Strange music. Weird music. "What IS that?"

All three have been used at one time to describe stuff that’s now called outsider music.

You know it when you hear it. But what is it?

Outsider music is notable for a degree of unawareness; a childlike innocence that enables its performers to express adult thoughts in ways an adult would never consider. Think of Jonathan Richman in There’s Something About Mary.

A certain disregard for musical convention is also required, in content, form, or execution. Outsider musicians don’t stop at thinking outside the box. For them, the box doesn’t even exist.

In its purest form, outsider music has to be recorded in a studio and pressed on records. All outsider music shares a third quality: someone, somewhere, thought it would sell, or it wouldn’t have been recorded.

Three of the more accessible outsider artists, who’ve never heard of the box, are the Shaggs, Tiny Tim, and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy.

The Shaggs

"Unaffected by outside influences." -- Shaggs’ album notes

Helen, Betty, and Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin were sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire who began playing music as a two guitars and drums trio. Their father was impressed, and decided they should record an album. They hadn't really learned how to sing or play their instruments. That didn't stop the project.

In 1969 Dad Wiggin booked studio time at Revere, Massachusetts' Fleetwood Records, a company then known for its output of sports highlights albums. While John and Yoko were bedding down for peace, and while the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed was moving up the album charts, the Shaggs were recordng Philosophy Of The World in one day.

No pop group had considered such a complex subject on its first album. Sang Dot: "The poor people want what the rich people got ..." (That says it all right there.)

Rounder Records later issued tracks from the Shaggs second, in 1973, Fleetwood session as Shaggs' Own Thing. RCA re-issued Philosophy in 1998. Critics called the songs "wonderfully, refreshingly dreadful." Lester Bangs loved them. Frank Zappa considered the Shaggs as important as the Beatles in the history of popular music.