Several months later, Cheatham and Zettner quit the band, and James Williamson became the new Stooges guitarist, while Jimmy Recca joined as bassist. In 1971, a new lineup of the Stooges emerged, with Ron Asheton and Bill Cheatham sharing duties on guitar, Zettner on bass, Scott Asheton on drums, and Iggy on vocals. Dave Alexander was fired after a lackluster performance at the 1970 Goose Lake Rock Festival, and Zeke Zettner took his place. At first, he did try to keep the Stooges afloat. Following the commercial failure of Fun House, the Stooges essentially disintegrated as Iggy sank deep into heroin addiction. Fun House, an atonal barrage of avant-noise, appeared in 1970 and, if it was even noticed, earned generally negative reviews and sold even fewer copies than the debut, though it was belatedly hailed as a masterpiece. As the Stooges prepared to release their sophomore album, every member sank deeper into substance abuse (except for Ron Asheton, who became increasingly frustrated with his bandmates as instruments and gear were pawned to pay for drugs), and their excess eventually surfaced in their concerts, not only by Iggy's antics, but also in the fact that the band could barely keep a simple, two-chord riff afloat. During the recording of the Stooges' second album, members of the band were introduced to heroin, which quickly took a heavy toll on them. Produced by John Cale, the Stooges' primitive eponymous debut was released in 1969, and while it generated some attention in the underground press, it barely sold any copies.
Nevertheless, the group lucked into a major-label record contract in 1968 when an Elektra talent scout went to Detroit to see the MC5 and wound up signing their opening act, the Stooges, as well. The Stooges were infamous, not famous - while they had a rabidly devoted core audience, even more people detested their shock tactics. Performing shirtless, he would smear steaks and peanut butter on his body, cut himself with glass, and dive into the audience. In particular, Iggy gained attention for his bizarre on-stage behavior. For the next year, they played the Midwest relentlessly, earning a reputation for wild, primitive performances, which were largely reviled. Adopting the name Iggy Stooge, he rounded up brothers Ron and Scott Asheton (guitar and drums, respectively) and bassist Dave Alexander, and the group debuted at a house party in 1967. Following three albums, the Stooges disbanded, but the group's legacy grew over the next two decades as legions of underground bands used their sludgy grind as a foundation for a variety of indie rock styles, and as Iggy Pop became a pop culture icon.Īfter playing in several local bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the blues band the Prime Movers and the Iguanas, Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) formed the Stooges in 1967 after witnessing a Doors concert on the University of Michigan campus. During the late '60s and early '70s, the group was an underground sensation, yet the band was too weird, and too dangerous, to break into the mainstream. Ron and Scott Asheton formed a ridiculously primitive rhythm section, pounding out chords with no finesse in essence, the Stooges were the first rock & roll band completely stripped of the swinging beat that epitomized R&B and early rock & roll. Iggy Pop became notorious for performing smeared in blood or peanut butter and diving into the audience.
Taking their cue from the over-amplified pounding of British blues, the primal raunch of American garage rock, and the psychedelic rock (as well as the audience-baiting) of the Doors, the Stooges were raw, immediate, and vulgar. The Stooges, however, weren't nearly as cerebral as the Velvets. Like the Velvet Underground, the Stooges revealed the underside of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, showing all the grime beneath the myth. During the psychedelic haze of the late '60s, the grimy, noisy, and relentlessly bleak rock & roll of the Stooges was conspicuously out of place.
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