 
01. Ida "Philosophy of the World" |
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"The Shaggs. Better than the Beatles –– even today." ––Frank Zappa, who named Philosophy of the World his 3rd favorite album of all time in Playboy "The Shaggs were the unwitting godmothers of Outsider Music. Despite a preponderance of hacked-at chords, missed downbeats, out-of-socket transitions, and accident- al convergences, their Philosophy of the World album has abundant charm. It was authentic, and refreshingly guileless. The Shaggs blazed a trail of precompetence for the Raincoats, Shonen Knife, and 1/2 Japanese. As good as those groups were, however, they lacked the Shaggs' self-unawareness. That's what differentiates "outsider" from "indie." But outsiderness be damned –– Dot Wiggin wrote soulful POP songs. These tributes prove it." ––Irwin Chusid, Author, Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music "How do they sound? Perfect! They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock'n'roll's ever been about from day one. (I mean, not being able to play is never enough.)" ––Lester Bangs, Village Voice "I consider myself one of the luckiest Shaggs fans, in that I was privy to them very early on. My uncle Harry Palmer had close connections with the involved parties (and even witnessed a live performance at Fremont Town Hall). I got to hear Philosophy of the World in '69 or '70 in my hometown, Nashville TN. A full, detailed Harry Palmer account appears in my friend Irwin Chusid's book "Songs In The Key Of Z" (www.keyofz.com). I still own and cherish an original Third World pressing, and I also obtained a reel copy of the Shaggs' Own Thing recordings in '76. I used to delight friends by playing bass along with POTW and often threatened to overdub it on the entire album. Never did though. I guess all the above info hints at how I truly feel about 'my girls.' It remains beyond words." ––R. Stevie Moore, rsteviemoore.com "The idea of a Shaggs tribute certainly seems preposterous in theory, but the fact that their songs are so difficult to cover has made for a very interesting tribute album, one that is long overdue. The artists were all faced with a real challenge. With most tribute albums, there are two options: try to duplicate the song as closely as possible, or change it drastically. Since it is virtually impossible to re-create the sound of the Shaggs, all of the artists had to do some serious thinking about how they would approach the songs. Of course, a few of the artists tried to come as close as possible to the original version (The Double U, R. Stevie Moore and Plastic Mastery) but everyone else pretty much has their own take on the Shaggs, whether it be a focus on their wide-eyed innocence (Bauer, Optiganally Yours, Mongrell), or the deeply melancholic and sometimes creepy undercurrents that run through the Shaggs' music (TFUL282, Ida, Joost Visser)." ––Daniel Gill, Animal World Recordings |
 animal world MANYREVIEWS |
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