Stooges: Deluxe Edition CD

The Stooges: Iggy Stooge (vocals); Ron Asheton (guitar); Dave Alexander (bass); Scott Asheton (drums).
Additional personnel: John Cale (violin).
Includes liner notes by Danny Fields.
The Stooges: Iggy Stooge (vocals); Dave Alexander (bass guitar); Scott Asheton, Ron Asheton.
Personnel: Iggy Pop (vocals); Ron Asheton (guitar); John Cale (viola); Scott Asheton (drums).
Additional personnel: John Cale (violin).
Liner Note Author: Ben Edmonds.
Authors: Alice Cooper; Iggy Pop.
Photographers: Joel Brodsky; Leni Sinclair; Tom Copi; Charlie Auringer; Robert Matheu.
While the Stooges had a few obvious points of influence -- the swagger of the early Rolling Stones, the horny pound of the Troggs, the fuzztone sneer of a thousand teenage garage bands, and the Velvet Underground's experimental eagerness to leap into the void -- they didn't really sound like anyone else around when their first album hit the streets in 1969. It's hard to say if Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Dave Alexander, and the man then known as Iggy Stooge were capable of making anything more sophisticated than this, but if they were, they weren't letting on, and the best moments of this record document the blithering inarticulate fury of the post-adolescent id. Ron Asheton's guitar runs (fortified with bracing use of fuzztone and wah-wah) are so brutal and concise they achieve a naïve genius, while Scott Asheton's proto-Bo Diddley drums and Dave Alexander's solid bass stomp these tunes into submission with a force that inspires awe. And Iggy's vividly blank vocals fill the "so what?" shrug of a thousand teenagers with a wealth of palpable arrogance and wondrous confusion. One of the problems with being a trailblazing pioneer is making yourself understood to others, and while John Cale seemed sympathetic to what the band was doing, he didn't appear to quite get it, and as a result he made a physically powerful band sound a bit sluggish on tape. But "1969," "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Real Cool Time," "No Fun," and other classic rippers are on board, and one listen reveals why they became clarion calls in the punk rock revolution. Part of the fun of The Stooges is, then as now, the band managed the difficult feat of sounding ahead of their time and entirely out of their time, all at once. ~ Mark Deming
The Stooges hurled themselves headfirst into 1969 with a debut so sonically ferocious that only one-time Velvet Underground member John Cale could do it justice as a producer. With a full-scale feedback punch, The Stooges' musical bite tore its way towards punk and what would later be called grunge.
Fully embracing the idioms of teenage life, THE STOOGES coined previously unmentioned terms of adolescent angst. "No Fun," "Not Right," and "I Wanna Be Your Dog" gave vocabulary to the post-hippie generation yearning to voice its dissatisfaction. The opening track, "1969," built off the teen-angst of "Summertime Blues" but offered the simplest breakdown of powerlessness to date. "Another year for me and you," says Iggy Stooge, "another year with nothing to do." The Stooges' triumph was in converting the confusion and desires of teenage life into chaotic, three-chord bliss. Often mimicked, but never equalled, THE STOOGES was the call for a new era of rock.
While the Stooges had a few obvious points of influence -- the swagger of the early Rolling Stones, the horny pound of the Troggs, the fuzztone sneer of a thousand teenage garage bands, and the Velvet Underground's experimental eagerness to leap into the void -- they didn't really sound like anyone else around when their first album hit the streets in 1969. It's hard to say if Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Dave Alexander, and the man then known as Iggy Stooge were capable of making anything more sophisticated than this, but if they were, they weren't letting on, and the best moments of The Stooges document the blithering and inarticulate fury of the post-adolescent id with stunning accuracy. Ron AsheRolling Stone (12/11/03, p.136) - Ranked #185 in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time"
Entertainment Weekly (p.66) - "[I]ts nihilistic high points planted the seed of a musical revolution." -- Grade: B+
Q (1/94, p.119) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a marvelous celebration of Iggy Stooge's leering persona..."
Uncut (p.120) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[A] dynamo coiled with electric essence, something you can use to recharge your existence today, tomorrow, forever."
Vibe (12/99, p.164) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Mojo (Publisher) (7/02, p.162) - "...They gave birth to a high-energy take on 3-chord rock'n'roll that was as heavy as adolescence and primitive enough to be avant garde..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #62 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'