Here are some customer reviews of
Philosophy Of The World
: My wife gave me this record of birthday gift and itýs the most surprising music than I have hear in many years. Disonant, anarchic in armonic notion, strange but with a own logic. If you love Raincoats, Slits ans Zappa music you will love The Shaggs.
 The Shaggs are notorious. It's a great story, really. Three poor girls in New Jersey in the 60's being forced to play in a band by their dad despite barely knowing how. Among the polyrythmic drum beats, the faked accents, and the nasal singing about boys and foot foot you can feel the pain of being a girl in the 60's. Granted, their musical talent is marginal at best but the songs are genuine and probably better songwriting that I could do. Also, this CD is great for breaking the ice, just play it and just about anyone will be amused or intrigued. This is not the great lost indie album, but its not as terrible as it might first appear.
There are basically two schools of thought on the Shaggs. The first is that they're geniuses. The second is that they're retarded. I've been a musician for 30 years and I can't tell which is fact, but in any case, this is a seminal recording. At first listen the drummer sounds like she's taking a dump, but closer attention reveals there's some amazing polyrhythms going on. For all the talk of the two guitars being "out of tune", they mesh perfectly. Note too, the perfect unison vocals. Also the lyrics are innocent and beautiful, lacking any pretension. I just love everything about this record, the playing, the singing, the cover photo, the liner notes, and those paisley skirts! A must own.
You can't. No one could. They have reinvented rock and roll. No reviewer here or below could argue that the Shaggs aren't unique. For that simple fact alone they are worth every star I'm able to give them. There is so little music, painting or art of any form in this day and age that you can honestly use that word about-it's what keeps any medium alive. And The Shaggs, for all their lack of harmony and sense of rhythm, for their non-professional tuning and clumsy use of words are exactly that. And how utterly refreshing it is that you can still find music seemingly created in isolation in this increasingly shrinking world. I'd like to say The Shaggs are as valid and as important as The Beatles, as fresh as any new garage/hip-hop act, but you simply cannot compare them to any artist or any other music. Their almost painful honesty, their reasons for playing and what they sang about defies musiciality itself, no one can touch them for honesty-something I don't think I'm alone in wanting to hear more of from music. So few people have the balls to be as honest as The Shaggs, and for perfectly phrased, late 1960s teenage feelings, you cannot beat this album. For this I believe they have created one of the seminal records of the last century and whether you like to listen to it (as I do almost daily) or are merely glad of it's existance, take the time to hear them. Or don't, keep them one of the great undiscovered geniuses of modern music. The World will never be ready for their Philosophy, or anyone's, but I challenge anyone to find one more pure, good, worthwhile, affecting and totally unique one.
Sure there is a lot of dodgy "family togetherness" behind the lyrics, their father's influence looms large, and if research is to be believed he was a domineering psychopath who took them out of school and forced instruments into their hands, music lessons on them and virtually made them record this album. That a song like "Who Are Parents" ("parents are the ones who really care/ parents are the ones who will always be there") is sung so potently, gives weight to reading a dark presence between the lines. On the track "Shaggs' Own Thing" their father plays the role of a boyfriend to one of his daughters, and their brother a challenging admirer, also adds a touch of the psychosexual macarbe to the album. I can only assume their family was as close as Dot Wiggin suggested in interviews.
This, of course, adds even more fragile honesty to their songs as they celebrate adolescent feelings and sing about boys and radios, pets, Halloween and county fairs. So tragic-the blighting of a blossoming adolescence and so hilariously unlike anything you've ever heard-as other reviews testify to. Totally unique. How many records can you say that about?
These girls are the Charles Ives of popular music. Thank heavens their father was inspired to get this down on tape for the ages. Who knows where they would have gone with the guidance of a George Martin. Like any great art, this music was drawn from a realm beyond (or within) -- totally unaffected by current fashion. To my ears, they sound more authentic than the Rolling Stones at their sloppiest. I expect Frank Zappa plays this music often in Rock 'n' Roll heaven. I pray these ladies pick up their instruments again and cut a reunion disk before it's too late.
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