I began listening to the Fugs in October 2023. However, at that point I only listened to their first two albums. In July 2025, I picked up their discography again after reading Ed Sanders's autobiography Fug You. The four albums below cover the group's original run before they broke up for the first time in 1969.
The Fugs First Album (1965): A-
The Fugs (1966): B-
Tenderness Junction (1968): A-
It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest (1968): B
The Fugs First Album (1965):
The FBI's description of the Fugs as "the most vulgar thing the human mind could possibly conceive" is as much a great compliment as it is true, while their debut album is as much a put-on as it is authentic. Like the later The Velvet Underground & Nico, its unnerving dissonance no doubt comes from a truthful place, it's just a matter of how much the Fugs buy into the deadpan chant "poetry, nothing/music, nothing/painting and dancing, nothing/the world's great books/a great set of nothing" and the tearful lament "wanted to cry because I couldn't get high." Of course, comparing them to the VU might give you the wrong impression. This is more like The Explicit Basement Tapes. With lazy vocals, mediocre guitar that comes in and out, a drummer whose barely trying, and cues missed left and right, there is never a point where these unpracticed jams feel self-serious or where the Fugs sound like they're trying to entertain anyone but themselves. Heck, Beat poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg didn't even play instruments when they decided on forming a band with drummer Ken Weaver. They're just having fun and they thought it worthwhile to put it on tape. A hellova weird period piece is maybe all that it is, but isn't that a lot? A-
The Fugs (1966):
The sheer vulgarity and ballsy lack of musicianship of their first record was revolutionary enough to give the Fugs a name in history but--with the help of the hilarious folk duo Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber as well as the legendary Harry Smith producing the sessions--most of those dirty poems became genuine pieces of music with nice touches of the folk tradition. Now, Sanders's and Tuli's songwriting get entirely new packaging. With real rock guitar and much of the novelty lost, their second album doesn't sit as well. A satirical song like "Kill for Peace" doesn't have same power or humor after the unforgivably gross "Dirty Old Man." Nothing does. C
Tenderness Junction (1968):
When I started reading Ed Sanders' autobiography Fug You and saw him commenting on the band working day and night on three-part harmonies for their third album Tenderness Junction, I just had to laugh. (Oh ye of little faith.) Although the band's musicianship had accelerated at unlikely pace between their first and second album, they were still pretty DIY in 1966. So excuse my surprise when I picked up this album and was blown away by the high production chops, instrumental agility (led by excellent guitarist Danny Kootch), and, yes, truly masterful three-part harmonies. From doo wop, traditional English folk, and blues, the Fugs pull off every genre-piece with startling ease. But behind all that polish, the groups' patented humor stays sharp and immature. In the end, Tenderness Junction isn't just a delightful revival after their disappointing second album, it's damn inspirational. A-
It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest (1968):
Although the Fugs' fourth album features a very similar sound and production to the impressive Tenderness Junction, it ends up being notably inferior. Side one picks up where Tenderness left off, with a number of genre parodies that work startling well. In fact, the first four songs build off each other so brilliantly that it's unfathomable why the album doesn't climax and end on "River." But side two regrettably continues the album, and it moves rapidly and awkwardly through uneven comedic skits that never coalesce into anything worthwhile or decipherable. B