(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
«It's another year for me and you / Another year with nothing to do». This is how James Osterberg, aka Iggy Stooge (later Iggy Pop), chose to introduce himself and The Stooges on the group's debut album The Stooges (Elektra / Warner 1969). The quote also begins Anders Bortne's rock novel of the year, A good band, and right from the start, The Stooges was used as the final proof that the heavy rock was the dumbest of the genre class. Rock was something for young boys who had nothing to do except write monotonous and noisy music and simple lyrics about boredom, baptism, sex and hard partying. Then go down because of the same themes.
Tasteless and boring
The prestigious magazine Rolling Stone called The Stooges for "loud, drilling, tasteless, unimaginative and childish," but reviewer Ed Ward made an important headline when he concluded, "I kind of like it." The Stooges made noisy, dull, tasteless and childish positive adjectives, showing that although rock may have been Dum, it didn't automatically mean the music wasn't smart. Today, the heavy music magazine stands out The Wire between "stoopid" (good) and "stupid" (bad), and as this year's reissues of The Stooges and the sequel Fun House (Elektra / Warner 1970) shows, Iggy Pop and company were also smarter than most people understood.
The Stooges were another of those bands that sold zero and nothing while they were on, while their legacy only grows with each passing year. Sonic Youth, The Ramones, The White Stripes and Kraftwerk, grunge, punk, stoner rock and noise music. Even young Norwegian groups like The Thing, Cato Salsa Experience and Serena-Maneesh. Everything and everyone is in deep debt to The Stooges' three albums.
If you have a superficial relationship with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, it's probably the shock effects you remember. A skinny and bleeding Iggy who spasms the stage in barefoot spasms, all the stories of massive drug use, primitive rhythm section, monotonous and lead-heavy guitar riffs, and Iggy's sobbing vocals on songs like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "TV Eye" . All you have to do is dig into the material to get deeper, where you will find love songs like "Ann", suggestive rock mantras like "We Will Fall" and chaotic jazz rock like "LA Blues". The Stooges were dismissed as stupid and tasteless, but in reality recorded some of the most visionary and forward-thinking rock left over from the 1970s.
Avant-garde without technique
When the group came together in Detroit in the late 1960s, only vocalist Iggy had musician experience – as a drummer. The Stooges' distinctive music arose at the crossroads between Iggy's ambitions and the rest of the band's lack of experience, and the debut album was influenced by avant-garde instrumental music, blues, world music, garage rock and hard rock. Initially, the band's music sounded like perpetual Black Sabbath jamming with people who could only play two notes, but the group was tightened up by producer John Cale from Velvet Underground, while the record company vetoed the band's plans to let the debut album dominate extensively. improvisation. The company wanted more songs, and they got it. If perhaps not the immediate hit songs they wanted.
Fun House was influenced more strongly by black music such as John Coltrane and James Brown, and the band had now brought in saxophonist Steven MacKay as associate member. There were several adventurous steps ahead of the primitive debut, but commercially there was an even bigger failure. The band disintegrated due to baptism and arguing, and returned first Raw Power (Columbia / SonyBMG 1973) – with new members and David Bowie in the production chair. It is often considered one of the first punk albums, but ended with the third flop in a row. It was not until 1977 that Iggy Pop made his final breakthrough with the solo records Lust For Life og The Idiot, which also became a point for the artist's artistic highlight.
PS! This year's new editions of The Stooges og Fun House is equipped with fresh essays and each bonus CD, filled with John Cale's original mixer and alternative versions. Obviously tempting gossip for the blood fan, but without rocking the position of the originals.
