The Shaggs: The Complete Story Told in 5 Minutes that You Need to Hear

“Depending on whom you ask, the Shaggs were either the best band of all time or the worst... Such a divergence of opinion confuses the mind. Listening to the Shaggs’ album Philosophy of the World will further confound.”

Susan Orlean, The New Yorker

They may be the ultimate expression of outsider art. Their story has been subject to some embroidery but the vid below seems credibly straightforward. Plus, most of them are still alive for verification. As far as the font of all this legend, their canon consists of but one album released in 1969, Philosophy of the World. A mere one thousand copies were pressed and of those 900 may’ve been lost or stolen. In the end, their considerable legend was built on a platform of 100 albums.

Red Rooster/Rounder reissued the album in 1980; RCA Victor re-re-released the album in 1999; a short-lived, off-Broadway musical about their life was produced in 2011.

The Shaggs were sisters Dorothy “Dot” Wiggin (vocals/lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (vocals/rhythm guitar), Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin (bass) – and most of all, fascist Osmond Family-wannabe patriarch Austin Wiggin.

Frank Zappa would claim they were better than The Beatles (this may be apocryphal though it doesn’t seem beyond Zappa’s tongue-in-cheekiness); Kurt Cobain said their album was his fifth all-time favorite. No less than Lester Bangs wrote:

“They recorded an album up in New England that can stand, I think, easily with Beatles ’65, Life with the Lions, Blonde on Blonde, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as one of the landmarks of roll’n’roll history... They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all roll’n’roll’s ever been about from day one.”

Rolling Stone described The Shaggs as “sounding like lobotomized Trapp Family singers.” Terry Adams of NRBQ – a big fan – compared the group's melodic lines and structures to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman.

The fact that their obsessively controlling father insisted they not listen to music will be immediately apparent. It may also be their greatest font of treasure. They likely didn’t read much poetry either. Their “tunings,” or lack thereof, are inspired. The rhythms can only be described as in a state of constant of phasing and retardment. They are to music they are Tommy Wiseau was to film, if Tommy shot on Pixelvision. Music described to extraterrestrials based on writing from a restroom wall. On the bright side, it’s very organic.

Here’s a nice encapsulation of their story.



And the legendary album:



Dot Wiggin released the solo album Ready! Set! Go! in 2013. A fan describes Dot as “...being forced to play rock and roll music like your dad... would force you to take piano lessons. And the difference is we have it on tape.”

An official promo vid for Dot’s album: