. Also on the bill: Al Carmines, Ellen Stewart (MC), Warren Finnerty, John Herbert McDowell, and others.
Friday, July 2, 1965: ‘Freak with The Fugs’, Ego East, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Saturday, July 3, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 10, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 17, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 24, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, July 31, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
July or August 1965
Moe Mahoney left The Fugs and was replaced by Steve Weber who re-joined them after the break up of The Holy Modal Rounders in July ’65. Also the band added a bass player named John Anderson. “A Yale student named John Anderson started performing with us,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “He was an excellent bass player and could sing excellent harmonies. He was also an artist and designed the red, white, and blue Fugs logo, which we spray-painted on sweatshirts, using a stencil John created. We also sold black Fugs panties, with a gold ‘Fugs’ on each and an arrow leading downward to the mons veneris. I designed and printed The Fugs Songbook on the Peace Eye mimeograph, which we sold at performances and in the Peace Eye book catalogs.”
THE FUGS #7 (JULY or AUGUST 1965 - SEPTEMBER 22, 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) Vinny Leary
6) John Anderson vocals, bass
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) Vinny Leary
6) John Anderson vocals, bass
Saturday, August 7, 1965: ‘A Night of Napalm In Support of the Assembly of Unrepresented People’, The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out benefit show. “We had learned about the use of napalm and defoliants in Vietnam, and it seemed almost too horrible to chant about,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Tuli prepared a tape of patriotic songs, which we played. We performed our regular set, with songs such as ‘Kill for Peace,’ ‘Nothing,’ and my ‘Strafe Them Creeps in the Rice Paddy, Daddy.’ (I later used it as part of the ‘War Song’ suite on our album Tenderness Junction.) The band also worked up my ‘No Redemption’ chant, which I had intended to utilize in Amphetamine Head - A Study of Power in America: No Redemption No Redemption / No Redemption from Evil and Sin / No Redemption from the Hate and the Horror / No Redemption No Redemption / The River is full of Corpses / The River is full of the Boats of Death / No Redemption No Redemption . . . and on and on. Then we enacted what we called ‘The Fugs Spaghetti Death.’ We had boiled pot after pot of spaghetti at Betsy Klein’s apartment that afternoon until we had almost an entire wastebasket full of spaghetti. We threw globs of the spaghetti at one another and at the audience. It was all over the stage, and we began to slip, slide, and fall. I spotted Andy Warhol in the front row. It appeared that he was wearing a leather tie - then blap! I got him full face with a glop of spaghetti. Another surreal night at the Bridge Theater. And a huge job the next afternoon, scraping strings of dried spaghetti off a barren stage.” By the way, allegedly at that point, Steve Weber returned in the band (after The Holy Modal Rounders disbanded in July ‘65) and also they added a bass player named John Anderson. “A Yale student named John Anderson started performing with us,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “He was an excellent bass player and could sing excellent harmonies. He was also an artist and designed the red, white, and blue Fugs logo, which we spray-painted on sweatshirts, using a stencil John created. We also sold black Fugs panties, with a gold ‘Fugs’ on each and an arrow leading downward to the mons veneris. I designed and printed The Fugs Songbook on the Peace Eye mimeograph, which we sold at performances and in the Peace Eye book catalogs.”
Wednesday, August 11, 1965: Auditorium, Broadway Central Hotel, 673 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs provided music live entertainment at a benefit held to raise money to provide bail for Dale Wilbourne, who had been arrested with Jack William Martin on a marijuana charge. The late poet and underground filmmaker Piero Heliczer was the master of cerimonies. There were about 200 people present. “The Fugs and others held a benefit at the Broadway Central Hotel for defendants Jack Martin and Dale Wilbourne,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Federal agents showed up outside the gig and harassed people! I’ll never forget the image of filmmaker Jack Smith, his face bloodied from a confrontation with the police outside the Broadway Central. He and others (but not The Fugs) were arrested at the benefit.”
Saturday, August 14, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, August 21, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Sunday, August 22, 1965: ‘A benefit for Jack Smith, Jack Martin, Dale Wilbourne, Irene Noland & Piero Heliczer’, Village Gate (theatre), 158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York
After the arrests at the above mentioned benefit, “there had to be ANOTHER benefit,” explains Ed Sanders in his autobiography, “this one at Art D’ Lu-goff’s Village Gate, on the afternoon of August 22, at which The Fugs again performed.” One show, from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Also on the bill: The Cineola Transcendental Orchestra, John Vaccaro, Beverly Grant, Baby Jane Hollzer, Mario Montez.
Saturday, August 28, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 4, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 11, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 18, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Wednesday, September 22, 1965: Sanders Recording Studios Inc., 167 West 48th Street, West Side, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs headed into the studio for their second recording session. “We wanted to entice Jerry Schoenbaum, who was running a label called ‘Verve/Folkways,’ into signing us,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Verve/Folkways was the Blues Projects’ label. We prepared a sequence of songs and went uptown to a place called Sanders Sound studio. Moe Asch paid for the session, but the masters were to be owned by me. He said all he wanted was to be paid back for the session if Verve/Folkways decided to put out the album. Among The Fugs tunes we recorded at this session were Steve Weber’s new ‘Boobs-a-Lot,’ plus another Weber tune, ‘An Empty Heart.’ We also recorded my reworking of parts of Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ into ‘The I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Rock’ and an antiwar chant I wrote, ‘I Command the House of the Devil.’ Weaver sang his ‘I Couldn’t Get High,’ and we recorded his ‘Slum Goddess of the Lower East Side.’ To entice Verve/Folkways, we slurred the word ‘fuck’ in the opening line of Tuli’s ‘Supergirl’: ‘I want a girl that can [slur] like an angel.’ Yes! Getting on Verve Folkways! I sent the new demo to Schoenbaum, but to our shock he decided not to sign The Fugs!” By the way, allegedly the very next day of the session, Vinny Leary left the band.
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out benefit show. “We had learned about the use of napalm and defoliants in Vietnam, and it seemed almost too horrible to chant about,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Tuli prepared a tape of patriotic songs, which we played. We performed our regular set, with songs such as ‘Kill for Peace,’ ‘Nothing,’ and my ‘Strafe Them Creeps in the Rice Paddy, Daddy.’ (I later used it as part of the ‘War Song’ suite on our album Tenderness Junction.) The band also worked up my ‘No Redemption’ chant, which I had intended to utilize in Amphetamine Head - A Study of Power in America: No Redemption No Redemption / No Redemption from Evil and Sin / No Redemption from the Hate and the Horror / No Redemption No Redemption / The River is full of Corpses / The River is full of the Boats of Death / No Redemption No Redemption . . . and on and on. Then we enacted what we called ‘The Fugs Spaghetti Death.’ We had boiled pot after pot of spaghetti at Betsy Klein’s apartment that afternoon until we had almost an entire wastebasket full of spaghetti. We threw globs of the spaghetti at one another and at the audience. It was all over the stage, and we began to slip, slide, and fall. I spotted Andy Warhol in the front row. It appeared that he was wearing a leather tie - then blap! I got him full face with a glop of spaghetti. Another surreal night at the Bridge Theater. And a huge job the next afternoon, scraping strings of dried spaghetti off a barren stage.” By the way, allegedly at that point, Steve Weber returned in the band (after The Holy Modal Rounders disbanded in July ‘65) and also they added a bass player named John Anderson. “A Yale student named John Anderson started performing with us,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “He was an excellent bass player and could sing excellent harmonies. He was also an artist and designed the red, white, and blue Fugs logo, which we spray-painted on sweatshirts, using a stencil John created. We also sold black Fugs panties, with a gold ‘Fugs’ on each and an arrow leading downward to the mons veneris. I designed and printed The Fugs Songbook on the Peace Eye mimeograph, which we sold at performances and in the Peace Eye book catalogs.”
Wednesday, August 11, 1965: Auditorium, Broadway Central Hotel, 673 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs provided music live entertainment at a benefit held to raise money to provide bail for Dale Wilbourne, who had been arrested with Jack William Martin on a marijuana charge. The late poet and underground filmmaker Piero Heliczer was the master of cerimonies. There were about 200 people present. “The Fugs and others held a benefit at the Broadway Central Hotel for defendants Jack Martin and Dale Wilbourne,” confirms Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Federal agents showed up outside the gig and harassed people! I’ll never forget the image of filmmaker Jack Smith, his face bloodied from a confrontation with the police outside the Broadway Central. He and others (but not The Fugs) were arrested at the benefit.”
Saturday, August 14, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, August 21, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Sunday, August 22, 1965: ‘A benefit for Jack Smith, Jack Martin, Dale Wilbourne, Irene Noland & Piero Heliczer’, Village Gate (theatre), 158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York
After the arrests at the above mentioned benefit, “there had to be ANOTHER benefit,” explains Ed Sanders in his autobiography, “this one at Art D’ Lu-goff’s Village Gate, on the afternoon of August 22, at which The Fugs again performed.” One show, from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Also on the bill: The Cineola Transcendental Orchestra, John Vaccaro, Beverly Grant, Baby Jane Hollzer, Mario Montez.
Saturday, August 28, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 4, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 11, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Saturday, September 18, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Wednesday, September 22, 1965: Sanders Recording Studios Inc., 167 West 48th Street, West Side, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs headed into the studio for their second recording session. “We wanted to entice Jerry Schoenbaum, who was running a label called ‘Verve/Folkways,’ into signing us,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Verve/Folkways was the Blues Projects’ label. We prepared a sequence of songs and went uptown to a place called Sanders Sound studio. Moe Asch paid for the session, but the masters were to be owned by me. He said all he wanted was to be paid back for the session if Verve/Folkways decided to put out the album. Among The Fugs tunes we recorded at this session were Steve Weber’s new ‘Boobs-a-Lot,’ plus another Weber tune, ‘An Empty Heart.’ We also recorded my reworking of parts of Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ into ‘The I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Rock’ and an antiwar chant I wrote, ‘I Command the House of the Devil.’ Weaver sang his ‘I Couldn’t Get High,’ and we recorded his ‘Slum Goddess of the Lower East Side.’ To entice Verve/Folkways, we slurred the word ‘fuck’ in the opening line of Tuli’s ‘Supergirl’: ‘I want a girl that can [slur] like an angel.’ Yes! Getting on Verve Folkways! I sent the new demo to Schoenbaum, but to our shock he decided not to sign The Fugs!” By the way, allegedly the very next day of the session, Vinny Leary left the band.
THE FUGS #8 (SEPTEMBER 23, 1965 - OCTOBER ?, 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) John Anderson
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) John Anderson
Friday, September 24, 1965: ‘Sing-In For Peace! - An All-Night Singing Protest Against The War In Viet-Nam’, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York
“There was a Sing-In for Peace on September 22 [sic] at Carnegie Hall to a capacity crowd of 2,800,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Fanny Lou Hamer, cofounder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, brought the house down. Joan Baez sang, among others, and so did The Fugs! We sang ‘Kill for Peace,’ with just Weaver on conga and John Anderson on bass because Steve Weber, our guitarist, missed the gig. Some in the audience booed the act before we were announced. Uh oh, I thought, as we stood at the mikes, but the crowd loved us! Some were even dancing in the aisles. In the next issue of the Village Voice Jack Newfield wrote a piece about the ‘Sing-In for Peace’ in which he noted, ‘The politicos in the crowd laughed at and booed the Seven Sons, a long-haired electronic rock ’n’ roll quartet, but when The Fugs - the underground Rolling Stones - performed ‘Kill for Peace,’ several couples began to frug in the aisles of the cultural temple Isaac Stern saved from demolition.’ After we left to thunderous applause, Ken Weaver was backstage when he realized that he’d left his conga on the stage, so he went to retrieve it. Blocking his path was eminent folksinger Theodore Bikel. Twice Weaver tried to retrieve his drum; twice Bikel stopped him, threatening to call security. Weaver called him a fucking Nazi. Perhaps there was a bit of cross-class scrounge-analysis against our East-Side-elegant drummer on the part of the elegant Bikel. Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs were wildly received, and the concert ended with the Chambers Brothers leading the packed throng in ‘Down by the Riverside.’ But the war went on for another nine and a half years.” Also on the bill: Joan Baez, The Seventh Sons, Danny Kalb, Eric Andersen, Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Guy Carawan, Chambers Bros., Len Chandler, Barbara Dane, Rev. Gary Davis, Jack Elliott, Logan English, Freedom Singers, Gale Garnett, Ronnie Gilbert, Greenbriar Boys, Fanny Lou Hamer, New Yorld Singers, New York Ramblers, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Pennywhistlers, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, and many many others. Two shows, from 8:00pm to 12 midnight, and from 12 midnight to 3:30am.
Friday, September 24, 1965: ‘A Benefit for The Fugs!! - Cross Country Vietnam Protest Concert Tour’, East End Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
Two shows, 8:00pm and 10:00pm. This was the first of two benefits held to try to raise money for ‘The Fugs Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan.’ “There were big demonstrations scheduled in October at the Oakland Army Terminal, where soldiers were being shipped to Vietnam,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “The sponsoring group was called the Vietnam Day Committee (VDC), which had put on very successful antiwar demonstrations earlier in 1965. The VDC planned a nationwide protest known as the International Days of Protest Against American Military Intervention, which was scheduled to take place on October 15 and October 16. I had the idea to lead The Fugs across country, doing antiwar concerts and demonstrations along the way, culminating in an appearance at the Oakland demonstrations. I began planning for the first Fugs Cross-Country Tour.”
Saturday, September 25, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Sunday, September 26, 1965: ‘Fugathon! - benefit for the Fugs’ Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan’, Bowery Poets Coop, 2 East 2nd Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
One show, started at 3:00pm.
Thursday, September 30 - Friday, October 1, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a couple of midnight sold-out shows.
October ?, 1965
John Anderson left the band. At that point, I ran an ad in the Village Voice looking for a guitarist or a bass player to accompany us on the cross-country tour,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I interviewed four. The first was Larry Coryell, not yet famous, with a very expensive guitar; we couldn’t afford him. The second was underage, so I turned him down. The third turned out to be a police informant! I know this because George Plimpton called me at Peace Eye and told me that a famous crime reporter had brought to a party a police informant who had just tried out for The Fugs! Good thing I hadn’t been that impressed with the way he played the guitar. The fourth one, whom I hired, was named Jon Sheldon, who later became a doctor.”
“There was a Sing-In for Peace on September 22 [sic] at Carnegie Hall to a capacity crowd of 2,800,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Fanny Lou Hamer, cofounder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, brought the house down. Joan Baez sang, among others, and so did The Fugs! We sang ‘Kill for Peace,’ with just Weaver on conga and John Anderson on bass because Steve Weber, our guitarist, missed the gig. Some in the audience booed the act before we were announced. Uh oh, I thought, as we stood at the mikes, but the crowd loved us! Some were even dancing in the aisles. In the next issue of the Village Voice Jack Newfield wrote a piece about the ‘Sing-In for Peace’ in which he noted, ‘The politicos in the crowd laughed at and booed the Seven Sons, a long-haired electronic rock ’n’ roll quartet, but when The Fugs - the underground Rolling Stones - performed ‘Kill for Peace,’ several couples began to frug in the aisles of the cultural temple Isaac Stern saved from demolition.’ After we left to thunderous applause, Ken Weaver was backstage when he realized that he’d left his conga on the stage, so he went to retrieve it. Blocking his path was eminent folksinger Theodore Bikel. Twice Weaver tried to retrieve his drum; twice Bikel stopped him, threatening to call security. Weaver called him a fucking Nazi. Perhaps there was a bit of cross-class scrounge-analysis against our East-Side-elegant drummer on the part of the elegant Bikel. Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs were wildly received, and the concert ended with the Chambers Brothers leading the packed throng in ‘Down by the Riverside.’ But the war went on for another nine and a half years.” Also on the bill: Joan Baez, The Seventh Sons, Danny Kalb, Eric Andersen, Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Guy Carawan, Chambers Bros., Len Chandler, Barbara Dane, Rev. Gary Davis, Jack Elliott, Logan English, Freedom Singers, Gale Garnett, Ronnie Gilbert, Greenbriar Boys, Fanny Lou Hamer, New Yorld Singers, New York Ramblers, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Pennywhistlers, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, and many many others. Two shows, from 8:00pm to 12 midnight, and from 12 midnight to 3:30am.
Friday, September 24, 1965: ‘A Benefit for The Fugs!! - Cross Country Vietnam Protest Concert Tour’, East End Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
Two shows, 8:00pm and 10:00pm. This was the first of two benefits held to try to raise money for ‘The Fugs Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan.’ “There were big demonstrations scheduled in October at the Oakland Army Terminal, where soldiers were being shipped to Vietnam,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “The sponsoring group was called the Vietnam Day Committee (VDC), which had put on very successful antiwar demonstrations earlier in 1965. The VDC planned a nationwide protest known as the International Days of Protest Against American Military Intervention, which was scheduled to take place on October 15 and October 16. I had the idea to lead The Fugs across country, doing antiwar concerts and demonstrations along the way, culminating in an appearance at the Oakland demonstrations. I began planning for the first Fugs Cross-Country Tour.”
Saturday, September 25, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a midnight sold-out show.
Sunday, September 26, 1965: ‘Fugathon! - benefit for the Fugs’ Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan’, Bowery Poets Coop, 2 East 2nd Street, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
One show, started at 3:00pm.
Thursday, September 30 - Friday, October 1, 1965: The Bridge (theatre), 4 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York
The Fugs played a couple of midnight sold-out shows.
October ?, 1965
John Anderson left the band. At that point, I ran an ad in the Village Voice looking for a guitarist or a bass player to accompany us on the cross-country tour,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I interviewed four. The first was Larry Coryell, not yet famous, with a very expensive guitar; we couldn’t afford him. The second was underage, so I turned him down. The third turned out to be a police informant! I know this because George Plimpton called me at Peace Eye and told me that a famous crime reporter had brought to a party a police informant who had just tried out for The Fugs! Good thing I hadn’t been that impressed with the way he played the guitar. The fourth one, whom I hired, was named Jon Sheldon, who later became a doctor.”
THE FUGS #9 (OCTOBER ?, 1965 - OCTOBER 18 or 19, 1965 (?))
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
5) Jon Sheldon bass
Friday, October 8, 1965
The Fugs leaved New York City and proceeded to California for their ‘Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan.’ “I published a two-page press release on the Peace Eye mimeo,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Announcing the Fugs Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan, October 8–28th. I also mentioned a midnight concert in the middle of the Great Salt Desert, in celebration of ‘Group Gropes and the American West.’ We also intended to hold a graveside Fugs concert at James Dean’s stone.” “Lee Crabtree, a friend of Ted Berrigan’s, volunteered to drive,” he continues. “We located a Volkswagen bus, which we rented by paying the past-due parking bill for the bus at writer Bill Brammer’s apartment on the Upper East Side. Brammer was a well-known writer from Texas, part of a group who called themselves the Mad Dogs and included my friend Bud Shrake, Dan Jenkins, and Larry L. King. Brammer had written a novel, The Gay Place, in 1961 and was a pal of Bill Beckman’s. I turned over the key to Peace Eye to my comrade, poet Ted Berrigan, and left him in charge. Just before The Fugs departed on their cross-country tour, Ted sent a telegram to me at Peace Eye wishing us success on the voyage. He signed it ‘Bob Dylan’.” “We took off in our packed microbus on October 8 - five Fugs, [my wife] Miriam, [my daughter] Deirdre (then just over a year old), plus a portable sound system, a guitar amp, some drums, and a few hundred copies of The Fugs Songbook,” concludes Ed.
Saturday, October 9, 1965 (?): Muhlenberg College, 2400 West Chew Street, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania (cancelled)
“Uh, oh, right away we discovered there was something wrong with the engine,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “It barely pulled us up the ramp to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. We limped onward, about thirty miles per hour, and there went my carefully calibrated set of events. We missed a gig at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. Finally, we stopped a few days in Bloomington, Indiana, where we had a new engine put in the VW van. Tuli paid for it.”
Monday, October 11, 1965 (?): ‘Private Party’, Frank Hoffman’s house, Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana
“The Fugs had announced plans to hold a picket of support for the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “When we showed up, we were invited to visit the Institute, where we met the staff, who volunteered to show us some of their pornographic art. They asked what country and time I was interested in. My mind flashed with ideas. Victorian erotomania? Should I request some eighteenth-century Norwegian teabag fetish art? We performed a concert at the house of a guy named Frank Hoffman, who was affiliated at the time with the institute. Frank and I at night went to the Kinsey Institute to pick up some pornographic films to show at his house after our performance, which was taped, I guess, for the institute’s archives.”
October 1?, 1965 James Dean’s grave, Park Cemetery, 7843 South 150 East, Fairmount, Grant County, Indiana (cancelled)
“We had planned to do an outdoor concert at James Dean’s grave, and I had a call from CBS-TV, Channel 8 Indianapolis, which wanted to film it,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “But we were running so late, we barreled across the Midwest toward our appointments in the ‘Western Night’.”
Monday, October 18, 1965
“We surged onward, pausing at dawn at William Burroughs’s birthplace at 4664 Pershing, in St. Louis, where we trooped up on the porch to hold, on October 18, 1965, a silent vigil for a minute or two in honor of our mentor,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I left a note on the porch: Thank you, The Fugs on October 18, 1965 at 6:00 a.m. held a silent vigil in honor of William Burroughs’ birthplace at 4664 Pershing, St. Louis. I filmed the dawn kowtow on the Burroughs porch, and then we sped onward.” “The packed Fugs VW bus, with a sign on the side, “FUGS FOR PEACE,” pulled into the driveway of Terrence Williams; his wife, Nancy; and their three young sons, on Missouri Street in Lawrence, Kansas,” continues Ed. “Williams was a rare book librarian at Kansas University (KU) who had been given a grant by the university to purchase publications from the Mimeograph Revolution. He was a regular customer of the Peace Eye rare books catalogs. I had set up the visit from the Peace Eye Bookstore. Terrence Williams recalled it: “One day Ed called me to say that the band was traveling to California in a VW bus to attend an anti–Vietnam War rally. They were driving first to the University of Indiana. He asked if we could put them up in Lawrence for a few days as they traveled west. Without asking my wife, I said, ‘Sure. When will you be here?’’ Williams further reported: ‘Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, Steve Weber and Ken Weaver brought the Lower East Side to our house. And these largerthan-life people from the foreign nation of New York did literally fill our house. My wife Nancy had lived for a time in Greenwich Village, and she was a welcoming and open-minded person. Like me, she held a firm anti-war position, but neither of us had taken our beliefs much past signing petitions and attending rallies. Her only concern about our houseful of musical war protesters was drugs.’ Borrowing from James Brown, I had banned all pot from the crosscountry tour. We were controversial enough, with copies of Fuck You and The Fugs Songbook aboard the bus. The only possible indication of ‘drugs,’ as Terrence Williams noted, was when he spotted Steve Weber tardily and lengthily staring at the round window of the clothes dryer as it tumbled and tumbled a load of wash.”
Monday, October 18 or Tuesday, October 19, 1965 (?): ‘Private Party’, Ed Grier’s house, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas
“The Fugs performed a set at the home of KU English professor Ed Grier. (A few weeks later Grier would suggest I approach the ACLU for help after the police raid on Peace Eye Bookstore.),” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Lawrence had a well-developed underground scene. We met a young poet named George Kimball, who, out one night in town, ran into a man walking in William Blake nakedness. Kimball, later a well-known sports reporter, was arrested while picketing the Lawrence Draft Board with a sign ‘Fuck the Draft’ and was soon off to New York City, where in early ’66 he drove Panna Grady and me up to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to visit bard Charles Olson. During our two-day stay in Lawrence our bass player, Jon Sheldon, had had enough of the cramped VW van and he split. We were grateful for the additional floor space in the van. Steve Weber on guitar and Ken Weaver on conga were more than adequate music underneath our lyrics.”
The Fugs leaved New York City and proceeded to California for their ‘Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan.’ “I published a two-page press release on the Peace Eye mimeo,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Announcing the Fugs Cross Country Vietnam Protest Caravan, October 8–28th. I also mentioned a midnight concert in the middle of the Great Salt Desert, in celebration of ‘Group Gropes and the American West.’ We also intended to hold a graveside Fugs concert at James Dean’s stone.” “Lee Crabtree, a friend of Ted Berrigan’s, volunteered to drive,” he continues. “We located a Volkswagen bus, which we rented by paying the past-due parking bill for the bus at writer Bill Brammer’s apartment on the Upper East Side. Brammer was a well-known writer from Texas, part of a group who called themselves the Mad Dogs and included my friend Bud Shrake, Dan Jenkins, and Larry L. King. Brammer had written a novel, The Gay Place, in 1961 and was a pal of Bill Beckman’s. I turned over the key to Peace Eye to my comrade, poet Ted Berrigan, and left him in charge. Just before The Fugs departed on their cross-country tour, Ted sent a telegram to me at Peace Eye wishing us success on the voyage. He signed it ‘Bob Dylan’.” “We took off in our packed microbus on October 8 - five Fugs, [my wife] Miriam, [my daughter] Deirdre (then just over a year old), plus a portable sound system, a guitar amp, some drums, and a few hundred copies of The Fugs Songbook,” concludes Ed.
Saturday, October 9, 1965 (?): Muhlenberg College, 2400 West Chew Street, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania (cancelled)
“Uh, oh, right away we discovered there was something wrong with the engine,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “It barely pulled us up the ramp to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. We limped onward, about thirty miles per hour, and there went my carefully calibrated set of events. We missed a gig at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. Finally, we stopped a few days in Bloomington, Indiana, where we had a new engine put in the VW van. Tuli paid for it.”
Monday, October 11, 1965 (?): ‘Private Party’, Frank Hoffman’s house, Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana
“The Fugs had announced plans to hold a picket of support for the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “When we showed up, we were invited to visit the Institute, where we met the staff, who volunteered to show us some of their pornographic art. They asked what country and time I was interested in. My mind flashed with ideas. Victorian erotomania? Should I request some eighteenth-century Norwegian teabag fetish art? We performed a concert at the house of a guy named Frank Hoffman, who was affiliated at the time with the institute. Frank and I at night went to the Kinsey Institute to pick up some pornographic films to show at his house after our performance, which was taped, I guess, for the institute’s archives.”
October 1?, 1965 James Dean’s grave, Park Cemetery, 7843 South 150 East, Fairmount, Grant County, Indiana (cancelled)
“We had planned to do an outdoor concert at James Dean’s grave, and I had a call from CBS-TV, Channel 8 Indianapolis, which wanted to film it,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “But we were running so late, we barreled across the Midwest toward our appointments in the ‘Western Night’.”
Monday, October 18, 1965
“We surged onward, pausing at dawn at William Burroughs’s birthplace at 4664 Pershing, in St. Louis, where we trooped up on the porch to hold, on October 18, 1965, a silent vigil for a minute or two in honor of our mentor,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “I left a note on the porch: Thank you, The Fugs on October 18, 1965 at 6:00 a.m. held a silent vigil in honor of William Burroughs’ birthplace at 4664 Pershing, St. Louis. I filmed the dawn kowtow on the Burroughs porch, and then we sped onward.” “The packed Fugs VW bus, with a sign on the side, “FUGS FOR PEACE,” pulled into the driveway of Terrence Williams; his wife, Nancy; and their three young sons, on Missouri Street in Lawrence, Kansas,” continues Ed. “Williams was a rare book librarian at Kansas University (KU) who had been given a grant by the university to purchase publications from the Mimeograph Revolution. He was a regular customer of the Peace Eye rare books catalogs. I had set up the visit from the Peace Eye Bookstore. Terrence Williams recalled it: “One day Ed called me to say that the band was traveling to California in a VW bus to attend an anti–Vietnam War rally. They were driving first to the University of Indiana. He asked if we could put them up in Lawrence for a few days as they traveled west. Without asking my wife, I said, ‘Sure. When will you be here?’’ Williams further reported: ‘Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, Steve Weber and Ken Weaver brought the Lower East Side to our house. And these largerthan-life people from the foreign nation of New York did literally fill our house. My wife Nancy had lived for a time in Greenwich Village, and she was a welcoming and open-minded person. Like me, she held a firm anti-war position, but neither of us had taken our beliefs much past signing petitions and attending rallies. Her only concern about our houseful of musical war protesters was drugs.’ Borrowing from James Brown, I had banned all pot from the crosscountry tour. We were controversial enough, with copies of Fuck You and The Fugs Songbook aboard the bus. The only possible indication of ‘drugs,’ as Terrence Williams noted, was when he spotted Steve Weber tardily and lengthily staring at the round window of the clothes dryer as it tumbled and tumbled a load of wash.”
Monday, October 18 or Tuesday, October 19, 1965 (?): ‘Private Party’, Ed Grier’s house, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas
“The Fugs performed a set at the home of KU English professor Ed Grier. (A few weeks later Grier would suggest I approach the ACLU for help after the police raid on Peace Eye Bookstore.),” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “Lawrence had a well-developed underground scene. We met a young poet named George Kimball, who, out one night in town, ran into a man walking in William Blake nakedness. Kimball, later a well-known sports reporter, was arrested while picketing the Lawrence Draft Board with a sign ‘Fuck the Draft’ and was soon off to New York City, where in early ’66 he drove Panna Grady and me up to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to visit bard Charles Olson. During our two-day stay in Lawrence our bass player, Jon Sheldon, had had enough of the cramped VW van and he split. We were grateful for the additional floor space in the van. Steve Weber on guitar and Ken Weaver on conga were more than adequate music underneath our lyrics.”
THE FUGS #10 (OCTOBER 19 or 20, 1965 (?) - DECEMBER ?, 1965)
1) Ed Sanders
2) Tuli Kupferberg
3) Ken Weaver
4) Steve Weber
Thursday, October 21 or Friday, October 22, 1965 (?)
“Then we sped across the prairies and mountains to the West Coast,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “In San Francisco all The Fugs stayed for the first few days of our visit at a two-story apartment owned by Judith Wehlau, a friend of Tuli’s, on Downey Street, just down the hill from Michael and Joanna McClure’s pad.”
Friday, October 22, 1965: ‘The Fantastic Four VDC (Vietnam Day Committee) Campus Benefit’, Berkeley Community Theatre, 1930 Allston Way, Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Also on the bill: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paul Krassner (MC). One show, started at 8:00pm.
“Then we sped across the prairies and mountains to the West Coast,” recalls Ed Sanders in his autobiography. “In San Francisco all The Fugs stayed for the first few days of our visit at a two-story apartment owned by Judith Wehlau, a friend of Tuli’s, on Downey Street, just down the hill from Michael and Joanna McClure’s pad.”
Friday, October 22, 1965: ‘The Fantastic Four VDC (Vietnam Day Committee) Campus Benefit’, Berkeley Community Theatre, 1930 Allston Way, Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Also on the bill: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paul Krassner (MC). One show, started at 8:00pm.
