The Fugs Final CD (Part 1)

If the burnished musicality of the Fugs at present belies their intermittent career tack ("Never paint yourself into a corner," co-founder Ed Sanders jokes about the album's titular loophole) since 1970, their anarchic good humor remains as politically pointed as ever, if tempered here by some warm, decidedly human-scaled wisdom: Try to be joyful in spite of it all; find yourself in small utopias. Sanders input here ranges from expected dissent ("Government Surveillance Yodel") to introspection that borders on melancholia ("Ultimate Things," the Summer of ‘70 reminiscence "Miriam") and the brilliant meditation on public humiliation, "Perpitude," whose opening lines about John Lennon contain what he claims is the first FBI surveillance memo set to music. Foil/co-founder Tuli Kupferberg splits his contributions between mysticism ("Where is My Wandering Jew?"), philosophical musing ("A Short History of the Human Race" and "Is," the latter inspired/anchored by Bill Clinton's infamous deposition sound bite), and hilarious parody, sending up Dion & the Belmonts and sexual dysfunction with "Septugenarian in Love" and setting "I've Been Working for the Landlord" to that old traditional railroad song. Junior member Steven Taylor also spoofs wisely, setting the contemporary political critique "Go Down, Congress" to "Go Down, Moses." Filled with passion and anger, yet seasoned with rare wisdom and humor, we can only hope Sanders, Kupferberg, and company exercise this collection's title clause sooner than later. --Jerry McCulley