I posted not too long ago about the death of Fugs’s co-founder, Tuli Kupferberg. It must have been because of this that Smartz, for some birthday thing or something, picked up a copy of The Fug’s First Album for me. Thanks!

When I opened it, I must have gotten an “oh crap” look upon my face because she said, “you already have this, don’t you?”

And it’s true, I did. Or so I thought.

What she handed me was The Fugs First Album in Stereo. What I had was in Mono. Oh neat, right? Most folks really don’t care about this stuff, but I certainly do. I’m not a fetishist when it comes to record collecting, but different mixes always interest me.

So with a bit more digging, I found out some more things. So here we go.

The first Fugs’s release wasn’t The Fugs First Album. Not really, anyway. Their first release was called: The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views, and General Dissatisfaction. It was released by the Broadside record label as Broadside 304. It was also given a Folkways listing, but it’s not really clear if Folkways ever actually released it.

It was then, a few months later, re-released with a name change to The Fugs First Album by ESP Records as ESP 1018 (the first version may have been a blue-tinted cover). That was also mono and was probably the same mix as the Broadside release. After a pressing or two (no idea), the album was remixed, edited and used a different take of the song “Swinburne Stomp.” They also released a Stereo version of it, though three of the songs are “dual track monophonic.”

Other variations can be found here.

ESP also rereleased it again a few years later with a psychedelic wizard cover that looks pretty dumb, in my opinion.

I guess that makes five releases with three different mixes (first mix mono, second mix mono and second mix stereo). After a quick check, it turns out that my mono mix is the second mix mono. The first mix mono as released by Broadside (The Village Fugs…) is quite pricey. It usually goes for $200. I have found it for $75 and though it’s tempting, it really can’t be anywhere near justified at this time.

I was even hoping to post a couple of examples of the different mixes and the alternate take for “Swinburne Stomp,” but I can’t even find mp3s of the first mix. That’s pretty surprising. Even things labeled as “The Village Fugs” on file sharing sites are really just the second mix mislabeled.

Maybe someday I’ll round up the scratch to buy The Village Fugs…