BRUTE FORCE-KING OF FUH Orig. U.S. PRESSING 7" Beatles

$

104

BRUTE FORCE BFR-100A/BFR-100B

b/w TAPEWORM OF LOVE

Vinyl condition is a solid VG+.

As I understand it, the UK pressing of this--Apple Records Single number eight (Apple8),Released May 16, 1969--is super-scarce, and was only available from Apple mail order. This U.S. pressing, released on Mr. Force's personal imprint seems to be pretty rare, too.

George (Harrison) had met him somewhere, and Brute had written a dificult song called The King Of Fuh. I gave Mr. and Mrs. Force something to drink while we listened to this amazingly rude song about the 'Fuh King' who did this and the 'Fuh King' who did that, wondering how we would ever get EMI to relase such a work.

--Derek Taylor (Beatles' publicist)

Brute Force was a pseudonym for New Yorker Stephen Friedland, rather than a band. He managed to get a tape of King Of Fuh to a Beatles associate, who played it to George Harrison, who loved it; George tried to get it released on EMI, but when they declined, George had it privately pressed in a small run, available only via mail order (and later privately released by Friedland himself). Why did EMI decline?  Sound it out.  Try 'uh' as in 'but', or 'gun'. Or indeed, 'f*ck'. Try the chorus for size:

'And the Fuh King did what he wanted to do, The Fuh King went where he wanted to go, Mighty, mighty Fuh King, All hail the Fuh King'.

Brute Force said this when King of Fuh was featured on the fantastic website 365 Days:

King of Fuh takes the word that sounds like "Fuh King", and is said many millions of times everyday, worldwide, and raises it into a context expressing the Beauty of the world and the power of Individuality. The changing of a taboo word becomes a force for good and joy in the world. The breaking of word taboo is not without consequence, however. Instead of distribution by Capitol and EMI, the record was censored, not distributed. At 28, I was on the verge of international recognition, had the suits and execs not cringed with fear, and shriveled back into their mouldy blackness, trying to escape the Light. Imagine...John Lennon advocated passionately for the record. George Harrison actually took it under his wings and helped it fly.

More info at http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/02-1.html, along with an mp3.