| It Crawled into My Hand, Honest | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 1968 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 35:03 | |||
| Label | Reprise (US) Transatlantic (UK) | |||
| Producer | Ed Sanders, Richard Alderson | |||
| The Fugs chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Rolling Stone | (positive) [4] |
It Crawled into My Hand, Honest is the fifth studio album by The Fugs, a band composed of anti-war poets. It was released in the US by record company Reprise.
When poet and publisher Ed Sanders established a bookstore next to the apartment of beat poet and publisher Tuli Kupferberg in 1964, the two decided to form a band, The Fugs, writing 50–60 songs between them prior to asking Ken Weaver to join. [5] In subsequent years, this core trio worked with a number of musicians as they produced a series of albums in quick succession. It crawled... was their fifth studio album.
The band built up a cult following, gaining admiration from counter-culture figures such as William S. Burroughs and Abbie Hoffman. They were known especially for their pro-drugs, anti-war stance, use of poetry in their music, and large number of sexual references in their songs.
Due to their overt sexual content, The Fugs were at risk of censorship. However, while on Reprise Records, the company president Mo Ostin showed a willingness to release Fugs material uncensored. [6] This era of freedom began with the release of the album Tenderness Junction , released in early 1968. Work on It crawled.. began straight after.
The album was The Fugs' most expensive, costing around $25,000. [6] The working title was Rapture of the Deep; this along with Tenderness Junction, and "It Crawled..." demonstrate The Fugs' enjoyment of including thinly-veiled sexual references in their work.[ original research? ]
In 1967, The Fugs' sound had developed considerably from their early works such as The Fugs First Album , with several complex and interesting compositions. This was partly due to personnel changes; Charles Larkey, an excellent bassist, and Ken Pine, a skilled guitarist were added in 1967 and played on both this and the preceding album Tenderness Junction . [7] Session musicians also added to the depth of the work; Band leader Sanders later stated:
For back-up harmonies, we used some fine singers who had worked as Harry Belafonte's harmonists. You can hear them, say, on "Wide, Wide River," and "When the Mode of the Music Changes".
Described as "ambitious and extravagant sounding", It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest takes the form of a sound collage with tracks linked by snippets of chants, prayers and exorcisms. [1] Kris Needs of Record Collector describes the album as a "total collage assault". [2] Chuck Foster of The Big Takeover highlights the eclectic nature of the first side of the album, veering between psychedelic rock, country, blues and easy listening, while drawing attention to the "strange sound collage of songs and vocal snippets" that forms the second side. [8] Sanders said he intended the second side of the album be a "like a long collage". [9] Richie Unterberger said that the integration of a "side-long suite" was comparable to the Mothers of Invention's We're Only in It for the Money and the Holy Modal Rounders' The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders , both also from 1968. [10] Writing for AllMusic, he similarly said that the album begins with "five discrete tracks" before moving into a "cut-and-paste of tracks varying in length from three seconds to four minutes, the stylistic jump-cuts similar to those employed by the Mothers of Invention in the same era." [3]
Among the diverse styles explored on the album include satirical country music ("Ramses II Is Dead My Love"), grandiose classical music ("Burial Waltz"), comedic gospel ("Wide Wide River"), folk rock ("Life Is Strange") and Gregorian chant ("Marijuana"), with choral backing vocals throughout. [3] As with Tenderness Junction, the album begins with a psychedelic rock track, "Crystal Liaison". [8] The love song, which has been compared to the Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band, was released as a single. [1] The album also introduces Sanders' redneck character Johnny Pissoff, who represented a musical style described by Sanders as "beatnik country"; another example of the Fugs working in the genre is "We Don't Allow No Robots in Sunday School". [1] [2] One track recites the word "marijuana" in the style of a Catholic Latin hymn. [8] There were some discarded songs, including "Beautyway", a lengthy song written with composer Burton Green that was named for a Navajo advert, and "The Vision of William Blake's Garden". [9] A lengthy, intricate piece named "Magic Rite" was recorded earlier in 1968 for the album but only appeared in snippet form, under the name "Irene (Peace)". [9]
The Fugs also introduced the use of a pair of drummers at this period: founder member Ken Weaver plus new recruit Bob Mason. Despite the changes, the underlying approach of The Fugs remained irreverent and humorous. The album featured a high number of short tracks, many included for their comic value, such as "National Haiku Contest", a teenager's surreal haiku in response to an unwanted pregnancy, and "Robinson Crusoe" a sketch on sexual frustration featuring Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. In supporting tours, founding band member Kupferberg used a wide range of unusual costumes, and punctuated performances with wild dances and witty satiric routines. [6] Political and social commentary also remained highly prominent, with tracks such as the pro-drugs eulogy "Marijuana", the redneck satire "Johnny Pissoff Meets the Red Angel", and the pro-peace chant "Irene".
Side A
Side B
Produced by Richard Alderson
The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of The Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for fuck used in Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead.
The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Although the band was not initially successful, they quickly earned a dedicated cult following and have been retrospectively praised for their pioneering innovation in several genres related to folk music. They also proved to be influential, both during their initial run and to a new generation of musicians like Yo La Tengo and Espers.
ESP-Disk is a New York–based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.
Clamtones was an American folk rock group, and Jeffrey Frederick's most notable band. The best-known incarnation of the band formed in 1975 when Frederick and Jill Gross moved to Portland, Oregon and began playing with the backing band of the Holy Modal Rounders. Although the Clamtones only recorded one studio album, they were a popular act in the Portland music scene. They were inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2011, with the organization noting that the Clamtones "developed a reputation for being 'one of the best bar bands in the country.'"
Perfect Sound Forever is one of the longest-running online-only music magazines. Along with Michael Goldberg's Addicted to Noise, it is one of the first publications to post recurring, feature-length music journalism online.
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The Fugs First Album is the 1965 debut album by American rock band the Fugs, described in their AllMusic profile as "arguably the first underground rock group of all time". In 1965, the album charted #142 on Billboard's "Top Pop Albums" chart. The album was originally released in 1965 as The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views, and General Dissatisfaction on Folkways Records before the band signed up with ESP-Disk, who released the album under its own label with a new name in 1966. The album was re-released in 1993 on CD with an additional 11 tracks.
The Fugs is a 1966 album by The Fugs, described in their AllMusic profile as "arguably the first underground rock group of all time". The album charted number 95 on Billboard's "Top Pop Albums" chart. The album was re-released on CD in 1993 as The Fugs Second Album on the Fantasy label with five additional tracks: two live performances and three tracks recorded for Atlantic in 1967 for an album that was never released. In its review of the re-release, AllMusic finds them "very ahead of their time lyrically" and compares them to the punk band Dead Kennedys, both lyrically and in their shared "weakness for crude humor".
On the Bandstand is an album by American country music artist Buck Owens, released in 1963. It peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Country Albums charts.
Tenderness Junction is the fourth studio album of The Fugs, formed in 1964 by anti-war musician/poets Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg and Ken Weaver. It was released in the US by record company Reprise. A stand-alone CD was released by Wounded Bird Records in 2011, before which the entire album had appeared on the 2006 3-CD Rhino Handmade box set, Electromagnetic Steamboat.
Virgin Fugs is a 1967 album by The Fugs. While it is their third released album, it consists of outtakes from the two 1965 sessions for their first album, The Village Fugs. While that album emphasized the second recording session, this compilation favors the first, making this arguably their chronologically "real first" album. It was released on ESP Disc, possibly without the foreknowledge or permission of the Fugs. Their site refers to it as a bootleg, though it was distributed through the same channels as their authorized previous ESP album. ESP followed this release with a 1975 compilation including seven more outtakes from these sessions, Fugs 4, Rounders Score.
The Belle Of Avenue A is a 1969 studio album by the Fugs, a band composed of anti-war poets. It was released in the US by record company Reprise. The album was first released on CD as part of the 2006 3-CD box set, Electromagnetic Steamboat, and eventually as a stand-alone CD in 2011 on the Wounded Bird label.
Fugs 4, Rounders Score is a 1975 compilation album of material by The Fugs and The Holy Modal Rounders, including seven previously unreleased performances from the Fugs' first recording session, when the Rounders were members of the Fugs' band. The title is both a reference to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the fact that this is the fourth album of Fugs material released on ESP, as well as a pun on "score" as drug slang. Although all recordings were made under the umbrella of the Fugs, the 6 lead vocals by Stampfel and Weber on Side A allow the album to function as a Rounders compilation as well. There is a notable and unusual lack of lead vocalizing by Ed Sanders, the most prominent vocalist on all other Fugs albums.
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Bernard Stollman was an American lawyer and the founder of the ESP-Disk record label.
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The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders is the fourth studio album by the New York psychedelic folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, released in 1968 through Elektra Records. Although Peter Stampfel does not regard the album highly, it has received positive reviews and its opener, "Bird Song," was notably included in the 1969 film Easy Rider.
Steven P. Weber was an American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist.
"Fishing Blues" is a blues song written in 1911 by Chris Smith, who is best known for "Ballin' the Jack". "Fishing Blues" was first recorded in 1928 by "Ragtime Texas" Henry Thomas on vocals and guitar with the introduction and breaks played on quills, a type of panpipe. It is Roud Folk Song Index No. 17692.
Satisfied with You is the ninth album released in the US by the British band the Dave Clark Five. It was released on 15 August 1966 and contained three hit songs, "Look Before You Leap", "Please Tell Me Why" and "Satisfied with You". The LP hit the Billboard Top 200 and the Cashbox Top 100.
The Fugs uncork Ed Sanders' "beatnik country" on total collage assault It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest, introducing redneck Johnny Pissoff before Crystal Liaison makes a storming single.
