Crasses et Voluptés

The Fugs’ name comes from a euphemism in a Norman Mailer novel. Like the word’s source, much of the band’s music can’t be heard on the radio. It sang raunchy songs about sex and drugs. One Fugs tune that did get FM radio play, “Kill for Peace,” was about the war in Vietnam.

‘We were not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir,’ co-founder Sanders says of the group’s controversial lyrics. ‘We were not The Beach Boys. We were The Fugs. And we had our own pizazz and energy and elan, especially early on. Those old records just scream and steam with fun and joy and raising our fists to the sky to demand a new type of American reality.’”