Jeffrey Lewis and The Deposit Returners: Works By Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010)
Self Released – 13 April 2018
Who the fug was Tuli Kupferberg and why is “anti folker” Jeffrey Lewis dedicating a full album to him? Well, Jeffrey Lewis fans will probably know the answer to that but for those not in the know, Kupferberg was a New York Jew, a radical, a communist and then anarchist, a pacifist, a beat poet who published his own magazine in the fifties and who, in 1964, at the age of 41 and inspired by The Beatles, formed The Fugs with Ed Sanders. They wanted to call themselves The Fucks (Sanders’ own stapled magazine was called Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts) but reckoned that even they couldn’t get away with that so, so they took a leaf out of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and substituted the word Fug.
Equally besotted by William Blake and Allen Ginsberg, obsessed with sex and drugs, scatological, rude, indeed at times totally filthy, The Fugs blazed a trail throughout the sixties and, had they been able to play their instruments, could have been as big as Zappa. They did make some glorious music while Kupferberg continued to publish poems and manifests throughout and after their career taking a strong stance against Vietnam and espousing his pacifist and anarchist beliefs. He died, aged 86, in 2010.
Lewis, who grew up in New York’s lower east side, has had a long fascination with The Beats and New York’s underground scenes. A skilled comic book artist he wrote and drew a biography of Kupferberg and has collaborated on several occasions with Peter Stampfel, ex-Holy Modal Rounder and occasional member of the Fugs. The Deposit Returners meanwhile are Lewis and pianist Steve Espinola’s Kupferberg covers band who have been playing occasionally since Tuli’s death in 2010 with a revolving cast of characters participating, and who, at last, have committed some of their covers to disc with the added bonus of having Stampfel, who played on some of the originals 50 years ago, on board. Their selection includes early Fugs songs, some from their later band reformations in the eighties and some of Kupferberg’s poems and readings set to music by Lewis and Espinola. As befits their subject there is much chanting, some swearing, some flights of fancy and some sweet and mystical poetry. It’s loose and slightly shambolic at times while there are also some moments of tender and fractured beauty especially on Life Is Strange which the band here reclaim from the efforts of Reprise, The Fugs’ then-record label’s attempt to turn them into a straightforward rock band.
The proto-punk folk sound of mid 60s Fugs is captured on the opening What Are You Going To Do After The Orgy despite the fact that no recording exists of the original (besides a home-demo tape was sent to Lewis on which Kupferberg sings this song a capella). I Want To Hold Your Foot, culled from Kupferberg’s 1973 Listen to the Mockingbird songbook, is set to The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand melody (with a truly inspired joke regarding the bridge included) while the late period Try To Be Joyful owes much to Jimmy Cliff’s you Can Get It If You Really Want as performed by The Velvet Underground. Meanwhile there’s much musical mayhem on the frenzied This Is A Hit Song (“This is a hit song gonna make me rich, why don’t you buy it you son of a bitch”) with Stampfel’s singular voice used to good effect and Kupferberg’s preference for fuggin’ rather than fightin’ along with his use of Jewish chanting is expressed excellently on Not Enough Loving.
Despite their reputation for musical anarchy Kupferberg and The Fugs were capable of delivering tender, melodic and moving songs and several are featured here with the band playing in a psychedelic folk style reminiscent of Pearls Before Swine. Morning Morning is the best known here but The And Song, sung here excellently by Lewis and the backing singers (who are excellent throughout), is a moving testament to Kupferberg with the following I Was Much Mistaken showing that he had a masterful way with words as he looks back on younger days. With 15 selections here, all of them with merit, it’s Carpe Diem (from the first Fugs album in 1965) which stands out as Lewis & The Deposit Returners turn in a masterful version with fantastic female harmonies and Stampfel wailing away across their voices as the band lay down a mystical frug.
The absence of Nothing (a personal favourite) is no hindrance to the sheer pleasure this album should offer to those who cherish Tuli Kupferberg (they mention a possible second volume in the notes so maybe then). It’s a grand salute to a man who, with The Fugs, exorcised The Pentagon in 1968 (and caused it to levitate – true story).
Order via Bandcamp: https://jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/album/works-by-tuli-kupferberg-1923-2010
http://www.thejeffreylewissite.com/
Note from the Editor: In this great video from 2015, Lewis shows viewers around his apartment. While showing some of his prized vinyl he pulls out a Fugs album and inside is a lock of Kupferberg’s hair…he admits it sounds creepy but it’s a great watch.