C&L's Late Night Music Club with The Stooges
By Andy K Saturday Oct 18, 2008 7:00pmT.V. Eye from Fun House
Ever wonder if there was a common link between punk rock and heavy metal? I submit this song as that missing link. You be the judge.
Primal and unrelenting, fueled in equal parts by testosterone and Testors glue, Fun House remains, 38 years after its initial release, unmatched in its intensity. IMO.
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I judge your opinion to be quite good. Thanks!
Possibly one of the best live performances of any song I've seen.
Whether in 1980, 1990, 2000 or on the reunion tour.
TV Eye rocks. Especially after the break...the pregnant pause...the silence...then it tears into it it again.
She's got a TV Eye on me...oh yeah.
she's got a beady eye on me.
Not my usual style of music, Andy, but hey, I'm always ready for an adventure!
Stooges = Best!
RIP Levi Stubbs
as long as free will exists among humans punk rock will exist as an expresion of truth
For sure!
Great, great primal rock and roll song. It makes you really happy to be alive!
In case anyone was wondering, TV in this case does not mean television. "Twat vibe" was an expression used by Kathy Asheton (the sister of band members Ron and Scott)and her friends to indicate that they found a man attractive. "She's got a TV eye on me, she's got a TV eye..." I've been carrying this trivia in my head for decades but if I had to state a source it was most likely Iggy's book, "I Need More."
I'm not sure why an Iggy song would be posted on this site. He has said again and again over the years that he is a Conservative Republican, and I don't doubt it. He would probably not be happy finding this clip here.
We try to keep the LNMC posts apolitical.
@martymefurst: Actually, I think the anecdote you're referencing comes from the book "Please Kill Me" by Legs McNiel and Gillian McCain. "I Need More" is first-person narrative most of the way, while "Please Kill Me" is a bunch of bits and pieces from misc. interviews (both previously published and done specifically for the book) with a whole bunch of folks from the Detroit and New York rock scenes from the 60s and 70s. Favorite Iggy bit in there by far has to be this time when he claims he was performing at some show, and for some reason Elton John (of all people) comes out on stage dressed as a gorilla, and the first thing through Iggy's mind is, "Man, there's no way I'm going to be able to fight a gorilla."
Trashy disposable crap? Yeah, sure. Entertaining as all get out, though.
I scroll down and see martymefurst has already addressed it. My bad, marty. : \
New York Dolls?
I think the Dolls had some influence on the punk scene, and the glamrock revival of the mid-'80's was a nod in that direction, but metal (and I'm talkin' Anthrax, Metallica, etc.) have little in common with the Dolls.
The New York Dolls were plain and simple just great rock and roll. I don't think they get enough credit, I mean it's hard to top songs as great as "Jet Boy" or "Personality Crisis." It's obvious that they influenced many rock and rollers: punkers, metal heads, glammers, hair bands, etc., including a lot of indirect influences that probably never paid attention to them or knew they existed. We mourn the loss of Arthur and Johnny over the years but Syl Sylvain and David Johansen have put together a first rate band that is true to the spirit - Steve Conte and Sami Yaffa are both pedigreed rockers - and has every bit of the fire in the belly that you would expect. If the opportunity to see them arises please don't miss out! I've driven hundreds of miles to see the "new" Dolls and not been disappointed.
Oh, and as far as I know...and my sources are good on this, unlike Iggy the Dolls are "blue" and support Obama. Take that how you like it.
I might not like 'em as much as you, though. And it's nice to know that they support blue causes and candidates.
Again, we try to keep the OPs apolitical. When I look for songs to post here, I'm not looking for a great song made by a progressive, just a great song.
Michelangelo's David is a great piece of sculpture, and I'm not going to ignore it because the artist painted a Roman Catholic propaganda piece in the Sistine Chapel. Just sayin'...
The Dolls are definitely blue. (They work blue, too; ever heard their version of Bo Diddley's "Pills"? "Too much head, too much head, rock 'n' roll nurse gave me too much head...". With accompanying gestures.) I think the Dolls are probably the best band in the U.S. now. I've seen Iggy and the Dolls multiple times, and I've gotta give the edge to the Dolls.
I've given it much thought and reconsidered my cobwebbed memory and the source for where "twat vibe" came from was the book "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" by Legs McNeil. It'd a first rate book for anyone interested in rock and roll.
Lester Bangs' review of Fun House? Not that the anectdote you're relating is in there, but it's one of the great pieces of art criticism I've ever read.
And it's fuckin' HI-larious!
Of Pop & Pies & Fun
"Ever wonder if there was a common link between punk rock and heavy metal?"
You're off by a few years. That distinction belongs to the Who and My Generation.
Again, another band that was influential to the development of punk, but metal? I don't think so. Sure, you can point to Live At Leeds, but I think that's more about volume rather than style.
The My Generation comment is spot on. period.
watch any performance they did of it prior to and including Leeds.
watch ..... watch...
you can turn the "volume" off, and still watch...
pure style. the volume was always secondary.
If you're ever passing through Ypsilanti, MI, you've gotta visit this place. It's home to a 30 ft. high wah-wah petal. Not to be missed!
This is simply the motherfuckingest rock album EVAH!!! Everything else is just frosting. Still gives me goosebumps and a buzz after all these years.
is Black Flag's My War.
Ever hear the session outtake "Lost in the Future"? Great, menacing wall of strung out despair, with some great slow sax from Steve McKay unlike the frenetic insanity on the album's title track. It was in a *huge* box set Rhino put out as part of its Handmade project about nine years ago...seven discs and *tons* of alternate takes of every track on the album, plus a few spare pieces. Kinda exhausting, but there were a few raw takes that were far superior to the versions of the songs that wound up getting the final mixdown.
When I was lookin' for a link to Fun House. I didn't get to scope out the contents of that box-set (iirc, titled The Fun House Sessions), but I wonder how much of it has been released on the numerous Stooges bootlegs that have been floating around forever.
BTW, my favorite cut from any of those boots is a live bit where Iggy introduces the song, "This one's for my mom. It's called I've Got My Cock In My Pocket."
PLASMATICS - GOING WILD
Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhcl-TP4Yqc
This is how I remember it. This wasn't a seminal moment in rock and roll history in general per se, but seeing the Pretenders in 1981 at the Palace Theater in Albany with the original lineup was a seminal rock and roll moment for THIS 15 year old. My first rock experience was Frank Zappa and it left a bad taste in my mouth. He was in a bad mood when I saw him and it showed, he was hostile to a perplexed audience. He wanted us all to sit down, shut up, and listen to him play a guitar solo for three hours. He made it clear he wasn't going to play anything we wanted to hear from the outset, he was going to do what he wanted to do and then leave. One or two of you out there might be really jealous of that experience, to me and most people there it was just "WTF?" Fast forward to a few months later and The Pretenders came to town. What a diff. Every concert (of the hundreds) I've been to since has been an attempt to track THIS excitement down.
Yes, Ms. Williams, Ms. Jett and Ms. Hynde and band (first incarnation) are ferocious, but they keep their pants on. Iggy was (still is) shirtless and almost pantsless, waving his large penis about (not so much anymore), smearing peanut butter and broken glass on his chest, and howling like a rabid gutter rat, backed up by some of the most stoopid, mean, lacerating playing ever. I guess what I'm saying is that as tough as they are, the ladies can't lose enough civilization to match Iggy and the Stooges. Rock may be poorer for it, but I believe humanity is far better off.
Joan is a pistol, no? Love her music.
Bored
Uh Oh!
Iggy is a god.
And Metallic K.O. is the best live recording ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irskrVvKR1E&fe...
Missing Rungs
Ooopppssss!!!
HI ANDYK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbVaF7GG7ro
Original punk rock?
;)
In the same way that someone like King Louis Jordan was proto-R&R.
Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
But I wouldn't claim that Jordan played Rock&Roll, and I wouldn't claim The Who played punk.
HI AANGUS
Fuckin' Cubs, huh?
What do I know! I've been a Red Sox fan for 50 years! :)
Choo Choo Ch-Boogie makes me feel like dancing. Thanks, Andy :)
lust for life @ skippy.
:Wave: skippy!
Who da thunk it! I really do miss Hell-O-Scam!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMsGvYzedjA
Always nice to see a fellow canuck.
Although, it is nice to be able to jump the line to make a direct reply.
:)
And, the "Big Blue Button".
http://en.sevenload.com/videos/USMENud-Neil-Y...
No kidding, - unrelenting fueled intensity. Few, if any, then or now, match the Stooges. Stripped down, pure, effective. Look at the list of other records released the same year. Try to find anything still as powerful. Fresh as a daisy.
For more facts and artifacts:
http://www.i94bar.com/ints/sonicpoprendezvous...
Stooges Rule (still).
for something completly different!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Jaodra7AY
We had dad's service today; this is for dad, a private joke we shared!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Gqp_hYbpg
What a charming song.
One of the highlights of the otherwise painfully underwhelming Velvet Goldmine film, a meandering and occasionally interesting movie drawn in part from the David Bowie/Iggy Pop legend, is Ewan McGregor writhing through a surprisingly spot-on cover of "T.V. Eye."
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAYxwEJkAY. (The song is performed by Wylde Ratz, which included the Mudhoney singer, half of Sonic Youth, and of course Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton.)
Can't believe you beat me to it. You're right about this clip being the bright spot to an otherwise rather blah film. Great material but rather confused in its presentation.
Oh, you bastard. I wish I had come up with the phrase "testosterone meets Testor's glue." I am fakking jealous.
First saw Iggy in '82.
IMO, "Beat 'Em Up" is the best punk/metal fusion album from the Iggy/Whitey Kirst team.
"Mask" - Letterman, 2001 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5NI6D7UYB8
More live cuts from "Beat 'Em Up"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pBA_pr6Bh8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf9zZ8lJDic
Those first few gigs of the Stooges together again in 2003 sounded just like the studio albums of '69 and '70, especially the first one at Coachella.
Sweet dreams to all.
Richard Lennox: "when he claims he was performing at some show, and for some reason Elton John (of all people) comes out on stage dressed as a gorilla, "
This is not just a claim - it's true. There are photos (taken by Mick Rock I believe) which I saw in NME back in the 1970's. The background is that John (along with people like Bowie) wanted to sign the Stooges and had come along to a show. The same one where .....
... Reid (Elton's manager) became so angry at how bad it was (the Stooges being renowned for being really bad at showcase gigs - I suspect the Pop suffers from stage fright) taking off his Rolex and throwing it full force against a brick wall? Great times.
But Iggy? Yep. Let's face it, Elvis was just the first Iggy, the Iggster is/was the real thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axRgsM0Zxow&fe...
'Night all.
love...little red book
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hLP8_F2fkw
One poster mentioned the Rhino Boxed set of Funhouse sessions and he mentioned there are "tons of alternate takes" of the songs on FUNHOUSE. Well, as the title of my post indicates, the boxed set--long out of print--is entitled THE COMPLETE FUNHOUSE SESSIONS and it includes not just "tons" of alternate takes, but EVERY scrap of music, every take, the entire output of their recording sessions for the FUNHOUSE album. I stupidly didn't buy the thing when it was available as a boxed set, thinking--"Will I ever play this thing more than once?"--and I answered myself "No." So I let it pass. Years later, it's now available, the whole thing, on iTunes. I remedied my previous stupidity and bought the thing, sadly still lacking the included booklets and whatnot from the original set, but now having what's really important: all the music.
It IS quite wearying to hear take after take of each song, played in sequence. However, the beauty of iTunes is that one can--and I do--set it up to play music in random order. When hearing the material from this session as individual tracks, free of the repetition of hearing it in sequence, it's DYNAMITE! Virtually every track is a gem. It shows what a professional band they were, despite their foibles. They didn't noodle around, they got down to business and played each track as if it were the first and only time. The intriguing thing is one can take the various songs of the final album and make for oneself dozens or hundreds of different versions of the album by sequencing together different takes of the songs. Any of these alternate albums would be great.
Oh, and there's a 17 minute take of "L.A. Blues!"
That guy is still rockin. He's fit as a fiddle.
I see him down south quite often. You wouldn't know he was famous by the way he behaves. Super low key. Lives out on the coast in Southern Baja. I have a hard time believing he's a repug. Although, one never knows. Great tune Andy.
Somehow I doubt it...The song "My Idea of Fun" from The Weirdness would seem to be a decidedly anti Republican song, with the lyric “Now is the season/for war with no reason”.
However, he did record that song “I’m a Conservative”, though I think he’s taking the piss.
This is over a year old, but everything I've ever read, including his latest bio by Paul Trynka, "Open Up and Bleed", leads me to the same conclusion. "I'm a Conservative" rocks, can't explain that one contradiction.
JMG
Iggy Pop on Lil' Bush and The Stooges
Crave Online talks to the Street walking Cheetah, Iggy Pop.
Fred Topel, CraveOnline
June 6, 2007
Donald Rumsfeld probably won't be happy to hear that the cartoon version of himself is being voiced by one of those ungodly rock n' roll types. Iggy Pop is providing the voice of a miniature Rummy in Comedy Central's new animated series Lil' Bush. Portraying the current administration as kids in a politically-themed high school, the show calls upon Pop's distinct speaking voice rather than his crooning, even though the tykes have their own band. Pop took a break from touring to call in an interview about the upcoming show.
Crave Online: How did you get involved with Lil Bush?
Iggy Pop: Basically I’m a musical vocalist but I do voiceover stuff as a sideline like plumbing or something. And when I got the call for the gig I took a look at the pre-existing cartoon that was on the cell phone and I thought it was funny. And what I liked was there was something really human about reducing all these powerful figures to little people. And it was just real entertaining. So there you go. It’s a gig.
Crave Online: How did you approach playing Donald Rumsfeld?
Iggy Pop: I used to watch Donald’s press conferences. At the beginning I thought he was just terrific at working publicly. Whatever it was he had to say he did things masterfully I thought because I have a similar line. I have to stand up in front of people and open my mouth. But I noticed, you know, he got into trouble as time went on once everybody had a chance to open theirs then life gets trickier.
Crave Online: This isn’t your first time doing a voiceover either. You did an episode of American Dad, right?
Iggy Pop: Yeah I did. In fact I just did something for Grand Theft Auto 4 last night so I do a bit of stuff yeah.
Crave Online: So you enjoy this process?
Iggy Pop: Yeah, I always do.
Crave Online: Having such a distinct voice, how hard is it for you to sort of disguise it or come up with a different one for your voiceover?
Iggy Pop: You know, I haven’t. I don’t know well I’ve done. I hope I blend in and do all right in the show but Donick [Cary, creator and producer] had me pick it up from my natural speaking voice. I think that would be fair to say. So it’s a little more like this, everything’s kind of pitched like this. [Higher and faster] Like 'Okay you guys this is serious and we’ve got to take care of this now and don’t disagree with me,' you know.
Crave Online: Are you in general a fan of political comedy?
Iggy Pop: I mean, if somebody puts on Bill Maher I’ll generally sit and watch it to the end. But I’m not flipping through the TV Guide to find out when it’s on, either. It’s something, you know, I’m in the middle somewhere. It’s kind of take it or leave it with me.
Crave Online: Does this give you a chance to express any political view through the voice of Rummy?
Iggy Pop: No, absolutely not. I don’t even think that way. I’m kind of a weird bird so my interest in Rumsfeld is as I said earlier, I thought I noticed just independently I was interested in when he started becoming a visible figure at the news conferences. And I thought he was really good with a crowd. I thought he was good at public presentation. And I used to watch him just to see how he did it. Then at some point maybe what he wasn’t good at was disagreement. And I noticed that. So when all I was really trying to express was hopefully my little bit of the insight as an actor trying to do the guy and that was basically that he should be very insistent and firm about whatever he thinks when he says it. And then he should be the kind of person that’s easily ignited so that if anybody questions him or he should get hyper urgent very quickly. So that was what I was trying to do. That’s about it. No politics in there for me I’m afraid.
Crave Online: Independently of the show, do you have any political feelings about the administration?
Iggy Pop: Well, you know, I noticed like before the presidential election when Bush was elected the first time there was a photo op down there in Crawford. I think he had Cheney and Powell with him and they were all walking this cowboy walk. I’ve lived a few years and I just said to myself, “Okay we’re going to get into a scrap with some country when this guy gets elected, you know?” And that’s what I kind of like. I’m not condemning the political ramifications or all that but some of this stuff is just plain human, you know? On the other hand look at your [alternatives]. I’m not a fan of Kerry or Clinton, Ms. Clinton or any of the other candidates either so what the hell.
Crave Online: Do you ever worry that some of the Bush bashing jokes get old?
Iggy Pop: Donna Summers songs still sound good. So does Kool and the Gang and KC and the Sunshine Band. I mean, you know, it’s okay.
Crave Online: What kind of character is Lil Rummy on the show?
Iggy Pop: He’s the kind of guy that has put a lot of thought and preparation into deciding that he’s going to put over. He’s a put over, sell it to you, this is the way we’re doing it guy. And he’s going to get rattled really easily if anyone disagrees so the can go from definite to urgent to strident to edge of hysterical.
Crave Online: Can you relate to all of that?
Iggy Pop: Yeah, of course. I think we’ve got a lot in common.
Crave Online: Will you be providing any music for the show?
Iggy Pop: I doubt it. They probably can’t afford me. I’m cheap for voices, for voiceover.
Crave Online: But the boys have a band, so what do you think of their music?
Iggy Pop: The band’s good. That little band, that’s a good little song, the little theme song. It’s good.
Crave Online: What’s going on with you musically right now?
Iggy Pop: I played a gig a couple of weeks ago. I’m playing one in a few days. I just put out a record. There’s an album by The Stooges, you might have heard of them, called The Weirdness. I reunited a few years ago with my high school band The Stooges. We recorded a record and released it this spring called The Weirdness and we just finished touring the US and we’re starting Europe for the summer.
Crave Online: What do you think of Elijah Wood playing you in your biopic?
Iggy Pop: I have nothing against that idea. I’m sort of neutral. The guy’s actually an intelligent actor, contrary to the blather that the producers are putting out. I haven’t given them any permission to do it yet but I wouldn’t object to Elijah.
And I shelled out for the Rhino tape set. I vote for "Loose" and "1970".
Along with "Astral Weeks" and "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" by Richard & Linda Thompson, "Funhouse" by the Stooges is in my top 3. Thank you for pointing out the obvious to the masses.
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