Customer Reviews

The Shaggs

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I was queueing in the bank the other day, lodging the usual pathetically small paycheque, and in front of me was a hairy young rock guy wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt advertising some mud-soaked hell-hole of an alterno-rock festival in Holland. Written on the sleeve were two gnomic sentences: "Those who do not know cannot understand. Those who know cannot explain."

Well, in the context of off-the-shelf teen rebellion these are ludicrous sentiments indeed, the more so when applied to the kind of soundalike sludge that passes for Angry Rock Music nowadays, but if there was ever a band which qualified for such mute reverence, it's The Shaggs.

They defy star-ratings. They had none of the usual qualities that make for great rock stars; you can't dance to them, you can't hum their songs, you definitely couldn't make out to them and they looked like three hefty female ice-hockey goalkeepers in knee socks. Their songs sound like the kind of thing that very small children sing on public transport. And yet they can't really be called inept; they negotiate arrangements of Beefheartian complexity with a certain awkward grace, and by the time they'd learned to play properly they could rock da house with some power, if with diminished character.

The Shaggs truly made music as if nobody had ever made it before. Most of us take up instruments because we want to emulate other, better players; The Shaggs played as though they heard it all perfectly formed in their heads, and just wanted to get it onto plastic. That this was only arguably the case, is testified by their later recordings, where they play easy-listening standards with professional smoothness. But, weirdly enough, they also re-recorded their own early stuff as if they'd meant it that way all along.

A perplexing band. You wouldn't want to have them on all the time. But for the sheer thrill of watching the expression on your friends' faces as you play them this for the first time, I recommend this album - the complete Shaggs. God bless them and their dad, Austen Wiggin, a rock'n'roll visionary and the man responsible for getting them into a studio.

I don't normally subscribe to the myth that ineptitude is a measure of sincerity, but listening to The Shaggs...you wonder. You wonder.

I have a friend who runs a used record store. From time to time, he would put the Shaggs on for his unsuspecting customers to hear. After a few seconds, the music would arrest their attention. Jaws would drop, breathing would cease, the area around their chest would tighten, their credulity would be tested, a vision of the abyss of eternity would open out before them.

"Unique" is an overworked word. Nevertheless, this is without any possible question the most unique and unusual album in the history of music. Suggestion for an experiment: buy it, put it on to play at a party without warning your friends, watch their reactions. Then ask yourself, could anyother album in the history of music (music, not just rock) have produced that effect? I think not.

The album is the result of three sisters being given Christmas presents, two of them guitars and one drums. After playing around for a few months on their new toys and writing some songs, their father took them to a recording studio. The recording engineer suggested that they might want to polish their act a bit first, but their father said he wanted to record them "while they are hot." The result is not rock primitivism as some like to say: it is rock amateurism carried to the furthest extreme. The girls not only can't play their instruments, they play with each other as if each were in a sound proofed room oblivious to what the others are doing. The drums often have no relation to anything the guitars are playing. And the songs are simply beyond description.

I do not want to leave the impression that this is great music. It is not. It truly does fall into the category of something that is so awful that it is good. It might have the effect of causing the listener to rethink everything that they knew about music, but it won't set your foot to tapping or make you want to sing along. Nor could you if you wanted to.

The Shaggs 1st record (you get both the 1st and the 2nd on this CD) Philosophy of the World is a milestone of Popular Music. One of those things that you stumble across once in a good lifetime if you are lucky. The Shaggs (Dot, Betty, and Helen Wiggin, with occassional contributions from Rachel, Austin, and Robert Wiggin) were a family from New Hampshire that were either exposed to strange chemical substances that caused mental mutations or they were really from another planet or dimension. They made music never heard before or since on this earth. Praise God for the insistance of their father, Austin Wiggin Jr., that they record and release 2 records, especially the first (Philosophy of the World). The 2nd, Shaggs own Thing, is not as good as the first as they are sort of learning to play by then, but it still has its moments.

Lots of bands are not good. Most are just mediocre and only a few are actually bad. Yet, in all of recorded history (AND I MEAN IT - PORVE ME WRONG!) none were ever as bad, strange, or out of it as the Shaggs! Not even close! They were so far out of it, that listening to this record makes you realize that it's really genius art on a plane of understanding that we mere humans, used to our ordered lives, are simply not capable of understanding. But its fun to try! The quote on the back of the CD from singer Carla Bley says it all "They bring my mind to a complete halt."

I DARE YOU TO PLAY PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD TO A DRUMMER AND SAY, "HEY YOU TRY TO PLAY LIKE THAT!" They will die never able to even come close to Helen Wiggin! Dare someone to try and DO ANTHING like the Shaggs and watch and see what happens! This is what the government should have played to get the Branch Davidians to leave their compound in Waco, Texas or blasted at General Noreaga in Panama! If you are in college, BUY THIS CD AND PLAY IT REAL LOUD TO MAKE PEOPLE LEAVE YOUR DORM ROOM, OR USE IT TO HAZE PLEDGES IN FRATERNITIES!

Buy this CD! Expand your mind!

Often called the worst rock and roll record ever made, I bought this out of curiosity and was quite surprised. It's not half bad, once you get used to the out-of-tune guitars and wavering vocals. But some of the songs(like "It's Halloween" and "Painful Memories")have a special magic, a plaintive kind of nostalgic melancholy. My favorite track is the live "Gimme Dat Ding", which sounds like it was recorded at the YWCA on a busy summer afternoon(it was actually a town hall in New Hampshire). A very peculiar listening experience, but well worth it for fans of the bizarre.

Ah... listening to the dulcet tones of the Shaggs.

The harmonies, the guitar solos and lyrics - so pure, and untainted by the bitter world we know today.

It takes me back to my youth.

I remember the joy as I tore off the coloured paper that Christmas morning to reveal my first ever six-string guitar. It was a sunburst Gibson copy. I was just 12 years old.

I remember picking it up for the first time. It seemed very heavy and the metal strings hurt my fingers.

And I also remember that, by the time the Queen was making her Christmas speech that afternoon, I sounded better than the Shaggs.

You may search your entire life, and find nothing as pure as the Shaggs. This, my friends, is the real thing - and you may never find it again. Pretend for a moment that music isn't about your clothes or haircut, but about your heart and fears. The Shaggs have more heart than any other band. This album is truly an American classic, and to own it is to love it. You can't buy love, but THIS IS AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET. I recommend you buy this CD immediately.

Psychologists should incorporate the Shaggs' music into clinical depression therapy - the Shaggs are a real tonic; it's impossible not to be moved to tears (of hilarity) by their bizzarre rhythms, (dis)harmonies, lyrics, etc. Guaranteed to put you in a GREAT mood.

On a certain level, this music is laughably bad and thoroughly amaterish. However, I must admit, I actually like this record a lot. It's unlike anything else ever recorded. Nothing is in tune. The beats and rhythms are all over the place. The lyrics are very naive and childlike. However a certain sweetness and sincerety comes across. I also don't find it irritating the way I find a lot of commercial music. Is it any wonder that the Shaggs have been the object of cultish devotion for all these many years?

This is highly recommended for those who wish to hear something very different. If you must laugh *at* the Shaggs, and enjoy music that is so bad, it's good, well, this can have that sort of appeal, too. Also, you can share certain tracks with your parents (Who Are Parents) or your sweetheart (You're Something Special, My Companion) or even your pet (especially if he's named Foot Foot) to show them that you care. Basically what I am getting at is that the Shaggs can be enjoyed on a variety of levels. So, come and join the cult!

I've never heard anything as compellingly naive. I keep coming back to this album, hearing it a different way each time. It's both shockingly avant-garde and pathetically folk-oriented. A classic (?) of its kind, better than The Residents, Frank Zappa, or any of those people who actually "try" to be outrageous and ingenious. Yes, I give it 5 stars, which really means nothing. The Shaggs are critic proof.

Just give it a listen. maybe ten or fifteen listens and then you will have a realization. The Shaggs are the best band in the world. You'll find yourself singing there tunes for everyone to hear.

Completely Mind numbing, perfect for your hectic drive home (hopefully loud and in traffic).

The Shaggs have their own curious lanuage and blantant understanding of their instruments far beyond any talented artistan yesterday or today.

Once you've heard them your whole life will change. Cant get enough. Its an adiciton really.

Caution: Until you are fully aware of the potential of this music do not attempt to perform any tasks requiring your full attention!