STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - THE FUGS - TENDERNESS JUNCTION

[maggot]

Good morning Wednesday warriors and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again. Located deep within the Central Florida Command Bunker Of SITVA, we await the unwelcome arrival of Hurricane Ian. We spend our time boarding up the windows and listening to the New York based  psychedelic proto punk rock band, The Fugs. Formed in 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, along with drummer, Ken Weaver, fiddler Peter Stampfel, and guitarist Steve Weber. The group released 6 albums before disbanding in 1969. Today would have been Tuli Kupferberg's 99th Birthday. He was a counterculture poet, author, singer, actor, cartoonist, publisher who was  born in 1923 and passed away July 12, 2010, age 86, from kidney failure and sepsis. We honor his legacy by spinning The Fugs' 6th studio album, Tenderness Junction. The LP was released in 1968 on Reprise Records and produced by Ed Sanders and Richard Alderson. On it the guys deliver their usual brand of pro-drugs, anti-war poetry complete with an abundance of sexual references. Heck even the band's name is an euphemism for another 4 letter F word, which thhey lifted from Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead. The music on the disc is very experimental and at times doesn't sound too far removed from what you would hear on early Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Inventions albums. One track,  "Exorcising the Evil Spirits from the Pentagon Oct. 21, 1967" is actual audio from an anti-war protest at The Pentagon, where The Fugs and other protesters can be heard chanting,  'Out Demons Out'. This release saw the addition of session guitarist, Danny Kootch, aka Danny Kortchmar, who has worked with a lot of great musicians including  Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Carole King, David Cassidy, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Steve Perry and Carly Simon,  Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, Jackson Browne, and countless others. As a producer he worked with Don Henley, Neil Young, Jon Bon Jovi, Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel, Hanson, Tracy Chapman, and Louise Goffin. He was also in the film, This Is Spinal Tap and wrote the music for the soundtrack to Cheech and Chong's film, Up In Smoke. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of his music, as well as others from The Fugs.

"Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out" [4:49]

"Knock Knock" [4:28]

"Garden Is Open" [6:22]

"Wet Dream" [3:27]

"Hare Krishna" [3:26]

"Exorcising the Evil Spirits from the Pentagon Oct. 21, 1967" [3:25]

"War Song" [5:37]

"Dover Beach" [4:08]

"Fingers of the Sun" [2:26]

"Aphrodite Mass: I. Litany of the Street Grope"
"Aphrodite Mass: II. Genuflection at the Temple of Squack"
"Aphrodite Mass: III. Petals in the Sea"
"Aphrodite Mass: IV. Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite"
"Aphrodite Mass: V. Homage to Throb Thrills"

Tuli Kupferberg - vocals, erectorine
Ed Sanders - vocals
Ken Pine - guitar, harmonica, organ, oscillator, vocals
Danny Kootch - guitar, violin, percussion, vocals
Charles Larkey - bass
Ken Weaver - drums, vocals