Mock-Gregorian chanting vocals provide a sort of countermelody to Iggy’s very Lou Reed-styled vocals. And its arrangement – centered around a droning viola from Cale – has more to do with the Velvet Underground’s “The Gift” than anything else on this LP. In fact it’s longer than any two of the remaining tunes combined. Just when Ron Asheton kicks into a solo, Cale pulls the faders down and the song ends.Īt ten minutes plus, “We Will Fall” is the lengthiest track on The Stooges. Lyrically out-there, it’s more than a little outside pop music subject matter of the day. The song itself is so primitive it would make the Ramones blush: the whole thing is three – hell, two and a half, really – chords played over and over. Scott Asheton’s drum track is accented with nonstop shaker that incongruously sounds like sleigh bells. With a texture that sounds like a slowed-down version of The Open Mind’s “Magic Potion,” the band pummels on insistently. Iggy sneers in a fashion familiar to fans of the Rollings Stones (and Chocolate Watch Band), and those sneers seem to come more naturally to him than they ever did to the London School of Economics-educated Mick Jagger.įrom its buzzsaw guitar opening flourish on down, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is far more abrasive. Ron Asheton lets loose with distorted guitar work, and the rhythm section sounds as if it’s keeping things simple so as to be able to hold together. It’s almost as if the band heard Bo (and some blues) once or twice, took one or two music lessons, picked up their instruments and tried to approximate those textures. A few seconds into the song, the band switches direction, cranking out a simple, hypnotic melody that recalls Bo Diddley twice removed. The album opens with “1969.” A loping rhythm led by Asheton’s wah-wah guitar suggests that we’ll be hearing one kind of music, but it’s a red herring. The Stooges is not about deeply layered arrangements most everything has a one-take, live-in-the-studio feel. Save for Cale’s viola on one track, all of the sounds on the album come from the singer (born James Osterberg, billed here as Iggy Stooge, and later to be known as Iggy Pop) and an instrumental trio: guitarist Ron Asheton, bassist Dave Alexander and Ron’s brother Scott on drums. And while the VU had artistic aspirations of their own – Cale’s main instrument is the viola, after all – their resolutely stripped-down aesthetic was not miles away from the Stooges’ sound. The eight songs on The Stooges were produced by John Cale his band, the Velvet Underground, had already developed a well-earned reputation as chroniclers of the seamy underbelly of society. While one might derive some chuckles from hearing just how defiantly simplistic the band’s music is – shorn as it is of all nuance – comedy it ain’t. With due respect to Roxon, it’s fair to wonder if she had any first-hand knowledge of the Stooges. They were discovered in 1968.” The Stooges The Stooges, Elektra 1969 Fields, the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers and Elvis Presley. “A Detroit rock group that combines politics, comedy and music, the Psychedelic Stooges have been described as having the spirit of W.C. Right there in the “P” section, just above Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Roxon wrote: Even though the group didn’t have an album or even a single to its name at that point, she considered them important enough to include in her book. When influential rock critic Lillian Roxon penned her Rock Encyclopedia in 1969, she referred to the group by what was (apparently) its original name: the Psychedelic Stooges. People weren’t sure what to make of them. band had artistic ambitions (and a singer whom many saw as pretentious), this group of Michigan players clearly approached things on a more elemental level. Most every visual element – the style of photography, the positioning of the band members in the shot, inclusion of a band logo as a design element, the layout – was shamelessly copied from the debut release of Elektra labelmates the Doors. As a genre, punk rock hadn’t even been conceived, nor had “shock rock.” So it was largely unexpected when Elektra signed a scuzzy, primitive band from Detroit called the Stooges. There was little precedent – virtually none on major labels – in 1969 for The Stooges. The Stooges, 1969 / Art by Ron Hart based on a photo by Glen Craig
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