Find the nearest person to you. Ask them to clap their hands and set a tempo. Now, try to clap your hands on a different tempo. Go on, try. I’ll waitÛ_.
You probably couldn’t do it. It’s a nearly impossible feat. If you were able to, though, then you may possess the same musical genius as the 1960’s rock band The Shaggs.
The Shaggs formed in 1968 when Austin Wiggin bought two guitars and a drum set from a local pawnshop and forced his three daughters to start a rock band. The girls, Helen, Dot, and Betty, had no prior musical experience. After several weeks of lessons they stepped into the studio to record. The songs produced reach a level of emotional appeal far surpassing the works of veteran musicians. Frank Zappa described these recordings as, “Better than the Beatles.Û
While Dot and Betty hack at their guitars, Helen seems to be playing drums in a completely separate building. They throw finesse out the window. With completely controlled abandon they play their songs, all three musicians rhythmically independent but perfectly connected. The melodic line seems to wander. The next note consistently takes you by surprise.
The lyrics consistently hold a sort of truth the most poetic writers would crave. They are both incredibly simple and profoundly surreal. The Shaggs sing with a lovely childish innocence that taps into the essence of every concept they turn their piercing gaze to. In “Philosophy of this World” they turn a child’s gaze onto human unhappiness and sing with more erudition than any number of crooning singer/songwriters:
Oh, the rich people want what the poor people’s got
And the poor people want what the rich people’s got
And the skinny people want what the fat people’s got
And the fat people want what the skinny people’s got
You can never please anybody in this world
It is the band’s innocent simplicity that endears them so. Each syllable is given one note creating a nursery rhyme sort of feel to the songs. But unlike nursery rhymes, the beauty of the lyrics is that there is no other meaning. The meaning of the song is exactly what the lyrics say.
Like many people, I frequently look back on my elementary school years with an intense longing. It’s not that those times were incredibly happy. I believe it is a common mistake to romanticize one’s childhood and forget all the moments of intense sadness that one felt. When I was barred from using the sandbox for a week in second grade I felt a level of inner pain far surpassing any of my current ills. However, I think the reason most everyone looks back on their childhood with fondness is because how simple the world was then. Our desires had a magnificent one-dimensionality. I wanted to play in the sandbox, I was not allowed to play in the sandbox, and therefore, I was sad. Simple. Easy. Understandable.
Many people have examined The Shaggs and have found a surprising amount of complexity in their songs. However, I find their music beautiful precisely because of how straightforward it is. The Shaggs allow us to go back to a level of childhood experience that we instinctually crave. Through meaningful honesty and naÌøve directness they created songs unlike anything else, but like everything in the world.