Jeez. More bad news from the Motor City—Ron Asheton, guitarist for the original and resurrected Stooges, was found dead in his Ann Arbor home, age 60. A heart attack is suspected.
The Stooges of the first two albums—The Stooges and Fun House—were a staggeringly great, so-primordially-dumb-it’s-genius rock monolith. Asheton’s unstoppable riffs on such tunes as “1969” and “No Fun” were essentially iterations on the same riff…prior to The Ramones, this was rock minimalism of the highest order. His leads were no-bullshit squeals of aggression.
I had the privilege of seeing the reformed Stooges a couple of times, the last being on my last birthday, August 8, at NYC’s Terminal 5. Despite oft-appalling sound—for one thing, the PA in the cavernous space just wasn’t LOUD ENOUGH—the combo killed, and this YouTube clip, chronicling Iggy’s audience-participation segment of the show, is, among other things, an exemplary document of a guitarist keeping his head while the frontman is losing his. Asheton will be missed.
Damn – what a kick in the head! Fun House is amazing. In junior high, I discovered that record at a 1.99 bin. I didn’t know much about rock history and thought that I had stumbled upon a treasure that no one else knew about. He is definately going to be missed.
Which raises the question: how exactly do you feel about Raw Power? I won’t insult you by asking about the reunion album.
I totally love “Raw Power,” and approve of the recent remix…but it’s a different kettle of fish from the first two records—James Williamson’s chordings were a trifle more, let’s say, muso-ish than Asheton’s, but enough to make a difference. Interesting to note that during the first go-round, the reformed Stooges stuck exclusively to material from the first two albums, but on the last tour they threw in some Williamson-penned stuff—“Search and Destroy” and “I Got A Right” most memorably. Sounded awesome. And I don’t think they did a single song from the reunion album, funnily enough.
I got to see the Williamson/Raw Power incarnation of the Stooges back in 1973, on a hot July summer day, in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. It was a triple bill, The Stooges headlining, and Bob Seger was second on the bill. How things change. To be perfectly frank, they scared the shit out of me. There were an awful lot of bikers in the crowd, at that time they liked to show up just to heckle and harass the band, and that heightened the tension in the air. While I can’t say for certain, I believe that both Asheton and Williamson were attired in SS uniforms, and had makeup on their faces that had them looking like they’d just walked off the set of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Iggy had on bikini briefs and knee-high platform boots. That’s it. But his skin was powder-white, or so it looked, though it could’ve been metallic platinum. In between Seger and The Stooges I smoked a joint with a friend of mine. Big mistake. Toward the beginning of their set Iggy did a song called Head On, which ended up on METALLIC KO. One of the lines said something about “buttfuckers tryin’ to run my life”. Well that did it. I thought I was having aural hallucinations, I didn’t think he’d really used that word, the one that starts with a ‘b’. So, freaked out, I just had to leave. But still, all told, I’ve always loved Raw Power, and I’ve always loved Fun House. Both of them are gorgeously ferocious, unique, to me there’s been nothing like them before or since. I made a point of seeing the re-formed Stooges twice these past few years, glad I did, especially now that Ron’s gone. And despite his death I’m happy for him, since I know that to be reunited with Iggy and his brother Scott was something he wanted more than anything in the world, and it happened.
I had the privilege of getting to know Ron Asheton in the 90s, when we were both working on a low-budget Michigan horror movie called “Mosquito.” In addition to being a ferocious guitar player, I can also attest that he was a funny, kind, generous man, who spun a great yarn and cooked damn fine chili. He always managed to keep the crew’s spirits up, even during all-night shoots and crap weather. Check out the movie sometime, if you can find it; it’s ridiculous, but there are worse ways to waste some time. Ron had a ball making it, and he contributed a song that runs during the end credits.