Philosophy of the World

The Shaggs were formed in 1965 by the teenage sisters Dorothy ("Dot"), Betty and Helen Wiggin in the small town of Fremont, New Hampshire.[3] They formed at the behest of their father and manager, Austin Wiggin, Jr.[3] When Austin was young, his mother had read his palm and made three predictions: he would marry a strawberry-blonde woman, he would have two sons after she had died, and his daughters would form a popular band. When the first two predictions proved accurate, Austin set about fulfilling the third.[3] Dot later said the sisters thought their father was "nuts", but they did not want to do anything to insult their grandmother in his eyes.[4]

Austin withdrew his daughters from school, bought them instruments and arranged for them to receive music and vocal lessons.[3] He designed their schedule and had them practice as a band for hours every day.[3] The sisters had no interest in becoming musicians and did not enjoy the rehearsals. Dot later said: "[Our father] was stubborn and he could be temperamental. He directed. We obeyed. Or did our best."[5] Austin arranged for the band to perform at the Fremont town hall every weekend for several years.[3]

In March 1969, Austin took the Shaggs to record at Fleetwood Studios in Revere, Massachusetts.[6][7] The studio was mainly used to record local rock groups and school marching bands.[8] Austin dismissed the engineer's opinion that the Shaggs were not ready to record, saying: "I want to get them while they're hot."[6]

One producer, Bobby Herne, recalled: "We shut the control room doors and rolled on the floor laughing. Just rolled! It was horrible. They did not know what they were doing, but they thought it was okay. They were just in another world."[8] He said the girls "smelled like cows. Right off the farm. Not a dirty smell — just smelled like cows."[8]

Shortly afterwards, Herne and another Fleetwood employee, Charlie Dreyer, bought the Third World recording studio in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. They were enlisted to remix the Shaggs' recordings, and hired session musicians to rerecord parts. The attempt was abandoned when the musicians were unable to follow the Shaggs' erratic timing.[8]

Austin paid to have Third World press 1000 copies of Philosophy of the World.[8] He wrote the album's liner notes, which said the Shaggs "loved" making music and described them as "real, pure, unaffected by outside influences".[6]

According to many accounts, Dreyer delivered only 100 copies of the album and disappeared with the remaining 900.[8] Dot recalled: "He took my father's money, gave us one box of albums, and ran. My father couldn't get in touch with him. He tried telephone calls, but no one knew where he was."[8] However, according to the music executive Harry Palmer, Dreyer said Austin had refused to distribute the extra copies because he feared someone would copy the Shaggs' music. Dreyer kept boxes of the records in the studio and would give them to anyone who asked.[8] The journalist Irwin Chusid argued that it was unlikely Dreyer had stolen the records, as they were valueless at the time; many copies may have simply been disposed of.[8] Philosophy of the World received no media coverage.[8]

The songs "My Pal Foot Foot" and "Things I Wonder" were released as a 45 rpm single on Fleetwood Records.[8] In 1975, Austin died of a heart attack at the age of 47.[9] The Shaggs disbanded and sold most of their equipment.[9] The Wiggins had never profited from their music and took blue-collar jobs to support their families.[9][10]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	86/100[17]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Lester Bangs	(favorable)[18]
Mojo	(favorable)[19] (2008) [20] (2016)
Pitchfork	8.6/10[21]
PopMatters	8/10[22]
Record Collector	[23]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[24]
Uncut	[25]

"Philosophy of the World is the sickest, most stunningly awful wonderful record I've heard in ages: the perfect mental purgative for doldrums of any kind," wrote Debra Rae Cohen for Rolling Stone in a review of the 1980 reissue. "Like a lobotomized Trapp Family Singers, the Shaggs warble earnest greeting-card lyrics (...) in happy, hapless quasi-unison along ostensible lines of melody while strumming their tinny guitars like someone worrying a zipper. The drummer pounds gamely to the call of a different muse, as if she had to guess which song they were playing — and missed every time."[26] "Without exaggeration," Chris Connelly wrote in a later Rolling Stone article, "it may stand as the worst album ever recorded."[27] An article for The New Yorker describes how one internet reviewer described the album as "hauntingly bad".[28]

Due to its sloppy playing and mostly nonsensical lyrics, the album became a favorite among collectors and has been called "proto-punk" by some critics.[29] Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain listed Philosophy of the World as his fifth favorite album of all time.[30][31][32]

The album is ranked number 100 in Blender's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever.[33] In 2010, it was included in NME's "The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard" list.[34] In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked the album at 17 on its list of "40 Greatest One-Album Wonders".[35] In 2018, Paste listed the album in "The 50 Best Garage Rock Albums of All Time" at number 30.[36]

All songs written and arranged by Dorothy Wiggin.

• Dorothy (aka Dot) Wiggin – lead guitar, vocals
• Betty Wiggin Porter – rhythm guitar, vocals
• Helen Wiggin – drums
• Rachel Wiggin – bass guitar on "That Little Sports Car"

Production

• Original recordings produced by Austin Wiggin, Jr. (and Charlie Dreyer, uncredited)[37]
• Recorded and engineered by Bob Olive and Austin Wiggin, Jr.

• Official YouTube playlist
• Album retrospective by Alfo Media