Is Virgin Fugs a bootleg or a real album?

For anyone who knows about this album please tell me the story behind it. It came out in 1967 and their is a lot of debate weather The Fugs gave permission for these outtakes to be released. Wikipedia says it all if you want to trust them.

"Virgin Fugs is a 1967 album by The Fugs. While it is their third released album, it consists of outtakes from the two 1965 sessions for their first album, The Village Fugs (also released as The Fugs First Album). While that album emphasized the second recording session, this compilation favors the first, making this arguably their chronologically "real first" album. It was released on ESP Disc (ESP 1038), possibly without the foreknowledge or permission of the Fugs. Their site refers to it as a bootleg, though it was distributed through the same channels as their authorized previous ESP album. "

I've heard stories that this greedy manager took the rights to these outtakes and no member of The Fugs ever received a penny. Apparently they officially released this album on CD some time ago. Theirs Amazon listings for the CD ranging in prices from $130-$400. On vinyl it's just as expensive.

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"Virgin Fugs" falls into the semi-legal area, but if you asked Ed Sanders, he would definitely say bootleg. Apparently, ESP Disk did have legal rights to it (and everything The Fugs recorded when they were on that label), but Sanders did not want it issued as he deemed the collection of songs on it to be outtakes (or what he didn't want the public to hear for various reasons). For example, Allen Ginsburg was very unhappy that The Fugs set "I Saw The Best Minds..." to music and recorded it. Originally, it was slated to be on the first Fugs album, but was withdrawn after Ginsburg expressed his displeasure with that. Since ESP Disk was probably the #1 label with regards to ripping off their artists in the 1960s (with Pickwick coming in a close 2nd). Ed Sanders referred to ESP Disk via a bonus track on The Fugs First Album entitled: "In The Middle Of Their First Recording Session The Fugs Sign The Worst Contract Since Leadbelly's"! So technically, it probably is a legal album since Ed and the rest of The Fugs signed away their rights to all of their mid-60s material.

I agree that Virgin Fugs contains more of the acoustic April 1966 session on it than it does from the electric September 1966 one. Unfortunately, these two sessions are jumbled between the two releases (and scattered on numerous compilations and reissues as bonus tracks), but overall, "Virgin Fugs" comes closer to a first album than does "The Fugs First Album". I remedied this by burning all the acoustic April 1966 tracks to one CDR and all of the September 1966 electric tracks to another. I sourced these from "Virgin Fugs" and "The Fugs First Album" and from various other sources where bonus tracks from those sessions were included. You can actually assemble all 23 songs from the April session and all 9 from September this way. Unfortunately, no indication has ever been given in liner notes on any releases or within the covers of any of Ed Sanders' books with regards to the original running order of the tunes. I tried following the (play?)list from "The Fugs Songbook" which was issued way back when by Sanders' Peace Eye Bookstore, but still had to make a few guesses since it did not include all of the tracks available from April 1966 sessions.

regards,
chaz

 

While not disputing that, if any esp-Disk artist ever saw one penny, it's more than they ever would have gotten anywhere else in the record business at the time. I mean, who else was going to pay to press up and release Patty Waters or The Godz records?