The Stooges

Even more so when the songs are only half baked ideas. Back then, however, it was revolutionary. Nowdays, even with tons of pimples on your face, you're still expected to sound polished to death, and worse, with no pimples at all.

The great thing in writing and recording within 24 hours - like this one was - is that you can capture a very specific mood and sound. The benefits: it makes the album homogenous, and the improvisations help in making the result intersting even after 20 listens.

Immediate and raw - 'I Want To Be Your Dog' and 'No Fun' are easily amongst Iggy's best 10 songs ever.


Iggy and The Stooges.......a fresh and innovative sound !   September 25, 2004
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

A marvelous album from a bunch of talented and spirited guys. Raw, razor sharp and still a powerful punch in music. You have to love music to love this. This is one for the intelligent artistic types. Truely creative, highly innovative and just a great rock sound !!!!!! Love it to bits !!


Bridging the 60's and 70's   January 25, 2004
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The thing that struck me about this album when I first heard it was how 'un-Iggy' it sounded. However it still sounds great. The opener "1969" is grunge meets Bo Diddley with Iggy drawling his lyrics before going into a screaming coda. The next track "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is pure classic Stooges, the relentless riff, thumping drums and Iggy's sexually driven vocals driving to a superb guitar solo , making it probably one of the must influential songs ever. The songs attracted many cover versions, most notably by Sid Vicious. The songs "Not Right" and "Real Cool Time" are the most straight ahead rockers here, and impossible to dislike. "Anne" slows the pace down a little, adding a strange spookiness to the proceedings. The centrepiece of the album is undoubtably "No Fun", a tour-de-force of the band sound. This attracted an almost identical cover from the Sex Pistols. What should have been the albums closer, but was bizzarly placed in the middle, is the 10minute opus "We Will Fall". Sounding strangely like the Velvet Underground (due to John Cale's production), the song features Cale's droning viola, reverb drenched tom-tom beats, and a 'Holy Grail' style monk chant all the way through. Truly a stoner's thing! All in all, despite it's faults this is an essential purchase for any fan of rock.


a great debut by a great band- iggy is god!   January 18, 2004
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

after being well and truly blown away by the stooges' 1973 lp 'raw power'(which, dear reader, if you don't already own, you should buy NOW, or preferably after you've read this review. it's one of the very best punk albums ever, but that's another story...), i bought their first, self-titled album.
i was expecting more hard-charging, drugged-up, proto-punk-rock, but soon discovered otherwise. 'the stooges' has more elements of rock 'n' roll than the following two albums, 'funhouse' and 'raw power' (both of which are absolutely amazing). but i must add that this is not a fault at all. it's really refreshing to hear how this amazing and very influential group began.
1.'1969' is the classic story of teenage angst and boredom. 'another year with nothing to do', iggy drawls. here we see the first sign of ron asheton's very cool wah-wah guitar sound that dominates the cd. nice and upbeat.
2.'i wanna be your dog'. oh yeah. this is it. the one. the song everybody should be subjected to at least once, preferably at full volume. easily my fave here and definetely one of the best rock/pop songs ever. that relentless piano note is just the icing on the cake. brilliant.
3. oh dear. 'we will fall' is a real let-down. an awful 10 minute dirge with very weird chanting. very un-stooges indeed. my theory is that the stooges, being the lazy bunch they were (no offense, but iggy himself would probably agree with me there!), couldn't be bothered to write another 3 songs, so they used the avant-garde genius john cale and his viola to create this horrible song. (NOTE: i feel compelled to do a little history lesson here. skip this bracketed part if you're not interested.
john cale was a founding member of the late 60s band velvet underground along with fellow genius lou reed. the velvet underground are truly one of the best bands ever in the whole wide world, and the very first punk band. their influence on pop culture and music in general cannot be measured. i could go on forever, but if you like the stooges sound, please PLEASE go check out the vu's first 2 albums, 'the velvet underground and nico' and 'white light/white heat'. thanks for bothering to read this part!)
4.'no fun' is another rock classic. it was later covered by the sex pistols (buy their 'b*****ks' album NOW, if you haven't already got it.), but the original's the best.
5.the stupidly-named 'real cool time' IS stupid, but you can't beat it for maximum wah-wah and power. good rock song.

6.'ann' is a real grower. it's a lot slower than any other cuts that appear here, but i think it balances out the album. a great slow rock song.
7.'not right' has a great guitar line going on. coupled with the ig's raw, crude vocals and lyrics, it makes for another very cool rocker.
8.'little doll' isn't the best track here. a very average rock song, i think. nice guitar, though.
overall, this is a great rock album. anyone should be able to appreciate this, certainly any punk. after hearing this i can guarantee you'll say "gosh! i must go and buy every stooges album i can find!". they are really addictive!
i would recommend both the 2nd album 'funhouse' and the last album 'raw power' to buy next. as they progressed, the stooges' sound became a lot harsher, with 'raw power' being hailed as an early punk/hard-rock classic by every critic and his mother.
so, 4 stars for 'the stooges', but ONLY cuz 1/3 of an otherwise brilliant and classic proto-punk album is ruined by 'we will fall'.


Punked up without 'em.   January 26, 2000
 28 out of 32 found this review helpful

Self expression is hard to come by when you lack any talent or ability. This album just goes to show that with the smallest bit of ability, a pinch of skill and the simplest of chords and scales, something truly transcendent can be created. Hell, wasn't that what punk was all about? The bigger question is why do so many of these try hard musicians end up sounding so damn good? Lou Reed, Johnny Thunders, Richard Hell, Alan Vega and yes, even Iggy Pop and Ron Asheton. This album is just the b**locks. Every song burns with some of the greatest riffs created, lacking anything like the polish of fellow early stalwarts and riffmeisters Led Zepplin. Sounding ten times better also, for all their crudy roughness. Powerhouse drumming and Wah Wah noise to fry an egg on. Worth noting is the producer, none other than Welshman John Cale, bringing his noisy, avant garde sensibilties on the back of two other seminal, pre punk, Velvet Underground albums. This Album inspired many artists to pick up the guitar, learn a couple of chords and make music, including myself. This album hasn't aged a jot, unlike contempories The Doors, whose music The Stooges took to its logical conclusion, including Iggy's cavorting. Sound's fresher today than freshly caught fish, taken to the fresh market on freshday, and sold by Mr Fresh the fishmonger. Bow at the alter of apocalyptic guitar heaven.