A Fugs rabbithole, or is it a whirlpool?: The Fugs' unknown (?) parking lot concert of 1968

 Bev's Fugs button, by bev davies

Why did the Fugs perform in a parking lot in Los Angeles, in late April or early May of 1968? My friend Bev Davies - who acquired the above button at the parking lot show in question, and who knew Tuli Kupferberg in passing from her trips to New York - wants to know, and readers of this blog may be able to help her. The question has created a rabbithole of further questions and provided a unifying theme to diverse observations - so if you have time for this, I think you, dear reader, may enjoy exploring some of this with me. 

The context of the issuing of the button is explained in the bottom right of this newspaper clipping that Bev tracked down - although it is written (in the bottom right hand corner under "Hollywood") with a literate and witty style, unknown to today's newspapers, that may require some unpacking. It seems to suggest that the Fugs visit to Los Angeles corresponded with a Los Angeles County "D-for-Decency Week" - some sort of anti-porn movement - and that the Fugs (who are, the article explains with an apparent typo, "closely related" with anti-smut campaigns - ha, ha) were exploiting this fact, making fun of it, by issuing the above buttons for their tour. You have to get to the very end of the clipping before the author tips his hand as to which side of said anti-smut campaigns the Fugs were related to, at least in the mind of the US government, who have a curious definition of the obscene, famously questioned by Fug Tuli Kupferberg, who had his own ideas about obscenity, discussed in this must-hear clip. 

About that tour, Bev - intrepid and curious soul that she is - has also tracked down this list of tour dates for the Fugs, including that time period. But no mention of the parking lot concert is included (could that actually be the BC band the Collectors, touring down the coast in April? Do any of you, like, say, Rob Frith, have the contacts needed to very this, that the Collectors shared a bill with the Fugs?).  

April 12-14, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA with Ace of Cups, Allmen Joy  

April 19-21, 1968 The Cheetah, Venice Beach, CA with Collectors, Genesis
April 26-28, 1968 Kaleidoscope, Los Angeles, CA
May 3, 1968 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR with Kaleidoscope, Lights by Dr P.H. Martin's Magic Medicine Show
May 4, 1968 Lemon Tree, Eugene, OR with Kaleidoscope, Hammond Typewriter (advertised but canceled)

Note that I have included the cancelled May 4th show in that excerpt to demonstrate that some Fugs shows at that time did get cancelled, but that was in Eugene, Oregon, and Bev wasn't, so it doesn't explain the parking lot show. A cancelled concert WOULD explain a parking lot show, however, so perhaps another show on that tour was cancelled?

Prior to writing this, I forwarded the question to the two people I know who are most likely to know the answer: Jeffrey Lewis and Peter Stampfel. Peter is second from the right on the Fugs' first albumc over, standing next to the late Steve Weber (author of "Boobs a Lot"), on this most-essential Fugs album (often distributed as The Fugs First Album). No one's record collection is complete without SOME version of this, and by the way, record dealers out there - Rob? - if you should have the Broadside mono of this, I would love it (I only have the ESP-disk reissue and a later CD with bonus cuts): 

Incidentally, I have no idea what Ed Sanders of the Fugs (in profile, above) is up to these days, but Peter is delightfully, even ridiculously active. Since I last interviewed him, for Bixobal, some dozen years ago (which I have re-blogged here), he has put out a dozen or more albums, toured with Jeffrey Lewis, and is currently engaged in a project to document 100 years of American history with, if I understand it correctly, 100 songs, each representative of its year. If you wish an easy access point, try, for example, his reworking of "Spirit in the Sky," recorded with his daughter Zoe as "Demon in the Ground." This appears on Peter and Zoe's 2010 album Ass in the Air, which, if I were rich, I would buy copies of for all my friends:

I have only begun my efforts to catch up with the huge outpouring of delightful music Peter is responsible for of late - another fast favourite is 2019's "Diarrhea of a Madman," an incongruously pretty, even dare-I-say beautiful song about someone, apparently, attacking people by stuffing "poop-filled bags" down their pants. Once I clear my present backlog, I hope to talk to Peter about this song and much more, though I need a worthier home than this blog. 

Jeffrey Lewis, meanwhile - seen interviewing Tuli Kupferberg here - is engaging in matters political with this recent video, one of his movies. Jeffrey also - in September of 2020 - released two collections of recent songs to his own Bandcamp page and has made his most recent comic book, "Fuff #12," available on Jeffrey's Shopify store, where you can also buy a complete set of Fuffs at a discounted price.   And of course Jeffrey and Peter both appear on this magical album of Tuli Kupferberg covers. 

Alas, however great Jeffrey and Peter are, they are unable to answer the question. Jeffrey points out that Ed Sanders book Fug You is "the only source for most of what is knowable about the history of Fugs tours and gigs," but that book appears to be out of print and is by no means comprehensive. Does anyone I know have this book? (In the unlikely event that my wife is reading this, it would be a superb Christmas gift).

Peter suggests that Benito Vila - author of this just-published article on Tuli, which my friend David M. just forwarded me, apropos of nothing, not realizing I was already down this rabbithole - might be able to help, but I do not know Benito. 

Anyhow, it's all making my head hurt now a little, because things are starting to ping off each other in ways that they haven't since my acid years, when I was reading Robert Anton Wilson and being chased around by the number 23. For example, Jeff tells me, Jeffrey and Peter actually played the same Crystal Ballroom in Portland awhile back. And of course, this brings to mind the song "Crystal Liaison," by, yes, you guessed it, the Fugs! 

We can only return, richer but as yet unenlightened, to the original question: Why did the Fugs perform in a parking lot in Los Angeles in late April or early May of 1968?

Bev Davies was there, she wants to know. And now, though I was not there, so do I!