YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
Mornin’ folks. Let’s get this week off to a big start. ‘Down On The Street’ is the opening salvo off The Stooges 1970 album Fun House. The sound exploded off the vinyl, marking a louder, rawer, more live sound for the band. The power certainly suited the charms of Iggy Pop, all maniacal grunts and yelps. Have a great week.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
I start and end the week with the sound of the 1950s. Jerry (Ivan) Allison is best known as the drummer for Buddy Holly’s Crickets. The explosion of rock’n’roll between 1955-58 brought about a wave of creativity for its teenage audience. Unlike most drummers, Allison didn’t miss the opportunity to push his own sound and vision. He took the alias Ivan to release a cover of Johnny O’Keefe’s ‘The Wild One’ entitled ‘Real Wild Child’. The song was better than the original, but it is hard to imagine anyone sounding less like a real wild child. Iggy would set that straight in 1986.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
By 1976, the Stooges were history and Iggy had been on a downward spiral, including some self-induced time in an asylum. Longtime confidant, David Bowie stepped in to help him out. The two of them wrote some new material and produced The Idiot. It was far removed from the proto-punk of the Stooges, but it was new, different and full of promise. Take ‘China Girl’… underrated at the time, it was always destined for greater things.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
The NME have called ‘Sha Sha Sha’ the bastard son of ‘A Town Called Malice’. The sentiment might be similar, but the sound is different. Fontaines D.C.’s frontman Grian Chatten sneers and quips like a young Iggy Pop to Mick Jones-like riffs. The song features on the Dublin band’s debut album Dogrel.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
I begin and start the week with a couple of rippers. Today it’s a classic slice of raw power from The Stooges. Off their self-titled debut, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ sounded like nothing else in 1969. The term proto-punk is often wastefully used, but when you listen to Iggy’s vocals combined with Ron Asheton’s ugly guitar runs, you have to tip your hat. Its three-chord riff played through damaged speakers with the amp cranked up to 11… it was cutting edge, but sawtoothed not straight. Have a great weekend.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
Before the easy of listening of Christmas sets in, I would like to get something more edgy off my chest. First up, ‘Dirt’ by The Stooges. The track is off their 1970 album Fun House, and like much of the rest of the album, this is not a song that you could easily date from initial listen. Producer Don Gallucci recorded Fun House as though it were a live album. The result is raw and abrasive. Iggy spits out his words. This is garage rock; this is proto punk; but Ron Asheton’s hazy guitar solo is also sublimely in tune with its time. You can hear The Doors that so influenced James Osterberg (aka Iggy) and a completely new sound that inspired the likes of MC5, the Ramones and The Damned.
YouTube – Amazon – iTunes – Discogs
Sadly, I start a week with another eulogy. Donna Summer is no more. A bona fide queen of the dancefloor, she changed dance music forever with the Moroder-produced ‘I Feel Love’ in 1977. On hearing the song in a Berlin nightclub, Brian Eno said “I have heard the sound of the future”. He was spot on, as ever. Two years before Eno, Bowie and Iggy were to arrive in Berlin, Summer had already been living in Germany for nearly decade, when she had the luck and foresight to collaborate with Giorgio Moroder to turn her lyric ‘Love To Love You Baby’ into a disco phenomenon.
