July 12, 2010
"who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually happened and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown soup alley..."
Memorialized in Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" was Tuli Kupferberg, founder of The Fugs, dead now at 86. The jumping off of the bridge — Manhattan, not Brooklyn — was a suicide attempt, survived.
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23 comments:
Good. They are finally starting to die off.
It is interesting that two godless untalented morons, this guy and Harvey Pikar, died today. May Jesus have mercy on their sick souls.
Ah. Always wondered who it was that jumped off a bridge and survived. Love that insertion of "this really happened" which makes you wonder about the work's general veracity.
I got into a bit of trouble once absentmindedly singing "I feel like homemade shit" walking past my mom in the kitchen. It was always kind of a catchy tune for me. Sorry to hear the Fugs are dying away.
Of the 1001 ways to beat the draft, the most memorable was "crawl up your own asshole and disappear."
Ringo's seventy, so the pop figures of the boomers' time are well on their way.
Thinking back on those days, the song that got me slapped by my mom might have been "Boobs a lot" instead of that other one. My buds and I used to really crack up singing that one, especially the line "Do you wear your jock a lot".
Classic lyrics, classy group. At least for 13 year old boys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVgKoruWdA
Ohmygosh. My wife still has a Fugs LP. There is a basement restaurant on Pell St. called Ming Wahs which was that he supposedly frequented on many occasions (the Jewish School that figured into him somehow - can't remembner - was nearby and this is near the Manhattan bridge) and Mings had his albums on the wall which Fug fans can remember...this being about 1970 after the Fugs broke up.
Thanks for noticing this and posting it.
I never heard of him. I met Ginsberg once by accident however.
The Dead Get By with Everything
by Bill Holm
Who do the dead think they are!
Up and dying in the middle of the night,
leaving themselves all over the house,
all over my books, all over my face?
How dare they sit in the front seat of my car,
invisible, not wearing their seat belts,
not holding up their end of the conversation,
as I drive down the highway
shaking my fist at the air all the way
to the office where they're not in.
The dead get by with everything.
Ah yes, who could forget...
I'll go to church and hold your hand
I'll give up heffer fuckin for you Claire June
Claire June, Claire June
I sure do miss that poon
And I feel like home made yodel-o-e-a-o shit!
-The Fugs
Pass the Matuese...and don't Bogart that joint, man.
Shouldn't it be "walked away...into the ghostly haze of Chinatown soup alley..?"
John Stuart Mill, nihil, nihil. Now TK, nihil, nihil.
IIRC.
The older you get the more Pogo's poem applies.
Monday, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, Thursday, nothing. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. January, nothing. February, nothing. March and April, nothing. The world's great books, a great lot of nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
-- The Fugs
Oncet years ago when lived in D.C. I knew a bunch of Harvard grads & at some point somehow (maybe a Fugs tune was on a tape or something) I commented that I didn't know much about the Fugs but that "Tuli Kupferberg" was a fine name for any sonic miscreant to have, and one of the Harvardites commented that they had gone to school with his son, Noah. I was impressed that any of them had spawned.
The most interesting info in the obit was that Kupferberg had married, even listing his wife, kids and grandkids. Marriage is a tie that binds but in a conservative way. I'm surprised that someone who wanted to levitate the Pentagon took that path. Perhaps he was more traditionally Jewish than he cared to recognize.
This dude couldn't even successfully commit suicide. No wonder he felt trapped by the nuisances of every day life.
From the article:
“Throughout the years,” he later said, “I have been annoyed many times by, ‘Oh, did you really jump off the Brooklyn Bridge?,’ as if it was a great accomplishment.”
I like the guy.
The Fugs were sort of a gross novelty act, but the name was great.
Ed Sanders made a nice album, Ed Sanders Truckstop, with the deathless "Jimmy Joe, the Hippybilly Boy".
I loved the Fugs and still do. I'm a Republican and believe in everything that Tuli fought against, but that's okay.
Tuli and The Fugs were a creative force and they were hilarious and they made some great music and poetry.
America is big enough to hold the Fugs and Sarah Palin together in one, big loveball.
This obit does not mention Tuli's film credits. He was in a wonderfully subversive film called WR: Mysteries of the Organism. I'm sure Orson Bean has seen it several times.
Hahahah. "Life's so funny. Life is strange. Got alla those honeys come to me. It's so funny I could cry. It's so funny, I could die. It's so funny......"
I'll have to play an homage to the Fugs tonight on my phonograph player.
Glenn Reynolds links an article on alpha males and pickup lines today. There is something attractive about Tuli that I can't imagine a non Jewish guy ever coming up with though he seems to get a little frayed when he makes fun of Christian marriage in the 'give up heffer fucking' song.
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