The Stooges

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About The Stooges

There are many theories as to when the ’60s hippie dream ended, but certainly the arrival of The Stooges provided a doomy death knell. Formed in 1967, the Ann Arbor quartet—guitarist Ron Asheton, his drummer brother Scott, bassist Dave Alexander and a freaky frontman who christened himself Iggy Pop—answered the era’s peace and love with nihilism and noise, investing the snarl of ’60s garage rock with a more sinister, apocalyptic aura. Produced by The Velvet Underground’s John Cale, the band’s 1969 self-titled debut cast Iggy’s feral fantasies (“I Wanna Be Your Dog”) and anti-social mission statements (“No Fun”) in skull-splitting wah-wah guitars and rumbling caveman rhythms; the following year’s Fun House presented an even more fearsome collision of murderous acid rock and free-jazz fury. The commercial failure of those records nearly deep-sixed the group, before a retooled version of The Stooges—with Ron switching to bass to accommodate new guitarist James Williamson—emerged for 1973’s blistering Raw Power, produced by superfan David Bowie. That record also scared off the public, but it wouldn’t be long before the first generation of punks and alt-rockers elevated The Stooges from cult curio to eternally influential institution. Their legacy secure, Iggy and the Ashetons reunited in 2007 to release The Weirdness, which allowed The Stooges to play for the adoring festival crowds they were denied the first time around. Following Ron’s death in 2009, Williamson re-entered the fold for 2013’s Ready to Die, a surprisingly reflective effort that had the feel of a swan song—a fate sealed by the 2014 passing of Scott Asheton.

ORIGIN
Ann Arbor, MI, United States
FORMED
1967
GENRE
Rock
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