The Stooges founding member and guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor, MI home early Tuesday morning. He was 60.
I found the first Iggy Pop & The Stooges LP in the cut out bin of a local 7-11 type market down the street from my father’s gas station. I don’t know why the store sold cheap, indiscriminately stocked records next to the Wonder Bread and Twinkies, but it was often the source of some amazing musical discoveries at rock-bottom prices. I picked up the first four Who albums for $2.99 each on a lunch break one afternoon, and a few weeks later was surprised to find The Stooges and Raw Power (the band’s third album) while I was waiting in line to check out. I could have purchased Fun House that day too, but $3.99 seemed a little steep so I passed. Of course when you actually go looking for something it’s nowhere to be found, so it would be years before I finally tracked down the second Stooges album and when I did, I think I had to pay import prices for it because by then it was out of print in the US.
I found the first Iggy Pop & The Stooges LP in the cut out bin of a local 7-11 type market down the street from my father’s gas station. I don’t know why the store sold cheap, indiscriminately stocked records next to the Wonder Bread and Twinkies, but it was often the source of some amazing musical discoveries at rock-bottom prices. I picked up the first four Who albums for $2.99 each on a lunch break one afternoon, and a few weeks later was surprised to find The Stooges and Raw Power (the band’s third album) while I was waiting in line to check out. I could have purchased Fun House that day too, but $3.99 seemed a little steep so I passed. Of course when you actually go looking for something it’s nowhere to be found, so it would be years before I finally tracked down the second Stooges album and when I did, I think I had to pay import prices for it because by then it was out of print in the US.
The Stooges oozed fuzzed-out angst and musical subversion from the moment the needle hit the vinyl. Moronic lyrics, distortion drenched guitars, and pent up energy clawing to be unleashed. I had never heard anything like it before. A classic touchstone for anyone who ever referred to themselves as a punk rocker, the first Stooges album is an amazing first stab at punk music long before a Sex Pistol ever poked himself with a safety pin. Forgot the monotonous misstep of the droning “We Will Fall” — the rest of the album is a classic collection of rapid-fire, sex-crazed rock n’ roll fueled by chaos, anger and, no doubt, a fistful of drugs.
RIP Ron Asheton. The Happy Medium Song of the Day is “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.) |