Yet his less-than-conventional production added to an inherent oddness. The unhinged rock throwaways that were The Stooges he never quite grasped. It was Iggy after all which Bowie had fallen in love with. His trebly mix resulted in a thinner sound which the band notoriously disliked. So much so that they only agreed to release the product if Bowie could salvage it with his own mix.īowie complied, traveling to LA’s Western Studios where he and the band worked on post production.
When it did arrive Columbia and management were appalled.
The sessions were protracted, and the album arrived much later than expected.
IGGY AND STOOGES RAW POWER FREE
Given relative free rein in the studio, production was dirty and recordings distorted. Clashes would soon lead to a terse and inevitable disintegration, but for now, they had a hundred six-figure record deal and an album to cut. Swirling amidst a cloud of hash, acid and heroin Iggy wasn’t always calling the shots. The same old tensions were still simmering away. While they recorded under the name Iggy and The Stooges, to those within the group they were simply The Stooges. Here a disgruntled Ron formed the rhythm section with brother and drummer Scott. With the more accomplished James Williamson brought in on guitar, incumbent Ron Asheton was shifted to bass to replace Dave Alexander who had not returned. Bound by an unconventional agreement stipulating that he withhold from heroin and other excess, he then wooed industry heavy Clive Davis to nab a recording contract with Columbia Records.Īfter a number of abortive attempts to place Iggy in the company of more pliant backing groups, The Stooges reconvened. Iggy signed as a solo artist with Bowie’s Main Man management company. David idolised both and sympathised with their art-damaged cause. As Bowie’s Ziggy persona built momentum, he publicly took Iggy and Loud Reed under his wing. They’d anticipated glam rock.Īfter spending the ‘60s battling his own obscurity Davy Jones (now David Bowie) was the 1970s’ rising star. All their effort would have been for naught had it not been for a single saving grace. Succumbing to their own substance abuse and interpersonal malice they simply gave up. They wanted to reach dropouts, chancers, high school losers and drug-addled youths. The Stooges weren’t looking to service a hip crowd, but a social underclass. A strutting Neanderthal who slashed his bared body to a bloody mess onstage one night and smeared it with peanut butter the next. Fuelled by an equally repellent and narcotic ferocity. The Ig was a dribbling troglodyte, an animal. Jim was an intelligent and disarmingly well-read anthropology drop out. While the two have meshed in later life, there was a large polarity between Iggy Pop and James Osterberg. He stalked, contorted, spat and threw himself about the stage or off it. The Stooges’ frontman was crude and offensive. Follow up Fun House arrived the year following but like its predecessor, it met with critical indifference and commercial oblivion. Halfway between rock’s roots and punk their record was scorned, shunted and ignored. Thrills, energy, and attitude took precedence over virtuosity or studio excess. Their music was distorted, dirty, amateur and unhinged. The Stooges were chasing a darker thread. Like The Velvet Underground before them, the Michigan outfit had coalesced in opposition to the crumbling idealism of the hippy dream. They were too busy stoking the primordial fire of rock ‘n’ roll.ġ969 debut The Stooges arrived at the end of flower power. Convinced of a sense of purpose and caught within a swirl of druggy excess, fortunes and personal relationships crumbled around them.
While the popular sound of the ’70s pushed into complexity and flashy polish, Iggy and his comrades lurked in the flanks. MORE: DZ Deathrays Martian-Style Radio Takeover // Metallica – Cliff Burton Day Made Official
0 kommentar(er)
