GutterPutter

In 1969, a three-man local band from New Hampshire was taken by their dad to record an album. The father, Austin Wiggin Jr, was fixated on making his children’s band a big name owing to the predictions set by his mother’s palm reading in his childhood. With the first two predictions met by marrying a strawberry-blond woman with two sons prior to his mother’s passing, Austin was supernaturally convinced that he’ll become big as a manager. Ever since they’re only young, the three children, Dorothy, Betty, and Helen,  were forced to put in all of their time and energy towards music without an ounce of social life whatsoever. Not even attending concerts is a good enough reason to venture outside of the family circle.

What would’ve been a dream for many bands at the time was instead a nightmare of an experience. Rumours had alleged that Austin’s behaviour towards his three daughters was inappropriate although individual accounts happened to differ from each sister. The goal of honing musical proficiency leads to school being neglected which leaves very little formal education to fall back on should the career crumble. There’s no anecdotes to suggest that the three daughters are interested in becoming musicians with little personal engagement in their craftsmanship. 

Worst of all, for the trio who focused on making music for nearly their entire childhood, they produced… something that’s of interest to say the least. One recording producer had once said that upon listening to the rehearsal, he and his colleague “shut the control room doors and rolled on the floor laughing.” It’s a bit of a local meme at the time. However, throughout the process of the recording session, Austin didn’t budge a bit on how his daughters’ performance was a fair bit underneath the standards set by other contemporaries. He wants to “get them while they’re hot.”

In Philosophy of the World, what should’ve been a rock performance comparable to the Beatles is utterly alien for its time. If Captain Beefheart were to listen to the record during his lifetime, he would’ve taken an opportunity to make the three his protege even if they might feel the temptation to argue otherwise. ‘My Pal Foot-Foot’ would, at one moment, be a simple-minded story of trying to find a friend (a pet cat I presume?) that contains droning, erratic time signature on the drum, and out-of-sync guitar strums. On ‘That Little Sports Car’, the vocal harmonies make it clear as daylight that the singing might not be the most conventionally pleasing to say the least. At least there’s that certain swing that makes the whole process worthwhile.

With that being said, there are bits around the story that make you wonder about the story behind the album’s release. When you have the growing willingness to call out bad or even abusive parenting, Philosophy of the World has a certain tragedy that justifies the talentlessness as much in its intent as its unintentional influence. The three daughters recalled at one point that they wished to leave the family for good with bitter commentary on how they missed out on pivotal experiences.. Helen had at one point virtually eloped with her husband to get away from her dad’s controlling nature years after the album’s release. Austin’s obsession with fulfilling the last prophecy, one that’s based around the topic that he holds no interest over, is asking for a bit of protest. And incompetence is the answer to fill in that void despite Dot claiming that she had always respected her family on the Rolling Stone. 

The title track of the album would therefore be among the handful of songs that point to the slight bits of rebellion the three girls had done against their father. The second bridge that begins with “It doesn’t matter what you do” contains the utter atonality in the harmony between the lead guitar and the singing at the prospect of highlighting incessant demands. ‘Things I Wonder’ plays with curiosity that’s weighed down by the subtext of negligence and misunderstanding. The two verses in particular feel like a thin-veiled comment against Austin’s ignorance (at best) on his daughters’ feelings. The lyrics implies that separation is a mental action that needs to be taken to preserve the innocence of not knowing the father’s intentions. 

Perhaps the most notable part of the album, if Austin’s behaviour were to be taken into account, is ‘Who Are Parents?’ I don’t think that there are any more songs that reeks of complete worship of parents as the final voice of authority as this one. The repetitive drumming, as useful a metronome as it is, comes off as militant. The usually childlike vocals sees its wonky melody go out of bound as the harmonic plea that “parents are the ones who are always there” was screeched out. Even the staccato of the guitar notes feels as if the instruments were played at a gunpoint. For a song that is an ode towards Austin, there’s this blind sense of loyalty, of unquestioning obedience, that feels so over-the-top that it borders on satire. Let us not forget as well the utter atonality of the whole harmony attempt for that it’s equalled only by the flaming screams of Hell.

With all that’s been said about the Shaggs’ backstory and how it shapes Philosophy of the World, there is still the reluctance to speak out on whether Austin did his job well as a parent. Parental negligence on the development of children can easily leave scarring impacts on how they would look at themselves whether it be from their identities, their boundaries, or their reactions. Even in spite of their feelings about their failed music careers, the Wiggins sisters had opted to still think about it pride even after Austin’s death in 1975 that led to the Shaggs’ disbanding. Not even Helen’s eventual death in 2006 had put a halt in an occasional reunion to entertain the cult followings.

So, are the Shaggs really fine with how everything has transpired? With the direction their lives have taken? I can’t speak on their behalf at all; they could very easily have never heard of me at all with how small this blog is. Nonetheless, Philosophy of the World provides a portrait into the manufactured childhood/adolescenthood that’s led completely by the vanity of one’s parents. Regardless of the actual competency that the likes of the Wiggins sister possessed with musical instruments, it’s a miracle as to how Austin had not called his paranormal goals quits for their sake. The context surrounding the band is as key in highlighting the album’s importance as its legacy as an unintentional forward-thinking project. It is a case study into young artists who are naive to grasp the exploitations of their lives; it foreshadows the pervasive danger that would eventually seep into child actors two to three decades later.