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Iggy & The Stooges

post #1 of 40
3/13/10 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 
I was sitting in my car about to put in Raw Power when I caught the tail end of the conversation on the radio. It was on the Atlanta "Oldies" station which I have on from time to time because they play an eclectic mix and the DJs seem smart and knowledgeable.

". . . congratulations to The Hollies and ABBA on being inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Who else is getting inducted?---The Stooges. Not Neil Diamond--The Stooges. Not The Moody Blues--The Stooges! Not Chicago--The Stooges!" (coffee almost shot out of my nose at that one) He was getting himself more and more worked up til you could practically taste the venom. "Not Blah Blah Blah--The Stooges".

He kept on going and it was so reactionary, I couldn't believe it and had to laugh. I figured that battle lines like these had faded away. Even if someone didn't or doesn't like that style of music, a rock n roll enthusiast should at least appreciate their legacy.

Anyway as wrong-headed as the jerk was, it reminded me that the Cerimony is almost upon us, and inspired me to start this Appreciation thread.

Ten years ago, I worked with this older lady in her 50's who was a "Band-Aid" for the Detroit musical scene. She was a cool chick and had a lot of stories. Even though her favorite was The Bob Seger System, she had to concede that when they were on, Iggy and the boys did their thing better than just about anyone.

The bands on the scene had a punk attitude + R & B influence of Motown. It was an energetic mix to say the least. The cool thing about The Stooges, you have a Velvet Underground influence as well, directly with the involvement of John Cale.

I love the debut album, but it's with their masterpiece Fun House, that they not only separated themselves from the likes of The MC5, but with an "extended, guttural war cry from deep within the psyche" created a work worthy to stand alongside Exile On Main Street, Who's Next, and Ziggy Stardust.

What say you folks?
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post #2 of 40
3/13/10 at 6:41pm
The Stooges certainly deserve to be in the hall of fame more then Neil Diamond. I love Fun House, but Raw Power is the best one to me.
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post #3 of 40
3/13/10 at 8:12pm
Wow, that is a pretty reactionary DJ. I'm not even really a fan of the Stooges, but surely they're way more important than the Moody Blues or Chicago. And Fun House trumps Raw Power.
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post #4 of 40
3/13/10 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post

". . . congratulations to The Hollies and ABBA on being inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Who else is getting inducted?---The Stooges. Not Neil Diamond--The Stooges. Not The Moody Blues--The Stooges! Not Chicago--The Stooges!" (coffee almost shot out of my nose at that one) He was getting himself more and more worked up til you could practically taste the venom. "Not Blah Blah Blah--The Stooges".
I took me a bit to figure out that he was actually saying this pejoratively.
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post #5 of 40
3/13/10 at 8:32pm
No Stooges. No Ramones.

No Ramones. No Sex Pistols

Iggy Pop=Godfather Of Punk


Search And Destroy sounds as mindblowingly immediate and destructive today as it did evah. It has a power to CHANGE LIVES.

I'd put them in the Hall for that song alone.
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post #6 of 40
3/13/10 at 8:40pm
2 things. This is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It's already kinda stupid. And this is an FM radio DJ we're talking about. Chances are this guy is some old fart who hates music or only has a passing interest in it.
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post #7 of 40
3/13/10 at 9:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pop Zeus View Post
2 things. This is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It's already kinda stupid. And this is an FM radio DJ we're talking about. Chances are this guy is some old fart who hates music or only has a passing interest in it.
Right. It's naturally circular for the kind of guy who'd argue the artistic influence of Chicago over the Stooges:

How can the Stooges be any good? They don't get played on the radio!
Why don't you play them on the radio?
Because they're no good. If they were, we'd play them on the radio!

I'd wager he'd also be befuddled about the Velvets being in there, except they had that catchy little "Sweet Jane" number, and the singer had that song with the sax solo and the line about blowjobs.

I'll admit I'm pretty moderate as far as Stooges fans go (I have the three studio albums and that's it - I don't need or want 150 hours of Fun House outtakes or whatever), but Fun House is really the only album that does what it does that well.
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post #8 of 40
3/13/10 at 9:21pm
I'm the guy with the 150 hours of Fun House outtakes. Got to see the re-formed version twice before Ron Asheton died. Walked on the crowd like this:



It was awesome.
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post #9 of 40
3/13/10 at 10:20pm
Thread Starter 
Anybody else actually like Iggy's remix of Raw Power? I like how rough and loud it is. That said, i'm definitely excited about the deluxe edition coming out.

"Gimme Danger", "Search and Destroy", "Raw Power", and "I Need Somebody" have been kicking my ass all day.
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post #10 of 40
3/14/10 at 4:28am
I do like the remix, though I think the original gets a bad rap-- it's not all that bad (IMHO the LAMF remix was more welcome). Wasn't crazy about the recent reunion album, though I did actually kinda enjoy Ig's rather, um... unusual Preliminaries last year.

Not a lot to add to that: it would be virtually impossible to overestimate the importance of The Stooges. While I saw Iggy a few times in the Idiot/Lust For Life era, I'm so glad I finally got to see the reunited band a couple years back: bands half their age would be lucky to have that kind of intensity onstage.
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post #11 of 40
3/16/10 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
I'm the guy with the 150 hours of Fun House outtakes. Got to see the re-formed version twice before Ron Asheton died. Walked on the crowd like this:



It was awesome.
Did you pick up the limited edition? Or just bootlegs?

I've been spinning Fun House all day on the headphones. So dirty perfect.

"T.V. Eye", "Down On The Street", "Loose", "L.A. Blues". I mean, fuck.
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post #12 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:30am
Thread Starter 
Maybe I'm the idiot here, but I actually prefer Iggy's first two solo records to Bowie's own stuff of the same period. The Berlin trilogy is cold and emotionally distant (even "Heroes"), while Iggy fearlessly dives right into the darkness of the human condition. Where as Bowie was cultural vampire, Iggy was a voice of the damaged soul and a Rock n' Roll reflection of the beautiful loser.

"Sister Midnight", "Nightclubbing", "Funtime", "Lust For Life", "The Passenger", "Some Weird Sin", "Neighborhood Threat", "Success", "Turn Blue. Just brilliant, powerful stuff.

I'm no expert on Iggy's entire run, but of what I've heard, it seems he never hit those highs again.

Anyone else have any thoughts on his solo career?

And if I'm crazy on the Bowie comparison, dont be shy, let me have it!
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post #13 of 40
3/27/10 at 9:19am
"Sister Midnight" and Bowie's "Red Money" off Lodger are the same song.

Nope, Lust for Life and The Idiot are Iggy's best solo work. I loved the shit out of Brick By Brick in 1990, but it probably sounds a touch overproduced. Lots of his late 80s/early 90s solo stuff is a little too polished on tape but sounded really great live.

The Pop/Williamson collaborations on Kill City right after the Stooges broke up aren't bad:

Quote:
After a pair of disastrous, violence-marred shows in early February of 1974, The Stooges finally called it quits. Lead singer Iggy Pop was regarded as an artless freak by the record industry at that time, and in spite of his half-assed efforts to land a record deal (and the subsequent explosion of punk rock), he went without a contract for nearly two years. By early 1975, he was a mental and physical wreck, had checked himself into a Los Angeles-area asylum, and seemed a million and a half miles from the top of the rock heap.

But Iggy wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel. Ex-Stooges guitarist James Williamson arranged sessions to lay down some tracks to peddle around, and Iggy took weekend furloughs from the asylum to record vocals. The results were harrowing enough that they didn’t see the light of day until 1977 – after Iggy’s career had rebounded on the strength of the David Bowie-produced albums The Idiot and Lust For Life. And they surfaced then only because Williamson sold the tapes to Bomp! Records without Iggy’s approval – which has unfairly saddled this album with the ominous stink of a cash-in gimmick.

Kill City is the flip side of the cartoonish ‘live fast/die young’ ethos of punk rock – it’s a showcase of the charred remainder of a life lived hard, but not fatally so. If Iggy sang like a caged beast on The Stooges’ albums, here he sings like a wounded critter – occasionally ferocious, but remarkably tame. Indeed, Kill City is a blueprint of how The Stooges might have met the industry half way to respectability. But don’t call it a Stooges record – it doesn’t feature Ron or Scott Asheton, who were replaced by Tony Sales (Bass) and his brother Hunt (drums). Likewise, John Harden’s sax floats behind the melodies here – the polar opposite of the squalling tenor storm that Steven Mackay unleashed on Fun House.
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post #14 of 40
3/27/10 at 11:30am
So Kill City is Pop, Williamson, and the Tin Machine rhythm section? I've only heard the title track, but this sounds pretty intriguing.

As for Brick by Brick, I'm not sure if I ever heard the whole thing, but "Candy" still sounded pretty great the last time I heard it a couple of years ago.
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post #15 of 40
3/27/10 at 11:46am
Some of the better tracks from Kill City (roughly in descending order of preference):

Johanna

No Sense of Crime

Beyond the Law

I Got Nothin
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post #16 of 40
3/27/10 at 11:49am
OK, fuck it, loading a bunch of their stuff onto my mp3 player today. It's been a while.
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post #17 of 40
3/27/10 at 12:15pm
You know what's a great song? "The Passenger." Does the whole disaffected fame thing better than all of Billy Joel's 70s catalogue.
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post #18 of 40
3/27/10 at 12:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
You know what's a great song? "The Passenger." Does the whole disaffected fame thing better than all of Billy Joel's 70s catalogue.
Damning with faint praise?

I've pretty much always preferred Iggy to Bowie. Phil's right that Ig's post-Lust For Life work is spotty at best, but A Million in Prizes: The Anthology cherrypicks it pretty well.
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post #19 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:04pm
Yeah, sad to say that A Million In Prizes was my first Iggy/Stooges album, so I don't get punk cred for my first being FUN HOUSE or some shit like that, which is sad because now both Fun House and Stooges are in my top 10. Oh well, better late than never.

What did y'all think about Préliminaires?
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post #20 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb View Post
I've pretty much always preferred Iggy to Bowie.
Let's not get crazy!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Yeah, sad to say that A Million In Prizes was my first Iggy/Stooges album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xillqqt0Y0#t=01m09s
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post #21 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
You know what's a great song? "The Passenger." Does the whole disaffected fame thing better than all of Billy Joel's 70s catalogue.
Coffee shot out of my nose at that! Sig-worthy.

Hey, Iggy can only wish he'd done Glass Houses!
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post #22 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post

What did y'all think about Préliminaires?
I'm curious about that one too, Jake.

His last album that I got really excited about was Beat Em Up. Listened to it a lot. The attitude and energy was right. Still, pretty underrated.
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post #23 of 40
3/27/10 at 1:35pm
Seeing these guys a couple of years back (on one of Ron's final shows as it turned out) wiped away any concerns I might have about the credibility of a bunch of sixty-somethings trying to rock out - it was a festival show and they blew all the other acts off the stage. I heartily encourage Iggy to keep doing his thing until he drops.

Even though the Weirdness only had about three good songs on it I'm kind of curious about how this proposed new album with Williamson turns out. Probably the first time a reunion album from (most of) the original lineup of a band has ever been immediately followed up by a reunion album from (most of) the second lineup.
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post #24 of 40
3/27/10 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post

What did y'all think about Préliminaires?
I liked it, but that's "like" as in "will probably wind up being represented on my upcoming CHUD music exchange list."

If you get my drift.
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post #25 of 40
3/27/10 at 2:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Let's not get crazy!
I like Bowie, but he always gives me the sense that, if the music thing hadn't worked out, he'd have found equal fulfillment selling insurance.
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post #26 of 40
3/27/10 at 2:09pm
You got crazy after I explicitly asked you not to.
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post #27 of 40
3/27/10 at 2:37pm
Damn it, Jeb.
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post #28 of 40
3/27/10 at 2:48pm
Oh, stop it. I said I like the guy.

You'd think I'd dissed Billy Childish or something...
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post #29 of 40
3/27/10 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Oh, gimmeafuckinbreak. At least my first Pop album wasn't SKULL RING featuring Sum 41!

(Wait, were they actually on that album or did he just guest spot on that one song of theirs?)
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post #30 of 40
3/27/10 at 7:24pm
also Kill City is real good so far
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post #31 of 40
3/27/10 at 7:34pm
With every post in this thread Jeb digs himself deeper.

I mean, Iggy is cool and all but that Anthony Keidis is the shit!
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post #32 of 40
3/27/10 at 8:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Oh, gimmeafuckinbreak. At least my first Pop album wasn't SKULL RING featuring Sum 41!
People find their way to music in a lot of different ways.

I started listening to Nick Drake because Richard Thompson played on his first album, but people who found Drake because of a car commercial or movie soundtrack are capable of appreciating him every bit as much as I do.
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post #33 of 40
3/27/10 at 8:37pm
I was fucking with Jake, lest anyone think I was getting all snobby on him.
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post #34 of 40
3/27/10 at 9:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
I was fucking with Jake, lest anyone think I was getting all snobby on him.
no fuck that guys he really meant it I could feel it in my hearts
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post #35 of 40
3/27/10 at 9:19pm
Thread Starter 
That Kids In The Hall sketch is classic! Somewhat ironically, I think Iggy finally did play with The Doors at the 94 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary concert.

Am I the only one who loves this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILjUe-znXE4
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post #36 of 40
3/27/10 at 9:28pm
No, that shit's good. The whole Fatherfucker album's pretty awesome.
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post #37 of 40
3/28/10 at 4:46pm
Thread Starter 
I was wrong about Iggy playing with The Doors at the 95 HOF concert. Believe this is what I was thinking of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyWB9eFNGxU

Grungy goodness!

Also kinda weirdly awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjs7TU4Qek
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post #38 of 40
3/28/10 at 4:58pm
Honestly, when I saw the reformed Stooges I was more excited to see Mike Watt than Iggy. Mike Watt rules.
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post #39 of 40
3/28/10 at 5:06pm
He also apparently has a map to the Fountain of Youth. I'm convinced he's never gonna die.
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post #40 of 40
3/28/10 at 11:09pm
Mike Watt is the cool uncle who lets you drink a beer when you're only 13
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