The Stooges -

The Stooges were an American hard-rock/punk band fronted by singer Iggy Pop. They released two albums on Elektra: The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970). After a brief split, they returned with the 1973 Columbia release Raw Power, produced by David Bowie. Pop reemerged as a solo artist, starting with the 1977 Bowie-produced albums The Idiot and Lust for Life.

Members: Iggy Pop (vocals), Scott Asheton (drums), Ron Asheton (guitar, bass), Dave Alexander (bass, 1967-70), Steve Mackay (tenor saxophone, 1970-71), Zeke Zettner (bass, 1970-71), Bill Cheatham (guitar, 1970), James Williamson (guitar), Jimmy Recca (bass, 1971), Bob Sheff (piano, 1973), Tornado Turner [Warren Klein], (guitar, 1973), Scott Thurston (piano, harmonica, 1973-74)

Background

The Stooges formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 when guitarist Ron Asheton (1948–2009) and his drummer brother Scott Asheton (1949–2014) met drummer-turned-singer James Osterberg (b. 1947). Ron hailed from a string of unrecorded local garage bands, including The Chosen Few.

Osterberg had drummed in the R&B/beat acts The Iguanas and The Prime Movers. Inspired by the stage antics of Doors frontman Jim Morrison, he decided to be a singer. He adopted the stagename Iggy Pop: “Iggy” derived from the first two letters in “Iguanas”; “Pop” a nickname given by his bandmates.

Pop and the Asheton’s formed The Psychedelic Stooges with Dave Alexander (1947–1975), a friend of the brothers who took up bass at the time of the band’s formation. They played their first show on Halloween 1967 and gigged throughout the following year at famed local haunts like Detroit’s Grande Ballroom.

Notable Grande dates include opening slots for Blood, Sweat & Tears (3/3/68), Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (4/28/68), Fleetwood Mac (12/27/68), and multi-bills with Love and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown (6/1/68), and The Who and Pink Floyd (7/13/68). Pop gained notoriety for his wild stage antics, which involved food-smearing, stage-diving, and self-mutilation.

In late 1968, they got signed as The Stooges to Elektra Records by label publicist Danny Fields, who included them as part of a deal centered on fellow Detroit hard-rockers the MC5.

The Stooges

The Stooges released their self-titled debut album on August 5, 1969, on Elektra.

The album features eight group-written originals, including the singles “1969” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” a Stooges signature animated by Iggy’s concert accoutrement, a dog collar.

John Cale produced the album and played viola on its centerpiece, “We Will Fall.” Side B opens with “No Fun,” a band anthem later covered by the Sex Pistols. The Stooges closes with “Not Right” and “Little Doll.”

A1. “1969” (4:05)
A2. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (3:09) is a medium-uptempo rocker with a fuzzed-out, circular three-chord churn (G…F#…E…) and brash metaphors of sexual roleplay (“now we’re gonna be face-to-face, and I’ll lay right down in my favorite place”).
A3. “We Will Fall” (10:18)

B1. “No Fun” (5:14) is a clapped 12-bar blues with a crackling mid-tempo riff (in A, right channel) and lyrics about Iggy’s boredom and alienation. He calls out his bandmate (“Ron, I said c’mon”) as Asheton assaults the left channel with a soaring, simmering solo.
B2. “Real Cool Time” (2:29) is a tom-laden rocker with a repetitive three-chord arch (E…G…A…G…) and Iggy’s promise of what the title implies; suffixed with hints to the subject (“What do you think I wanna do? That’s right”).
B3. “Ann” (3:00)
B4. “Not Right” (2:50) is a power-churn rocker with a distorted four-chord chromatic riff (A…C…B…B♭…, left channel) and oozing, fuzzed-out leads (right channel). Iggy sings of a woman (later identified as Betty) who’s mutually attracted and hormone-charged, yet incompatible.
B5. “Little Doll” (3:20)

The Stooges marked Cale’s debut as a producer, months after his exit from the Velvet Underground and arrangement work on Nico‘s 1968 second solo album The Marble Index. He plays piano and sleigh bell on “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Stooges sessions took place at the Hit Factory, NYC, in April 1969. Pop is credited here as “Iggy Stooge.”

Elektra photographer Joel Brodsky arranged the members for a vertical headshot (front cover) and a side-to-side lineup (back cover). His photography also appears on 1968–70 albums by Ars Nova, Clarence Carter, Earth Opera, Elephant’s Memory, Lothar and the Hand People, Nazz, Roy Ayers, and Victor Brady. The art director, William S. Harvey, notched more than 600 visual credits, including 1968/69 Elektra titles by the British folk-rockers Methuselah and the Incredible String Band. The graphic designer on The Stooges, Robert L. Heimall, also designed covers for the US Elektra versions of the debut albums by Lindisfarne and Renaissance (both different from their UK counterparts).

1969–70 Concerts

The Stooges gigged vigorously in the months that followed the album’s release. On August 31, 1969, they played the Rock & Roll Picnic at Benedectine Stadium, Detroit, with Keef Hartley, Lighthouse, Savage Grace, and The Third Power. Notable Sept.–Oct. stops include the Boston Tea Party (9/9: with Ten Years After), the Electric Factory, Philadelphia (9/19: with Buddy Miles Express), and a homecoming show at the Grande Ballroom (10/3: with The Move).

The Stooges almost played A Day of Peace, slated for November 11 at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium with MC5, SRC, The Frost, The Parliaments (with Funkadelic), and Frijid Pink. However, the show was canceled in light of a riot that occurred the prior week at Olympia.

The Stooges closed out 1969 with after-Christmas shows at Detroit’s Eastown Theatre (12/26: with Flock) and the Toledo Sports Arena (12/28: with Love Sculpture). On December 29, they played at the Aragon Ballroom as part of the Chicago Pop Festival, which also featured sets by Alice Cooper, Baby Huey, Bangor Flying Circus, Coven, and Rotary Connection.

In January 1970, The Stooges played a Cincinnati two-nighter with the Flamin’ Groovies and Golden Earring (Jan. 9–10: Ludlow Garage), followed by a Grande Ballroom appearance with unsung Detroit heroes Wilson Mower Pursuit and Fuzzwart one-offs The Attack. The Stooges missed their slot at a late-month benefit for imprisoned MC5 manager John Sinclair but closed January with an Eastown Theatre two-nighter with The Früt (formerly Früt of the Loom).

In March, The Stooges played two festival events: the 1st St. Louis Pop Festival (3/7: Kiel Auditorium; with The Amboy Dukes, Blues Magoos, Pax, and David Surkamp‘s Touch) and Bloomington’s Met Center Rock Festival (3/20: with Buddy, Canned Heat, Grand Funk Railroad, and The Litter).

The Stooges played April bills with NRBQ (4/10: Palladium, Birmingham, MI), Sonny Hugg (4/12: Sherwood Forest, Davison), and The Rationals (4/18: Factorie Ballroom, Detroit).

In May, they on-boarded a fifth member, Carnal Kitchen saxophonist Steve Mackay, a recent Stooges concert attendee steeped in free jazz. The new-lineup played a Hollywood two-nighter (May 7–8) with Elvin Bishop and Taos. On May 22, The Stooges played an Aragon multi-act bill with Mountain, Bloodrock, and Swedish psychsters the Mecki Mark Men. On June 5, they reappeared at the Birmingham Palladium with Mighty Quick and Ormandy.

On Saturday, June 13, 1970, The Stooges played for 29,000 attendees of the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival, a day-long event at Crosley Field Stadium with sets by Damnation of Adam Blessing, Michael Quatro Band, Mott the Hoople, Traffic, and Zephyr. During the Stooges set, Iggy smeared peanut butter from a container handed to him by attendee Steven Bator, later known as Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators. The event was filmed by local NBC affiliate WLWT for a 90-minute August national broadcast.

Once sessions wrapped on their new album, The Stooges played a hometown two-nighter (July 3–4) at Eastown Theatre with Blodwyn Pig.

Fun House

The Stooges released their second album, Fun House, on July 7, 1970, on Elektra.

The album contains seven group-credited rockers, including “T.V. Eye” and “1970,” a later punk standard known alternately as “I Feel Alright.” Side B features saxophonist Steve Mackay.

They recorded the album with Portland musician Don Gallucci, the onetime Kingsmen keyboardist who cut a recent psych album with the LA-based Touch.

A1. “Down on the Street” (3:42)
A2. “Loose” (3:33)
A3. “T.V. Eye” (4:17) is a pounding uptempo rocker with peculating bass and a driving fuzzed-out riff of shifting thirds (in A minor). Iggy spots a woman giving him ‘the look’ (“She got a TV eye on me”).
A4. “Dirt” (7:00) is a medium-slow blues dirge with a six-note ostinato (primarily in A), soaring/sensitive leads, and lyrical allusions to Iggy’s existential mindset (“I’m burning inside… do you feel it when you touch me… do you feel it when you cut me?”). Ron Asheton delivers a lyrical, crying solo across the midsection, reined in by Pop’s muted admission (“it was just a dreaming”).

B1. “1970” (5:14) is a fast rocker with a two-chord riff (E..G..E-G-E-G) against the Bo Diddley beat. Iggy caterwauls ecstatically about the wild times in store with good songs (“Radio burnin’ up above”) and hot romance (“Beautiful baby, feed my love”). Dave Alexander carries the theme while Ashetone cuts loose with a smouldering middle run. In the final third, Mackay shatters through with fractious dissonance.
B2. “Fun House” (7:45) is a medium-uptempo road song (in E) with cutting sax (right channel), walloping precision, and dissonant washes of acid guitar (left). Iggy shouts to his bandmate (“Blow Steve”) with the catchphrase of “1970” (“Yeah, I feel alright”), then calls his “baby” with news about the “fun house” (venue) where the Stooges “came to play.”
B3. “L.A. Blues” (4:53) is free-form acid rock jam that opens with a shout and crashes amid sputtering distortion, avalanche toms, distant sax, and piercing feedback.

Sessions spanned May 11 to 25 at Elektra Studios in Los Angeles with Gallucci, who produced Fun House in sequence with the debut album by Crabby Appleton. Elektra soundman Brian Ross-Myring engineered both amid work on Chicago II and Primordial Lovers, the debut album by Essra Mohawk. To capture The Stooges live sound, Galluci removed Elektra’s studio baffles while Iggy hand-held his microphone through each take.

Fun House appeared in a vertical gatefold with an ‘enflamed’ Iggy overlaid on a zoomed, red-tinted, sideways group photo. The inner-gate shows the Stooges lounged under studio microphones on a Persian carpet, as photographed by Ed Caraeff, noted for the iconic guitar-burning image of Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival. Caraeff’s images also appear on 1969/70 covers for Captain Beefheart, Emitt Rhodes, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, and (with similar tinted overlays) Ike & Tina Turner.

Elektra issued an alternate version of “Down on the Street” (3:10), backed with an edit of “1970” titled “I Feel Alright” (3:18).

The Stooges plugged Fun House at WCFL’s Big 10 Summer Music Festival, held on July 18 at Soldier Field Stadium with sets by Chicago, Illinois Speed Press, Illusion, Pig Iron, Dreams, Leon Russell, Mason Proffit, and Bloomsbury People. On July 26, The Stooges appeared in North Coventry, Pennsylvania, for the New Coast Music Festival, which also featured Boomerang, Cactus, Dragonwyck, Eric Burdon & War, and High Treason.

1970–71 Concerts, Lineups

On August 8, The Stooges played the Goose Lake International Music Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, where Iggy quarreled with Mountain over time limits. In light of Dave Alexander’s catatonic Goose Lake performance, Pop replaced him with bassist Zeke Zettner, a prior SRC and Stooges roadie. They also added roadie Bill Cheatham as a second guitarist. By November, he cleared for James ‘The Skull’ Williamson, a longtime acquaintance of the band.

Skull was born James Robert Williamson on October 29, 1949, in Castroville in south-central Texas. He spent his childhood in nearby San Antonio and his tweens in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he took up guitar in the seventh grade. In the summer of 1963, his family moved to Detroit, where Williamson learned barre chords from his neighbor and riffed along to “Heatwave,” a current hit by Martha & The Vandellas. His first electric guitar was the Fender Jaguar, a model popular in surf music.

In ninth grade, Williamson formed the Chosen Few, a Rolling Stones cover band that played the local party circuit. Ron Ashton joined in early 1966, just as Williamson departed for a New York State boarding school, where he formed his second band, The Coba Seas. In 1969, he settled in Manhattan and established ties with the now-signed Stooges.

Williamson played his first show with the Stooges on November 27, 1970, at W.F. Herman Secondary School in Windsor, Ontario. His arrival coincided with the band’s spiral into hardcore drug abuse. Despite multiple demos (“I Got a Right,” “Gimme Some Skin”), Elektra annulled their contract.

Zeke quit after their December 12 double-bill with Catfish at the Birmingham Palladium. The Stooges returned to that venue with bassist James ‘Jimmy’ Recca for an April 21, 1971, show with Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Their subsequent spring/summer tour schedule faced multiple cancellations due to Iggy Pop’s erratic stage behavior.

On May 16, their show at Creelman Hall at the University of Guelph, Ontario, was stopped midset over noise complaints by the school’s headmaster. Prior to their planned Eastown Theatre two-nighter with Illusion and Fanny (May 21 and 22), Scott sustained injuries in a van crash. The Stooges honored the second evening with Fun House saxist Steve MacKay in Scott’s seat.

Midway through their May 27 show at the Factory in St. Charles, Missouri, Iggy accidentally head-wounded Ron with a swung microphone. The Stooges crumbled after their May 29 appearance at the Sports Arena in Toledo, Ohio, for the “WTTO Presents People’s Concert #1,” a multi-act event with Frut & Sunday Funnies and the Bob Seger System.

The Stooges formally split in early July 1971 but still had an obligatory 7/24 event with Bullfrog at Wampler’s Lake Pavilion in Irish Hills, Michigan. The Ashton brothers and Recca honored the date with teenager Steve Richards, a local Stooges fan who knew their set by heart.

New Stooges

The Stooges earned a fan in David Bowie, an English singer/songwriter and longtime champion of stateside underground rock. In 1966, Bowie heard an advance demo of the Velvet Underground by their visiting Welsh violist (and future Stooges producer) John Cale. Pop signed with MainMan, the management company founded by Bowie’s benefactor, Tony DeFries, who brokered a new Stooges deal with CBS/Columbia.

In early 1972, Pop arrived in London to canvass musicians for a new Stooges lineup. With no suitable prospects, he summoned James Williamson, followed by Ron and Scott Asheton. On July 15, they played their only UK show at London’s Scala cinema, supported by the Flamin’ Groovies and Fishbaugh, Fishbaugh & Zorn. As a reconstituted four-piece with Williamson, Ron Asheton assumed the bassist role.

Raw Power

Iggy & The Stooges released their third album, Raw Power, on February 7, 1973, on Columbia. The album contains eight songs co-written by Pop and James Williamson.

Side A includes the lilting riff-rocker “Search and Destroy” and the lucid “Penetration,” a dark, whispered track with faint vibes. Each side contains an acoustic ballad (“Gimme Danger,” “I Need Somebody”) and an R&B/rock rave-up (“Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell,” “Shake Appeal”). The album closes with “Death Trip,” an unrelenting dirge.

A1. “Search and Destroy” (3:26)
A2. “Gimme Danger” (3:28)
A3. “Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell (Originally Titled “Hard to Beat”)” (4:52)
A4. “Penetration” (3:35)

B1. “Raw Power” (4:22)
B2. “I Need Somebody” (4:50)
B3. “Shake Appeal” (3:00)
B4. “Death Trip” (5:53)

Sessions occurred in September/October 1973 at CBS Studios in London, where Iggy self-produced the album but inadvertently split the vocals and backing tracks into separate channels. In late October, Bowie (amid California tour stops) remixed Raw Power in Los Angeles at Western Sound Recorders.

Final Shows

On July 30, 1973, the Stooges commenced an intended four-nighter at Max’s Kansas City, an emerging hotspot on New York’s underground. They introduced a fifth member, keyboardist Scott Thurston. Two show in, Iggy incurred another injury that waylaid the band.

On September 3, the Stooges played the Whisky-a-Go Go in Los Angeles, supported by the New York Dolls, who headlined over the Stooges at a subsequent Memphis show (9/21) at Ellis Auditorium, where police brutalized an audience member and arrested Dolls frontman David Johansen, who intervened on the situation.

In October, the Stooges headlined a Michigan Palace two-nighter (5–6), supported by Mahogany Rush, White Witch, and Public Foot the Roman. On October 8, they launched six nights at Richards club in Atlanta, where Elton John stage-jumped one show disguised in a gorilla suit.

The Stooges cancelled their December 14 show at Chicago Auditorium, where Blue Oyster Cult played with replacement act The Raspberries. On the 29th, the Stooges and BOC appeared at the Indiana Convention Center for the Second Annual Holiday Festival, which also featured sets by Captain Beyond, Mike Bloomfield, Rare Earth, and REO Speedwagon.

On January 11, 1974, the Stooges played Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, supported by The Tubes, an emerging Bay Area shock-rock band. Mid-month, they played Ohio shows with Slade in Cleveland (1/18: Allen Theater) and Toledo (1/19: Sports Arena; with James Gang).

On February 9, the Stooges returned to Michigan Palace for a multi-act bill with Spooky Tooth, Elephant’s Memory, and Satori Circus. This would be their last show.

Despite multiple demos, Columbia reneged on the second-album option. The Stooges disbanded under duress amid speculation of an unreleased fourth album. In 1976, the second half of the 2/9/74 show and the first half of the 10/6/73 Michigan Palace show appeared on Metallic K.O.

Discography: