FBI Report on The Fugs: 'the filthiest and most vulgar thing the human mind could possibly conceive'

We can collectively cry, "What The Fugs!" on this story. Over at Vice magazine's Noisy music section, Jason Leopold recounts his time digging into FBI files hoping to break on through to the dirt the bureau had on The Doors. What he found instead was a file on the poetry-rock band The Fugs stashed among a 200 or so page file on Morrison, et al. Let's dig in from the top and go from there:

Imagine being so utterly offended by a rock group that you carve out time to draft a two-page letter to a US senator and the director of the FBI, enclose a copy of the LP, and request that they undertake a national effort to ban the band's music in the United States. Seems un-American, right?

Yet, that's exactly what happened in 1969, when an employee of Charlotte, North Carolina–based Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, which operated radio and television stations, listened to an album by the New York City band the Fugs. What's worse is that then FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, took the request seriously.

I hadn't intended to write about the Fugs, a politically charged underground rock group resembling a 60s version of the Dead Kennedys, whose songs include "Kill for Peace," "Coca Cola Douche," and the timeless ode to America's clandestine spies, "CIA Man," which features the lyrics: "Who can kill a general in his bed? / Overthrow dictators if they're Red? / Fucking-a man! / Fucking-A! C-I-A! / CIA Man!"

I'd planned to write about the Doors, the legendary band formed by the Adonis-like poet Jim Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarek in Venice, California. While thumbing through hundreds of pages of FBI files on pop-music singers and rock groups, I found a file on the band, and, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Doors' self-titled debut album, I thought it would be a good time to check out why they attracted the attention of the FBI. But inside their file were these letters about the Fugs.

The story winds its way through the halls of the FBI, stopping off at the White House, a mention of the Supreme Court, and a U.S. Senator or two. Don't let the freakout blow your mind, over at Noisy!