Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 180

Record label: Elektra

Produced: John Cale

Recorded: Jerry Ragavoy’s R&B Studio (later the Record Plant), New York; June 19–21, 1969

Released: August 5, 1969 (US) September 1969 (UK)

Chart peaks: None (UK) 106 (US)

Personnel: Iggy Pop (v); Ron Asheton (g); Scott Asheton (d); Dave Alexander (b)

Track listing: 1969; I Wanna Be Your Dog (S); We Will Fall; No Fun; Real Cool Time; Ann; Not Right; Little Doll

Running time: 34.33

Current CD: Rhino 8122731762 is a 2-disc expanded edition with the original mixes of the album plus John Cale’s mixes plus full versions and alternate vocals on others to complete the package

Further listening: Fun House (1970) takes the basic blueprint one step further.

Further reading: Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed The Biography (Paul Trynka, 2007); www.iggypop.com

Download: iTunes; HMV Digital

Rock music distilled down to its barest essentials, The Stooges still sounds fresher and more contemporary than most of the punk, alternative, glam and thrash metal material it allegedly spawned in the ensuing decades. Fittingly, its recording was a perfect combination of planning and serendipity. Signed by Elektra as a kind of adjunct to leading Detroit band The MC5, The Stooges hit New York intent on capturing their live set, which comprised around four songs: ‘We had I Wanna Be Your Dog, 1969 and No Fun, along with We Will Fall,’ says guitarist Ron Asheton. ‘[Label boss Jac] Holzman goes, “You got any more songs?” and we said, “Oh yeah.” So we sat down in the Chelsea Hotel, came up with Little Doll, Real Cool Time and Not Right, we rehearsed it one time and did it all the next day, one take for each tune.’

The Stooges’ simplistic, gonzoid sound did not derive from mere stupidity; the minimal lyrics, mostly taken from Stooge in-house slang, were meant to echo the stripped-down couplets of the bluesmen Iggy had heard in Chicago. The slow pace at which the band attack the songs adds a monumental, menacing undertone: ‘The tempos were a little slow because we were all constantly on pot,’ says Iggy. ‘When there was an audience the tempos would come up because we were shitting our collective little pants. But without the audience the dope took over!’

The day after their writing stint, The Stooges stacked up their Marshalls in the Hit Factory: ‘We stick our Marshalls on 10 and start doing our thing, and Cale’s shouting “No no no, you can’t play this loud!”’ says Asheton. ‘This was the only way we knew how to play, because the sound of the instruments, the power, was the catalyst to drive us on. So we went on strike. They couldn’t believe it, we went into the sound booth, sat down and started smoking hash.’ Producer John Cale engineered a compromise, the band turned down one notch to nine and the songs were recorded with minimal decorum. Iggy claims that Cale’s ‘bizarre art mix’ of the album was dumped after the singer staged a tantrum in Jac Holzman’s office; Iggy supervised the mix heard on the final version. Released to widespread indifference outside the band’s Detroit stronghold, The Stooges scraped into the lower reaches of the American charts, and was deleted just a couple of years before every aspiring British punk guitarist started learning the iconic riffs to No Fun, 1969, and I Wanna Be Your Dog.