THE SHAGGS

Let’s talk about an amazing story. The story of the “The Shaggs”.

In the 30’ in Fremont New Hampshire, Elizabeth Wiggins decided, one day, to read the lines of her son's hands to predict his future.

She told him 3 things.

-First, he will marry a blond woman.

-Second thing, he will have 3 daughters after her death.

-And third thing, his 3 daughters will form a music band and will become famous.

After several years, he married a blond woman. After his mother died he had 3 daughter (Betty, Dorothy et Helen) .

At this stage Austin started to think that’s his mothers prediction was really his future.

And he decided at this stage to do his best to make the 3rd prediction come true.

When the 3 girls grew up, in the 60’, he withdrew them from school, bought them instruments and had them take music and singing lessons.

The sisters who, for their part, had never considered forming a band, yielded to the stubborn authority of their father. Finally, they were on stage every Saturday night at the village hall in Fremont, New Hampshire.

The name of the band “the Shaggs” was chosen by Austin, after a fashionable shag haircut (cut with tapered hair), and in reference to the so-called shaggy dogs (shaggy): the bobtail and the bearded collie.

The girls did not like playing music, they when on stage to obey their fathers. And with time they did not show any progression or any talents in playing music.

After some years, in 1969, the father was still refusing to face the truth. The band was just not good and the girls without any talent.

But he decided to release an Album for the band.

The Album “Phylosophy of the World” was born.

Listen the disaster by yourself :

Only Some editions of this album was released and the band returned to it's weekly concerts at the local concert room.

But something magical happened….

By the 1980s, some copies of Philosophy of the World start to accidentally circulate among pro musicians.

Year after year, the mysterious band become more and more like a Mystery… something we can’t really reach and understand

And, after some years, It started to develop a cult following, with fans including Frank Zappa, Bonnie Raitt, Jonathan Richman and Carla Bley.

The Shaggs also attracted fans in Terry Adams and Tom Ardolino of the American band NRBQ. Adams said he saw beauty and originality in the music and that it was "outside of the normal thinking process for songwriting at the time"; he felt it "needed to be heard" and that people would like it.

He traced the Wiggin sisters and convinced them to reissue Philosophy of the World in 1980 under NRBQ's record label, Rounder Records.

Reviewing the reissue for Rolling Stone, Debra Ray Cohen described Philosophy of the World as "the sickest, most stunningly awful wonderful record I've heard in ages". in another Rolling Stone review the same year, Chris Connelly suggested that it could be the worst album ever recorded. Rolling Stone awarded it their "Comeback of the Year" honor.

Writing for The Village Voice, Lester Bangs asked: "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." He wrote that Philosophy of the World could stand with albums by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as "one of the landmarks of rock 'n' roll history".,In 2004, Pitchfork observed that the Shaggs had been "embraced by the exact opposite audience Austin desired: the longhaired avant-garde intellectuals".

End of 80’ and beginning of 90’, The band has also been praised for its raw, intuitive work and a writing style of lyrical honesty.

The album Philosophy of the World was praised as a work of raw art.

And is now considered as one of the basis album for the Grunge and Punk movements

To give you an idea of this cult.. Frank Zappa consider the band as more impactful than the Beatles and Kurt Cobain consider “Phylosophy of the world” like the 5th best rock album of all time (look at his list):

Finally the grandmother was right… Personally I love this story