The Stooges (Elektra/Rhino) 69
The Stooges, Fun House (Elektra/Rhino) 70
Lore has it that John Cale all but castrated the mighty, sprawling power that was The Psychedelic Stooges. Having not been born yet, I can only imagine what the early Psychedelic Stooges gigs were like from historical accounts. By most accounts they were noisy, chaotic, experimented with homemade instruments, and sometimes self-indulgent and awful. Though we’ll never know for sure, I’m betting Cale was a good influence, forcing the band to focus and write some real songs. The Stooges dropped the excess flab from their name and music. You can hear some original Cale mixes on the second disc. While the buzzsaw guitar and Iggy’s vocals were pushed slightly back in the mix, there’s no denying that these sessions smoked. It’s nice to hear the full versions of “Ann” and “No Fun,” but the official versions pretty much nailed what they were getting at. “We Will Fall” justified its length with its narcotic furry venus drone. While The Doors can be heard as an influence, they’ve never been this hypnotic. And Jim Morrison could never match the pure Dionysian id that Iggy naturally embodied.
No wonder Iggy was asked to front The Doors a couple years later. With Fun House, he created the perfect rock album. Writing songs around Ron Asheton’s amazing riffs, The Stooges assembled the live set that would become Fun House. Balancing their love of John Cage, Sun Ra, John Coltrane and Harry Partch with dumb rock, they fine tuned their performances with military precision. Appropriately, the label assigned Don Galluci, organist on The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” to attempt to get the live sound on tape. At first he didn’t think it could be done. But he stripped the L.A. studio of its carpet and drapes, hotwired Iggy’s vocals live, and let rip a song a day, in the order they’d appear on the album. It’s fascinating to hear some of the early mixes on disc two. Despite being on various substances, the band was incredibly focused. It’s amazing to hear how they went from the rough takes to the perfect cuts used on the album within a single day. The predatory bass-and-drums riff of “Down On The Street” gives the impression of a coiled panther ready to pounce, while “Loose” breaks the damn and lets the floods roar, reaching its first peak in the maelstrom that is “T.V. Eye,” which is much more successful at an orgiastic money shot than “Whole Lotta Love.” “Dirt” slows down to roll about in gutter poetry, and damn if it isn’t sensual. “1970,” a classic covered by the likes of The Damned and Mission of Burma, brings the energy level back to mayhem, while “Fun House” is the aqueous portal to the album’s heart of darkness. It’s an even more hedonistic “Sister Ray,” pretzel-knotted with ecstatic jazz and primal screams. “L.A. Blues” takes it to even further, ridiculous extremes. Which is what great rock ‘n’ roll should do – push beyond the comfort level, astound with its audacity and insanity, leaving you exhausted and purged.
35 years later, hundreds of bands have been influenced by these two albums, worshipped them, and attempted to match the live power of Fun House. Everyone failed, including The Stooges themselves.
