The beginning of this vulgar year saw the premier of “Fugs Film!”, a documentary of the East Village band of radical poets in the 1960’s. The Fugs’ debut album was produced by Gnostic Saint Harry Smith who collaborated them on a ritual script for their legendary Exorcism of the Pentagon [have a listen: https://open.spotify.com/track/6WcyYVok01lWvQ4Mfg7dg5?si=8c88f071bb214183]. Fugs founder Ed Sanders attended and performed at the interment of Smith’s ashes in Woodstock this past Summer. AM NY ran a story about the film which starts:

If you know The Fugs, you’re going to love Chuck Smith’s brand new documentary “Fugs Film!” And even if you don’t, but you have an interest in 1960s culture, you’ll need to see this film.

A product of the East Village in the mid-’60s, the band was led by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, who pretty much embodied the spirit of the ’60s well before The Summer of Love. Of course, this being New York City and not San Francisco, this was a somewhat different animal.

“They were sort of the original punks,” says Smith. “They were anarchists and musical polymaths. I think it was the beginning of theatrical rock — they literally were putting on a show with music, you know, before Alice Cooper.”

Their first album was recorded by the legendary Harry Smith ( of “Anthology of American Folk Music” fame) and released on Folkways Records and then again shortly afterwards on ESP-Disk. 

read the whole article:

https://www.amny.com/entertainment/music/the-fugs-film-documentary-east-village-sixties/