They convinced the Ashetons to join them and these substitute Stooges - without Iggy - took to the road playing Stooges material, to excellent reviews. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr was playing shows with bassist Mike Watt, former Minutemen/Firehose, in which they paid tribute to the Stooges. Other than for their Stooges career, the Ashetons looked destined to be a footnote in rock encyclopaedias. Ron later joined Destroy All Monsters with MC5 bassist Mike Davis but it too had little success. The Ashetons formed New Order (not to be confused with the British band) which quickly fell apart. The other solo Stooges didn't fare so well. He has also appeared in the movies Cry Baby alongside Johnny Depp, The Color of Money with Paul Newman, and Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes. In recent years he has recorded with former members of Guns N'Roses and the Sex Pistols, worked with Larry Mullen of U2, Green Day, Sum 41 and Peaches. Today there is something of the Elder Statesman about Iggy Pop. "I've been dirt and I don't care," he sang once. Since then, Iggy, whose stage name came from his mid-60s high-school band the Iguanas, has been acclaimed for just being himself: famous for being infamous. His cover of the 1950s song Real Wild Child shot up the charts in the late 80s. In 1977 he enjoyed a remarkable comeback, thanks to two Bowie-produced albums: The Idiot which included their co-written China Girl, and Nightclubbing which turned up in Trainspotting and the terrific Lust For Life, the title track also in Trainspotting. Obviously, it couldn't last.Īfter the break-up they went their own ways - the Ashetons into less-than-successful projects, while Iggy worked with Williamson on the thrilling noise-fest album Kill City and then a wobbly solo career. Iggy would stage dive (some say he was the first), often perform in little more than a G-string, and self-mutilation wasn't uncommon. It was certainly extreme rock - in volume and intensity. And some say the Stooges also defined punk rock and created heavy metal with albums like Raw Power. Today they are widely acknowledged as the godfathers of garage rock, the spiritual figureheads of a movement which includes the Datsuns and the D4. In 1974, Iggy, the Asheton brothers Ron (guitar and later bass) and drummer Scott, and guitarist James Williamson (who replaced founder Dave Alexander) split acrimoniously.īut in the five years from their astonishingly muddled debut, produced by Velvet Underground's John Cale, to a typically riot-inducing farewell show, the Stooges became legendary and infamous - even if, as with the Velvets, their albums barely sold at the time. They were a band destined to self-destruct, especially when Iggy's heroin addiction sidelined him for a couple of years. The Stooges, fronted by Iggy Pop, delivered that kind of sonic intensity on albums like their drug-addled, self-titled debut in 1969 and the rowdiness of Fun House and Raw Power. It showed a guy in headphones whose head had exploded and his friend in the other room saying over his shoulder, "So what do you think of the remastered version of Raw Power?" Real Wild Child is proof positive that the lady with the raspy vox and racoon eye makeup was always way underrated.A few years ago, a cartoon in a rock magazine captured the essence of the Stooges. A woman on top way before anyone ever breathed the term "riot grrrl,"Joan Jett cross-pollinated rock & roll, punk, and glam and gave it a refreshing female sneer. Throw in all the extras and you get 144 minutes of pure 5.1 Dolby Digital, boots 'n' all bliss. Highlights are many and include the original color version of "I Love Rock & Roll," an interview with Jett and longtime musical partner Kenny Laguna, and a 2001 rendition of "Cherry Bomb" with former Runaways frontwoman Cherie Currie. (But that provides welcome insight rather than overkill.) All of Jett's hits are repped, including "Everyday People," "Crimson and Clover," "Do You Wanna Touch Me?," "Light of Day," "I Hate Myself for Lovin' You," "Dirty Deeds," and her signature cover of "I Love Rock & Roll" (which was at number one for seven weeks back in 1982). In all, there are 37 chronologically ordered music videos here, with a variety of alternate versions paired up with originals. Other DVDs exist of concerts by Jett and her Blackhearts band, but this mix of videos, live numbers, interviews, and even TV commercials is the definitive documentary of this talented rock & roll rowdy. Which all makes this two-DVD set pretty significant. Jett, even more so than fellow Runaways alumna Lita Ford, made it OK to throw on the leather duds and raunch like a guy. Back in the '70s, it was Jett and her fellow nymphs in the Runaways - along with Suzi Quatro on the other side of the Atlantic - who really laid down the blacktop for later female rockers to take the ride (e.g., the Go-Go's, Hole, L7, Bikini Kill, the Donnas, et al.). The expression "paved the way" could have been coined for Joan Jett.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |