Foreword work EBS

Origins of the motivation for the monograph

It was a night of discovery. Wisconsin teenagers driving around full of the anticipation for the Friday night dance. On the way maybe to the CYO hop, we stopped in to see an intellectual recluse in any ranch house, U.S.A. An older guy, flattop, not going anywhere that night, living with his parents, and the owner of a Fugs record.

The twin beacons of Henry Luce, Time and Life, had told us of the Fugs – the most downright Bohemian member in the burgeoning ranks of folk rockers. They graced here a brick-weary East Side alley in the star-turn LP cover, many long steps away from the likes of the Kingston Trio.

To get one of their records you had to go to a store that handled jazz or one, like Soulville, that handled Red Foxx’s gamey comedy records, ones kept behind the counter. The Fugs first out on ESP was not something to find in the LP racks at Penny’s. Even where it was available, it was not readily available to 16 year-olds like us. As forever morose flattop played it, the record was like a Viet Cong ambush that came from several directions.