THE FUGS STILL RELEVANT AFTER 40 YEARS TOGETHER

NEW YORK - In the 1960s, the rock group the Fugs were at the vanguard of
the underground counterculture movement, railing against the Vietnam War,
promoting legalization of marijuana and extolling the virtues of free sex.

Nearly 40 years later, American troops are in Iraq, pot is still illegal
and the sexual revolution has been blunted by the scourge of AIDS. Yet the
Fugs continue to preach their gospel of peace, love and .. well, not so
much drugs anymore.

In their latest release, "The Fugs Final CD (Part 1)," the New York-based
group sings about sex for senior citizens, criticizes the U.S.-led war in
Iraq and advances other leftist causes such as pacifism and universal
health care.

"We're just as radical as we were before," 79-year-old vocalist Tuli
Kupferberg told The Associated Press before performing Wednesday night in
Greenwich Village. "The ideas we had are still valid today."

Kupferberg and singer/poet Ed Sanders founded the Fugs in 1965 in New
York's East Village as an underground alternative to mainstream rock. The
group, which took its name from Norman Mailer's euphemism for the
similar-sounding four-letter obscenity, plunged headlong into the 1960s
anti-war movement and associated with other radicals, such as Beat poet
Allen Ginsburg.

Several of the band's new songs, such as "Go Down, Congress," a play on the
gospel song "Go Down, Moses," are criticisms of the Bush administration's
war on terrorism. Others, such as "I've Been Working for the Landlord,"
feature an anti-capitalist bent.

And the Fugs are still breaking sexual taboos. Kupferberg's hilarious
"Septuagenarian in Love," a randy takeoff of Dion and the Belmonts' classic
"Teenager in Love," laments the problems of sexual gratification for a man
about to hit the big eight-oh.

"Some of our tunes are risque," said Sanders, 63. "But if you look at BET
and MTV, our songs are mild compared to that."

The group attracted an eclectic mix of aging radicals in tie-dyed shirts,
and multi-tattooed and multi-pierced Gen-Xers who weren't born when the
band first shocked audiences with its explicit lyrics.

Rick Shafrick, 41, of New Haven, Conn., said he had been following the Fugs
since he was a kid.

"They are just as relevant today as they were 40 years ago," he said. "You
can just change a few lyrics and the songs they sang in the '60s would
apply today."

Sanders and Kupferberg said they may hang it up after this album but did
leave themselves an opening.

"That's why we subtitled our CD 'Part 1,'" Sanders said. "Never paint
yourself into a corner."

Kupferberg believes there will always be a place for the Fugs.