Correspondence #10: Steven Taylor

The Fugs are back in town! Long-time Ginsberg guitarist and almost 30 years a member of the New York rock outfit reveals that the outrageous 60s rabble-rousers are about to rouse us again

Steven Taylor has a long entanglement with the Beat poets and the radical musicians who came in their wake. For two decades, the guitarist, originally a Brit from Manchester, was Allen Ginsberg’s accompanist, but, in 1984, he linked-up with counterculture legends Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg to add his eloquent axe to the Fugs.

The group, founded in New York City in the early 1960s, established a reputation built on amplified rock, raucous folk and razor-sharp poetry which swung from anarchic verse to biting political satire. Yet, despite the very sad loss of Kupferberg in 2010, this cutting-edge act never put down their rhetorical weapons.

Taylor, a Brooklyn-based writer and lecturer alongside his rock’n’roll shifts, tells Rock and the Beat Generation the Fugs are presently in the studio laying down their latest ear-catching, brain-stretching and mind-scratching recordings…

Email, September 24th, 2022

Hi Simon,

Coby [Batty, the band’s drummer] flew up from Richmond on Thursday and on Friday morning we drove to Scott’s [Petito, bassist] NRS Studio in Catskill. We were met by filmmaker Chuck Smith and his cameraman.

Chuck made Barbara Rubin and the Exploding New York Underground. If you haven’t seen it, you must. Allen spoke of her on many occasions, but I’d never understood her role in the scene.

Ed [Sanders] arrived and we spent a couple of hours working on his song in tribute to Frank O’Hara, which is tuned to a 31-note octave.

Then we did basic tracks for ‘Living in End Times’ (or ‘We Are Living in End Times’ – I favor the shorter title). The song is based on a telephone message from song man Tom Pacheco. Ed transcribed the recording, and Tom's message is the song's refrain. 

We haven't played together for several years. It's great to be back. Chuck filmed the whole day. There are a couple of photos on the Fugs’ Instagram page, and there will probably be more coming. We will record all week.

Time to go get Coby and drive into town for breakfast.

More later.

Best,

Steve

Pictured above: The Fugs…Steven Taylor, Coby Batty, Scott Petito and Ed Sanders

See also: ‘Macca, Ginsberg and Glass: Taylor’s take’, November 25th, 2021; ‘Beat Soundtrack #7: Steven Taylor’, November 20th, 2021; and ‘Interview #1: Samara Kupferberg’, November 3rd, 2021