DogPunk & Psychedelic Stinky Cat: Kyle Hemmings' Blog: November 2012

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Iggy Pop. An Amazing Career.

I have to admit. I've been a life long Iggy Pop fan. I remember the first time I heard The Stooges on WFMU when I was a kid. Their first album had just come out. I thought at first it was a raw, more primitive version of The Rolling Stones. And I always loved Ron Asheton's guitar work. Thought it fitted perfecty the style of music The Stooges were making.

Their first three albums didn't sell very well. I remember having all three, including what many consider to be their proto-punk masterpiece--Raw Power, where James Williamson took over lead guitar. I remember watching Iggy on TV circa 1970, jumping before a crowd and smearing his chest with peanut butter. Behind him, The Stooges played "TV Eye." Wow. How time flies. Was it that long ago?

And there was the now legendary confrontations between The Stooges and the Motorcycle gang members in an audience in the Michegan Thearter, in Detroit, around 1974, shortly before The Stooges broke up. On the live album, "Metallic K.O." you supposedly can hear beer bottles being thrown on stage, whizzing and bouncing off of guitar strings. And then, Iggy challening, taunting members of the motorcycle gang, warning them to stop heckling the band (he's only around 5'7"), or he's going to jump offstage and kick their ass. They dared him. Iggy got beaten up pretty bad. The gang members told him that if he ever plays there again, they would kill him. After getting out of the emergency room, Iggy and The Stooges played there the next night.