Really didn't want to dish out the cold hard for this book considering that not only have I implemented a moratorium on buying any Stooges-related books (heck, I gave up on Velvet Underground-related re-think/re-hash ages ago!). as well as the plain fact that money isn't as easy to hang onto these days what with Bidenflation getting more out of control than a diabetic lush. So maybe I shouldn't be going whole hog for such "frivolities" (hah!) as this and save my dough for frozen White Castle burgers.
I bought it anyway given the hefty rah rahs of one Peter Stanfield and y'know what? I'm sure glad I did part with the filthy stuff that probably would have been put to worse use had it gone to things like medicine and taxes. This ain't just any ol' Stooges book but one which really deals with the deep down whys and wherefores of just what the group was up to during their original pre-RAW POWER romp and like, if you were ever one who wanted to get down to the bared-wire nitty gritty regarding the genetic makeup of this once-reviled/now praised by the same jamokes who reviled 'em way back when group well, you can't do better'n to latch onto this 'un and like PRONTO!
You might be somewhat put off by a casual skim over what with author Begnal's various sociopolitical weave-ins as well as frequent mentions of indecipherable theorists like Theodor Adorno, but this is far from being some heady intellectual snoozefest aimed at the more brainiac and terminally constipated amongst us. Lemme tell you, TONS of pertinent information, a whole load of it unknown even to me if you can believe that is presented here along with the insight and workings of what was so unique and downright special about the Stooges. Information we sure coulda used a whole longtime ago but were never privy to until now which is a darn shame since if we only knew what is discussed here our appreciation of Iggy and Co. might have been deepened quite a bit if that is even possible.
I, for example, never knew that Robert Ashley's "Wolfman" (from one of the records that was included in the infamous avant garde magazine SOURCE) was such an important influence on Iggy, and the detailing of the group's early days when Iggy played a Hawaiian guitar with all strings tuned to "E" and Ron Asheton a bass guitar with a wah wah (never mind bro Scott with the oil drums) is, to be hambone about it, "priceless". The way Begnal dug up and dissected what happened and put it into heady but understandable terms kinda reminds me of how I attacked and mangled that formaldehyded rat way back in seventh grade --- in other words you might think the guy wrote a virtual textbook but if you're hotcha on the subject man are you gonna go whole hog over it! There's even a whole load about the Stooges' political bent smack dab in the middle of John Sinclair's Ann Arbor, and maybe they weren't so much the spiritual rednecks that many of us had grown to believe after all!
Really, this is worth the while. If you were wiped out by the neo-Troggs thud of the debut and thought that side two of FUNHOUSE just hadda've been the bravest statement in free jazz since Sun Ra then well, I'm sure you've already bought, read, digested and puked up a few furballs about this 'un already, right?
4 comments:
On August 31st of 2019, you made a small review of "Blind Bead EP". It sounds like the stuff I'm interested in, but I can't find any trace of it online besides your blog. Do you have a copy you could post? Looks intriguing.
Y'know, I got that 'un sent to me unsolicited so here's what I'll do. When I get the chance I'll check the sleeve to see if there is any address or method of contact, although if there was I would have mentioned it in the review. Why I didn't get it off the return address I'll never know unless I threw it away before writing the dang thing up.
THE STOOGES HEAD ON by Brett Callwood is remaindered for less than six bucks. Its worth it for the sidetracks into New Order and Destroy All Monsters.
The Stooges? Was Iggy a Moe?
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