For those of you unbeknownst; The Shaggs are three sisters (Dot, Betty, Helen) born under a premonition of death and unavoidable sadness. They would become the fore-mistresses of outsider music and remain largely unknown.
The Shaggs were a concept drawn up before any of the sisters were born. Their strict father, Austin Wiggin, would insist that during his own youth, his mother had predicted the eventual death of his wife, telling him that afterwards his daughters would form a pop-group. Mr Wiggin set out to make this prophetic statement spring to life...
The Shaggs only official recording (Philosophy of The World - 1969) implores kindness, love and happiness. Messages that from the mouth and mind of an adult would be seem cliche, but bleeding from the lacerated hearts of three motherless teenage sisters contains mass impact and wails with sincerity. Removed from education The Shaggs were forced by their authoritarian father to play music; contained away from the experience of true innocence and childhood.
This blinkered positioning granted the sisters a distorted scope of life, an eerie substitute with these girls unknowingly becoming conduits, transferring their own life's sadness and expressing their torment without realisation. Their tears shrouded in corrupt harmonies and honest words. The Shaggs were blank canvasses, to which their impression of sadness and loss would be strewn - like children in the way that an upbringing can coerce and easily mould - their buried emotion unmasked upon the crayon outline of their sacrificial nursery rhymes.
The music of the Wiggin sisters is above and beyond basic understanding; our pricked ears are immediately on the defensive as soon as these girls begin their recorded rituals. The failings are only so within our own implementation of narrow musical conventions, our favouritism of 'easy listening' makes this record a burden upon first experience. This means most of humanity, upon initial inspection condemns the album as mere noise, a practical joke or the production of musical incompetence. The latter could be correct, but it bears no relevance toward the genius sealed into every song, lost bedtime story and flat-struck chord.
The late sixties saw the initial backlash towards the crass 'Peace N Love' status-quo and noted a new dissatisfaction that would eventually come to fruition under the orchestrated banner of punk. The Velvet Underground cloaked in black, delved into a nightmarish world of nihilism and are commonly associated with being a major influence upon the punk weltanschauung. Similarly The Shaggs held the punk ethos long before Johnny Rotten was being dressed in safety pins by Malcolm McLaren. Their unaffected childhood nature meant that The Shaggs were a completely original expression, enabling free foam to structure an entirely original composition. The usual boundaries weren't purposefully defied by The Shaggs, as evidently they were never aware of the limits. They didn't set out to ignite opinion or engage in the new avant-garde 'hip' scene; these children merely reflected themselves within their art/forced hobby.
"Philosophy of The World" is filled with disjointed and infectious melodies twisted by the weight of a premature adulthood. Castrated nuances followed fleetingly by clunky and rattling bubblegum riffs exude the innocence of childhood and highlight the dangers associated with such vulnerable purity. Whilst each song contains a literal message, akin to that of a childhood bedtime story, it's the excruciating sadness behind the voice and words that elevate this record into undiscovered territory. A world of expectation combined with a soiled happiness seems to have sallowed the youthful cheeks of each Wiggin sister. The guitar follows the popping voice unwittingly, unrequited and devout like a love sick child stalking its first crush, or probably more accurately, like a lost puppy attempting to find its way home.
Vaulting harmonies and haunting melodies provide a sound of freedom, equivalent to that of a Miles Davis jazz improv; exploding colour, sound, emotion and meaning (ever expanding). Headlong and without prejudice the guitars leap behind the voice detached by a brief millisecond pause as if in brief consideration for its worded predecessor. The Shaggs are pure emotion and need to be felt to be understood. This group of sensitive individuals are best personified by the image of a forced smile. "The Philosophy of The World" is raw emotion hidden beneath a pretence: an adopted manner necessary for acceptance within their lives. It and The Shaggs represent a true constant within every persons life; compromise, hidden anguish, misunderstanding and pain.
The Shaggs - Philosophy of The World, is less a mantra than a portrait of a struggling family, more a 'tragic life story' than self-help book. This album will enrich the life of its listener but not necessarily assist in extending it. And whilst the girls may chant for their lost pal ("My Pal Foot Foot"), experience seasonal holidays ("It's Halloween") or sweetly ponder the hierarchy of childhood concluding 'Parents are the ones who really care' ("Who Are Parents?") it seems as if The Shaggs aren't trying to convince the listener of an untainted childhood, but instead in an ongoing battle to indoctrinate themselves.