Can you imagine being the recording engineer on that session?

Engineer - "Ummm...should we try that one again?"

Shaggs - "No way dude...that was awesome"

Engineer - "Maybe we should check the tuning on that guitar first"

Shaggs - "It's just the way we like it"

Engineer - "OK....will that be cash or check?"

LYRICS:

Philosophy Of The World

Oh, the rich people want what the poor people's got
And the poor people want what the rich people's got
And the skinny people want what the fat people's got
And the fat people want what the skinny people's got

You can never please anybody in this world

The short people want what the tall people's got
And the tall people want what the short people's got
The little kids want what the big kid's got
And the big kids want what the little kid's got

You can never please anybody in this world
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things I Wonder

LYRICS:

Things I Wonder

There are many things I wonder
There are many things I don't
It seems as though the things I wonder most
Are the things I never find out

I wonder about the stars above
I wonder about the birds that fly
I wonder about your love
But most of all I wonder why you make me cry

I wonder, I wonder
I wonder why we have to say goodbye
There are some things I don't understand
There are some things I do

But one thing I don't understand
Is why we have to be so blue
I understand why you feel the way you do
Because I feel the same way too

I thought everybody knew and loved the Shaggs!!

You've got the guitarists/singers following each other somewhat, and the drummer is out of time with them, but the drummer has the most consistent beat happening so it should be the others that are following her... Unless the ole 2-out-of-3 statute is applied here.

Hey, notice the drummer uses the kick drum on this song!

quote:

---

See I'm trying to figure out who's the weak link in the band...

---

LOL that cracks me up. I think there are no links.... there isn't even a chain!

Better Than the Beatles The Village Voice, 1988

“…these girls are saying we love you, whether you're fat, skinny, retarded… Don't make no difference, they embrace all because they are true one-world humanists with an eye to our social future.

…How do they sound? Perfect! They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock’n'roll's ever been about from day one… You should hear the drum riff after the first verse and chorus of the title cut -- sounding like a peg-leg stumbling through a field of bald Uniroyals.

You guys just can't get enough Shaggs!

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 29 August 2006 at 09:05 PM.]

But usually not whole albums of it, that get pressed.

Some of the "chick singer songwriters" that came in,

paid for a backing of their out of time guitar playing,

sang so badly that even autotune, if it had existed then,
would not have helped.

And then to global amazement,
went out the door happy as clams
with product destined for no farther than their home stereo...

when their boyfriend has left the building.

BY HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press Writer)

EPPING, N.H. (AP) — After all these years, Dot Semprini can't shake The Shaggs.

She's busy enough — at 51, she has two teen-age sons, makes a living cleaning houses and working at a day-care center, and tries to make it to church every week.

But 30 years ago, she was Dot Wiggin, lead singer of The Shaggs — a band driven more by her father's stubbornness than by musical talent. And that now-defunct band has been discovered.

Dot and her sisters Betty and Helen started with gigs at the Fremont Town Hall and a nearby nursing home. Today, they get fan mail from around the world, and their lawyers are negotiating a possible movie deal...

...(in 1968) they recorded their first album in a Revere, Mass., studio. The Shaggs, then ages 18 to 22, were reluctant, but their father was firm."

The girls did not think they were ready to record, and the recording engineer heard the girls he told the father that the girls were not ready...

"I want to get them while they're hot" he (the father) reportedly told the sound engineer.

"Betty, now Betty Porter and a 49-year-old widow who works at a kitchen equipment warehouse, said she and her sisters struggled during that long day at the studio.

'We didn't think we were ready to record anything,' she said. 'There was one song we had to keep going over and over and over again. ... I remember getting tired and thinking `When are we gonna be done?'

'It was like the practices night after night,' Semprini said. 'You'd almost hope something would come up so you could get out of practicing for one night.'

By the end of that day, they had recorded the 12 songs that would become 'Philosophy of the World.' "

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 29 August 2006 at 10:28 PM.]

And, their CDs are available at Amazon.com and there's even a movie in the works.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 29 August 2006 at 10:32 PM.]

My Pal Foot Foot

My pal's name is Foot Foot (Foot Foot)
He always likes to roam
My pal's name is Foot Foot (Foot Foot)
I never find him home

I go to his house
Knock at his door
People come out and say
Foot Foot don't live here no more

My pal Foot Foot (Foot Foot)
Always likes to roam
My pal Foot Foot (Foot Foot)
Now he has no home

Where will Foot Foot go
What will Foot Foot do
Oh, Foot Foot
I wish I could find you

I've looked here, I've looked there
I've looked everywhere
Oh, Foot Foot
Why can't I find you?

Foot Foot, where can you be?
Foot Foot, why won't you answer me?
Foot Foot, Oh Foot Foot
Wherever you are
I want you to come home with me

I don't have time to roam
I have things to do
I have to go home
Oh, Foot Foot, where are you?

If Foot Foot didn't like to roam so well
He would still have a place to dwell
Foot Foot, please answer me
I know where you are
You're behind that tree

and yet another:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tC976ydqE3g

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 29 August 2006 at 11:53 PM.]

The song is somewhat more understandable when heard along with the video

This Shaggs thing is bigger than I thought. Wait till the movie comes out!

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 30 August 2006 at 12:24 AM.]

"The Shaggs. Better than the Beatles--even today." - Frank Zappa
"They bring my mind to a complete halt." - Carla Bley
"Maybe the best worst rock album ever made." - New York Times

I also like what the author said after listening to the album over and over:

“The Shaggs were beginning to sound normal. I came to believe that The Shaggs were kind, trusting girls trying to understand the world. They seemed able to forgive and accept frustrations without anger or cynicism. And despite their sorrows, The Shaggs never despair. The Shaggs love life almost as much as "The Shaggs love you."

So what if they couldn't play guitar? What if the drummer spent twelve songs searching for the beat? There are worse sins, like the inability to express oneself, a flaw which The Shaggs don't possess. Their language is naively direct, silly, and serious at the same time. But more than that, their priorities are right.

"Philosophy of the World," I suddenly realized, was the real thing. A genuine artifact. The Shaggs had accomplished a lasting, honest, meaningful work, something that armies of synthesizers and drum machines couldn't guarantee.”

There is a second Shaggs album, and I’ve heard some of the cuts and they are not as interesting as these ones posted here. Yes, they did improve slightly, the timing got a little better, but the raw bizarre energy is missing in the second album IMO.

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 30 August 2006 at 12:48 AM.]

quote:

---

I don't believe ANYONE could be that bad with out working at it extremely hard!

---

------------------
martin abend Pedal-Steel in Germany
s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 | GiMa squareneck

I'm becoming more sympathetic to these girls of the '60s. If this wasn't some kind of hoax, record company experiment or something of the like - as in, if this music is actually genuine, well let's just say that their father didn't really have an ear for music - in fact he must have been about totally deaf, as far as taste goes... And I mean DEAF. What could they have done differently under the circumstances? Imagine if you, when you were that good and we were all that good once, your parents carted you off to a studio and the product was what you became known for from then on...

Additional: I've been listening to some of the 30 sec. clips that you get on iTunes, and it sounds like they've put the stuff they did a little later with their other sister on bass on the last half of the album, and the improvement is considerable.

[This message was edited by Duane Reese on 30 August 2006 at 10:38 PM.]

The CD Philosophy of the World is available on Amazon.com for $10.99.

Listen to sample cuts of all 12 songs: Click Here

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 31 August 2006 at 12:32 AM.]

But it is true - ya have to show some heart. We all started at the same place, didn't we?
They tried. They just had a different approach. They gave it their best shot, I'm convinced.

They were filled with all the same hopes and dreams we all had at one time.

Their story is classic comedy/tragedy.