The Shaggs

Download The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World

Kazim may have to save the world from The Shaggs. Perhaps it's my instant endearment to any failed attempt at seriousness, perhaps it's my recurring support for an underdog but there is something about The Shaggs which I find oddly appealing (though I'm still not entirely sure it's their music). In terms of '60s girl groups, The Shaggs would be the autistic, tortured soul of a sister to The Shangri-Las. Whilst Mary Weiss was out smoking dope, smuggling guns and breaking hearts, Helen, Betty and Dot Wiggin were being home-schooled and performing in their local nursing home. Their grandmother, a fortune telling psychic, told their young father during a palm reading that his future daughters would play in a band. When several other of her predictions came true over the following years, their father withdrew the girls from school, assigned them roles and issued instruments before plunging his life savings into funding his mother's omen. The sisters had no musical aspirations whatsoever but practiced diligently under the reign of their manic father-cum-drill instructor (their regime including an hour of jumping jacks and leg lifts before bed). Their talent is undeniably rudimentary, their songs (about lost cats, Jesus and transistor radios) so offbeat in every sense of the word that they seem unaware of any standard musical or lyrical convention. In fact they were unaware, as Papi Shagg isolated his daughters from outside influences and demanded they practice constantly.

The result is so unusual it is difficult to fully capture in words - some say 'ground-breaking', most would say 'shit'. Yet despite the deadpan vocals, discordant, cheap sounding instruments and the way Helen drums on seemingly unconscious of the music going on around her, there is something unforgettable about their music. Giving them a hasty first listen would probably conjure up a vision of an inept/retarded trio, but upon knowing the family dynamics and background behind the band (the movie rights to which have been already been bought) is what, for me, turns their innocent, hopeful lyrics into something both charming and slightly sinister. Kurt Cobain, amongst others, later advocated The Shaggs as heroines of outsider music but they were clearly uninvolved and uninterested in attaining this label (they disbanded, rather tellingly, as soon as their father died in the '70s). I say listen out of morbid curiosity and consider it the intriguing fruits of borderline child abuse. Having said their music is difficult to aptly capture in words, I think the whole Shaggs saga can be summed up succinctly by Dot herself, who explains 'We did our best'...