Byron Coley and I just missed one another at New York Rocker and L.A Weekly but I’ve long appreciated his work and hoped for a chance to do something together. Last year, it occurred to me that Ed Sanders new book, Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side couldn’t be better served than by Byron. Coley has spent most of his life soaking in subculture, counter-culture and various underground scenes. He’s a master on the music, words, sense and nonsense of  such movements. And Coley is also known for his own use of language, which includes toss-offs like “puh,” a word that fans of his writing depend upon to describe the formerly indescribable. He’s practiced at parsing the obscure. So, Byron’s the guy to write about the guy who wrote about Charles Manson and minions in ‘The Family.’ Byron’s the guy to write about the leader of The Fugs, one of the most original, particular and peculiar bands of all time. Byron’s the guy to explain to you why the educated poet/scientist/entertainer, Ed Sanders means so much. Have some fun. Remember the bad old days and what was good about them. Dig.—Lisa Jane Persky

Click here to read “Golden Filth.”

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Photo by Andy Zax