“Swinburne Stomp” is a musical setting of Chorus II from Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Atalanta in Calydon” by the NYC-based satirical/ self-satirizing rock band with a political slant, The Fugs (http://www.thefugs.com). The core group comprised poets, musicians and underground notables working out of the Peace Eye bookstore on the Lower East Side. This recording is featured on their debut album The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views [sic], and General Dissatisfaction 1965, Broadside 304, Folkways FW 05304, later re-released on ESP Disk as The Fugs First Album. The production was “supervised” by EGC Bishop Harry Smith — who also created the artwork that graces the Weiser paperback edition of The Holy Books Of Thelema. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Everett_Smith – see section on “Occult Interests”)
Fugs mainstay Ed Sanders recalls:
“We knew the famous filmmaker and artist Harry Smith, who had produced one of the most influential collections in history, The Anthology of American Folk Music for Folkways Records in 1952. It had influenced an entire generation of singers. Harry came to many early Fugs shows, and brought our attention to Moe Asch of Folkways, who agreed to issue our first album.
“The first Fugs recording session, in April of 1965, featured Sanders, Kupferberg, Weaver, plus Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel. Some of the tunes on the first Fugs album came from the 23 tunes recorded on this session.
The second Fugs recording session occurred in June of 1965. Its purpose was to create a demo tape for Verve/Folkways, a new label. On this second session were Sanders, Kupferberg, and Weaver, with John Anderson on bass, Vinny Leary on guitar, and Steve Weber. Peter Stampfel did not perform on the second session.
“I listened to the tapes over and over, for both sessions, selecting a sequence of tunes, and then Harry Smith and I edited the album. I wrote some notes and it was ready to be released.”
You can hear their performance here: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Fugs/_/Swinburne+Stomp
