Last Podcast On The Left - No Dogs in Space: The Stooges, Episode 2

Episode Date: January 31, 2020

Check out Marcus' new show: NO DOGS IN SPACE. Here's the second episode! We continue our journey with The Stooges, and explore how these counter to the counter-culture punks became underground icons to a budding new rock n roll sensibility. 

Hey everybody, Marcus here. Thank you so much for the fantastic response we got on the first episode of No Dogs in Space here for your consideration. Is the second episode just in case you haven't checked it out yet? Of course, listen to part one before you listen to part two. But if you wanna hear parts three and four,

go subscribe to No Dogs in Space. We're gonna be covering so many fans this season. We're gonna be covering suicide, the damned, joy division, the Ramones, the Misfits, the Cramps, and many, many, many more. So please, subscribe to No Dogs in Space. Thank y'all very much for listening. No Dogs in Space, No Dogs in Space.

Did you drop your daily dose of acid this morning? You know it, baby, before every single performance. That's a little known fact that most people don't know about me is that I take two tabs of acid before every single podcast. Good. Acid being B12. Welcome to No Dogs in Space, everybody.

I'm Marcus Parks. Oh, and I'm Carolina Hidalgo. And we're continuing today with the story of the Stooges. Yeah, the second part is always the meteor part of a sandwich. It really is. Like, on the second part, we're gonna be covering the first two Stooges albums along with fucking everything else that happened around those albums.

Yeah, and a lot of it did. So when we last left the band, the Stooges were still experimenting with the stage personas that would come to define them as one of the most confrontational and exciting live groups of the late 60s and early 70s. The thing about artists like the Stooges, who do something totally new, is that those groups don't appear just fully

formed on stage from the outset. And usually, when you're doing something new, the road to genius is pretty goddamn rough. See, when the Stooges first started, while they did see that the hippie scene was essentially vapid and empty, Stooges saw that shit immediately. They still had the hippie-like optimism in their experimentation with the avant-garde,

because the Stooges started off as an avant-garde band. Oh, yeah, don't forget the Osterizer. How could I ever forget the Osterizer? It belongs in a museum. But the Stooges were starting to realize that blind hippie optimism wasn't getting them or anyone else anywhere. And after that bad acid trip we talked about in the last episode, Iggy Pop in particular was realizing

that what people did respond to when it came to his performances was brutality, aggression, and a fair amount of nihilism. He called his music a savage blowtorch of nihilism. That's pretty accurate, I'd say. Yeah, oh yeah. It's more than a fair amount of nihilism. But like nihilism in 1969, like that shit wasn't selling, but they were doing it anyway.

You know, I heard in a BBC interview that Iggy Pop did in 1976, so this is like after the Stooges. Oh yeah, that's way after the Stooges. And he said that Iggy seems to do what Jim needs to and can't bring himself to do. That sounds fucking awful. I don't know what that means exactly. I've got to film.

Well, we're definitely going to explore that concept quite a bit in episode three. Because at this point, he's still tinkering with it. He hasn't quite given himself over to Iggy Pop, because Jim Osterberg and Iggy Pop are two extremely different people. Oh right, because he used to wear loafers. Yeah, exactly.

We'll also get into David Bowie's nickname for Iggy Pop, which is just Jimmy. Jimmy. Come here, Jimmy. I like it. And don't forget, this is still, like I said, 1968 in America. Besides all the good time vibes, you also had the fucking Vietnam War.

Conflict. Yeah, I mean, you still had the draft. The draft was sending thousands of kids to their death every fucking month. It was still a very real threat to every young man in America if you weren't in college or if you weren't rich enough to get out of it. And the Stooges, they were in neither of those situations.

That's right. I mean, Iggy did go to college, but he only went for a semester. Because he was a musician. Well, yeah. He didn't need to go to college. He didn't want any rules. Telling when papers do. So Iggy was actually caught in the midst of all this

and being drafted because Jeep Holland, who was managing the prime movers, which Iggy was in at the time, Jeep Holland said that he actually did manage to get a lot of musicians out of the draft. He counted about 20. Wow. Yeah, so the version that Jeep says is that Iggy stood in line with the other men

when they were being tested for everything. And they were told to take off their clothes all the way down to their underwear. But Iggy got completely naked and grabbed onto his dick. And he was in yelling like, no one is touching my dick. No one's touching my dick, man. No one. And they had these people in the army who

had to try to pick them up. They literally picked them up on each side. And they could not pry his arms open because he's a drummer. He's arms of steel. Oh, yeah. No, we're strong. They could have tried prying his hands off of his dick. It didn't happen.

And Jeep Holland said the whole thing lasted 30 minutes. That's a lot. Like, 30 minutes doesn't seem like a long amount of time. But 30 minutes of someone trying to pry your hands off of your dick while you're screaming and squirming around, 30 minutes is a long fucking time. So obviously they told him, like, just get out. Yeah.

Iggy's version in his autobiography, I Need More. He said he got naked, but still made sure to jerk off a little to get hard. And when someone noticed, he started yelling and shaking all over and over again. He just acting all cracked out. He's like, I'm really scared, man. I'm really scared.

Man, I get hard when I get scared. I'm sorry. And they asked him, like, oh, well, why are you scared? He's like, because I'm gay. And having men in their underwear around me is just making me really, really gay. He kept yelling like, help me. And that lasted an hour and a half.

You just got to keep going sometimes. Just got to keep going. And so Ron Ashton, he also had to go up later, like a couple years later, since he was a little younger. But all he had to do was stay up for a couple days and show up drunk. Yeah. I mean, even though all this is funny, it's kind of goofy,

I mean, remember, these guys were having to do this shit to escape certain death. Because I'm not sure how long private James Osterberg would have lasted in fucking Vietnam. Oh, not very long. Either that or he would have been like that surfer dude in Apocalypse Now. And he would have just wandered around high and just gone home.

So in order to channel all of this negative shit, Jim Osterberg created the character of Iggy as we know him today. See, the Wildman persona of Iggy in those days pretty much just lived on stage, because Jim still had to get the Stooges to rehearsal every day. The rehearsals were only 20 minutes long. That's like an errand.

You've never been in a band. No. It's difficult. It's very difficult. But more and more, people were starting to see that Jim wasn't coming around so much, making Iggy the dominant personality, which was admittedly more fun, but also much more destructive. And really, what Iggy Pop did is pretty much

what Bowie did with personas like the Thin White Duke and Ziggy Stardust a few years later. It's just that Iggy Pop did it first and only did it once. But we'll get into the relationship between David Bowie and Iggy Pop on part three. Oh, and don't forget Chris Gaines. Thanks, Iggy Pop. We have Chris Gaines, the alter ego of Garth Brooks.

How could I ever forget Chris Gaines? Remember that Saturday Night Live, where it was Garth Brooks hosting and Chris Gaines, musical guest? I remember Garth Brooks in Empty Nest, and he seemed like a nice guy. You know what, he really is a nice guy. I've heard good things. So while Jim Osterberg was fine-tuning Iggy Pop,

a young man from Electra Records came to Detroit to see the MC5. That man's name was Danny Fields. Of course, Danny Fields was immortalized forever in the fantastic Ramones track, Danny Sense. Danny Sense, we gotta go, gotta go, too, out of the hole. But we can't go, certainly, cause it's when I'm full of. Saint Jackson 502, record stores and interviews.

But what I can't wait to be with you tomorrow, baby. Oh, oh, oh, oh. We got nowhere to go, and it may sound funny, but it's true. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Hangin' happy, one more drippin' for watchin' Get smart on TV, thinking about you and me and you and me. Hangin' at an L.A. and there's nowhere to go. It ain't Christmas if there ain't no snow.

There isn't any Toshina on the radio. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, that's a great song. Well, that's a song. Yeah, Danny says. Yeah, and we'll definitely get into the relationship between Danny Fields and the Ramones

when we do our series on the Ramones. Yes. Yeah, it's going to be great. Danny Fields, he's a really smart guy. He was deep into the arts and music scene. He wrote for magazines, and he DJed a radio show for WFMU. Oh, I love WFMU. I still listen to WFMU in the shower almost every day.

You do. I absolutely love WFMU. Danny Fields, his career as a magazine writer, he was actually the guy that broke the Beatles bigger than Jesus' story. Yeah, he was friends with Linda McCartney and really good friends. And then they're all hanging out together.

And Linda goes, you know, it was Danny who did that. And Paul's like, really? Really? You're eating my food. And it wasn't even like, I think it was in like 17 magazine or something like that, because Danny Fields started his career in magazines for like teenage girls.

Right, yeah, it's a date. Yes, like first date or something weird like that. But yeah, that's how he started his career, was in the teen magazine. So all you guys out there working in careers, you're like, ah, this isn't quite right for me. Just keep building. Keep going.

Keep going. Because he eventually worked with Jim Morrison, the Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, and later discovered the Ramones that you said and managed them. But the thing about Danny Fields is that he is the most likable guy ever. He's so likable.

I just want to like, I keep looking around at like every old Jewish man on the train and thinking like, is that Danny Fields? I hope it is. I wonder, could I talk to him? Like, could I see? Because he's still, he lives here in the city still. Yeah, yeah, we might have.

Yeah, he's a New York City guy. And he came to Detroit to check out and eventually signed the MC5 while working for Electra Records. Remember, he was hired as a publicist by Jack Holtzman, the director of Electra Records. Because, and that was when Danny was labeled as like the company freak, the guy who finds what's cool out there, what the kids are listening to.

And that was his actual job title, was Company Freak. Publicist, company freak, head of promotions, company freak. That's the funny thing is that company freak just meant it's like, yeah, I'll smoke a joint at my table. I don't, I don't care. That's how cool I am. I'll always smoke a joint at my desk and try to tell me no. So cool, man.

And the reason why he was hired for this is because Electra Records until 1966 were just mainly only folk music. Folk music and classical music. Yes, and that's when they made a ton of money with the classical music. They started another label under Electra called Nonsuch Records. And it made a European classical music.

So they had all this extra money because it sold so well. Jack Holtzman's like, you know what, let's get into something psychedelic. Actually, I would like to play a little bit of what Electra Records was putting out before the doors, before the Stooges, before all of that cool shit. Some of the folk records that they put out were absolutely insane.

One of the guys that Electra had on their label for two decades is a guy named Oscar Brand. His albums include body songs in backroom ballads, volumes one, two, and three, burning a song, Johnny, which was just all children's recordings, rollicking sea shanties, body hootenanny, the well-bue blue yonder, give them the hook, or songs that killed Vaudeville, boating songs and all that build, sports cars and songs, every inch a sailor, out of

the blue, and tell it to the Marines. I wanted wings till I got the goddamn wings. Now I don't want them anymore. They taught me how to fly, then they sent me off to die. Well, I have had a belly full of war. You can save those bloody zeros for the other goddamn heroes. Distinguished flying crosses do not compensate for losses, a buster.

Now I don't want them anymore. That's pretty good. That's some pretty good anti-war music. I don't know. Let's do psychedelic instead. All along the Watchtower, I would say is better. I would definitely listen to that again rather than I wanted wings.

But that's the type of shit that Electra Records was putting out for 20 years. And it worked. It worked very well for them. And then when they decided to go psychedelic, that was going to work too, right? Immediately. So Danny Fields gets hired by Electra.

He knows everyone, including John Sinclair, who we talked about before. John Sinclair goes down to the radio station, WFMU, and says, hey, you got to check out this band in Michigan. Danny's like, all right, I'm going to Detroit. I'm going to check out this band, the MC5. So when Danny went to Detroit in September of 1968, he'd never heard of the psychedelic Stooges.

Because remember, that's what the Stooges original name was. Yeah. Danny's only interest during that trip was in the MC5. But the thing about the MC5 is that they'd started looking at the Stooges like a bit of a little brother band. So when Danny came to town, one of the dudes from the MC5 told him that he couldn't leave town without seeing the psychedelic Stooges.

The next day, Danny went to see them perform at a benefit concert for the Children's Community School at the Union Ballroom on the U Michigan campus. And he was blown away. And this is a quote from him from what he saw from that show. It was like Beethoven finally got here. It was so solid and so modern and so non-blues. How long did it take me to recognize this was something special?

Five seconds. Yeah. And that's the amazing thing about it is that, you know, Iggy Pop was saying like, this is my version of the blues. And Danny Fields' first impression was, there's no fucking blues here. No, but I get it. And then he goes backstage to meet Iggy and the rest of the band. And he just like opens the door.

He's like, you're a star. All look up like, what? Iggy, you're a star. Boy, I'm going to get you on the first plane to New York City. You're going to be on Broadway for the end of the week. And Ron's like, who's this asshole? And Iggy's like, look, man, I'm straight. I know there have been rumors.

And Danny Fields like told him, he's like, hi, I work for Electra Records. And Iggy Pop thought he was like a janitor or something. Because they were just starting out. Like, you know, it was, you know, very rare for a band to get attention that early on. They had been playing just like it was less than a year. Yeah. So after seeing the show and talking to Iggy, Danny called up Jack Holtzman and said,

Electra Records should sign not only the MC5, but the psychedelic Stooges as well. Right. And Jack Holtzman's like, great, cool, but we got to go see them. So Jack and Bill Harvey, the president of Electra, saw them perform October 8th at the Fifth Dimension. And then that's when it finally happened. They finally got signed.

They were opening for the Fifth Dimension? No, it was the venue called Fifth Dimension. No, they were not opening for the Fifth Dimension. I was about to say that I was, my brain was starting to get real confused real fast. So the MC5 got offered a $20,000 advance while the psychedelic Stooges got an offer of $5,000. Now, of course, both bands said, fuck yes, sign us right now. There was only one condition with the psychedelic Stooges. For God's sake, drop the psychedelic.

Just be the Stooges. For five grand? Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Electra actually had to call Mo Howard from the Three Stooges. It must have been a weird afternoon for Mo Howard. He just picks up the phone and they're like, hey, we got this band. Is it okay that they're called the Stooges?

And Mo Howard's like, who is this? And then they explain to him, he's like, no, it's not a comedy troupe. It's not a comedy band. They're just a band. And he's just like, yeah, sure. As long as they're not the Three Stooges. That's right. Who gives a shit?

Well, that's the funny thing is that the Stooges, I think it was, was it Ron Ashton, like, actually made friends with Larry Fine? Yeah, the other Stooges. Yeah, the other, yeah, not Curly, just, yeah, made friends with Larry. And like, they would hang out sometimes. Oh, yeah. No, they spent time, like, a lot of time talking together and Larry would always be like, you got any smokes on you?

He liked having him around. He'd bring some of those cigars in here, there's a nurse in here that's trying to keep me alive. What the problem the Stooges had was that even though they'd been playing together by this point for almost a year, their showtime was still clocking in at only about 20 minutes. It takes a while to, you know, get enough material. It really does. I mean, to have a full album within a year, like it's rare. I mean, it happens.

I mean, I think the Strokes had a full album within like nine months or something like that. Like, it was real fucking fast, but they were practicing a lot more. A little longer? A little longer. A little longer than like, you know, 20 minutes, like just getting high together and fucking around with a blender and then like, okay, that's good guys, see you later. Well, in other words, even though the Stooges had just signed a record deal, they didn't have enough songs to fill even side A of an album.

So the Stooges started having high volume practices every night to develop a recordable sellable sound, even though rehearsals were still only 20 minutes. All it is. It's a sitcom. But also like being in a band, like sometimes you will have a rehearsal where you're in the same room together for three hours, but you actually play for only about 20 or 30 minutes. What else are you doing? You're hanging out with your buddies, having a couple beers, talking about this and that

and whatnot. And then you go home and it's like, I forgot, what were we doing? Meanwhile, Danny Fields was trying to find the right producer to transfer what he saw in Detroit onto an album. And he thought he'd found it in the Velvet Underground's John Kale, heard here playing The Viola. Sacrificials remain, make it hard to forget where you come from. The stools of your eyes serve to realize fame.

Choose again. The robin is refrained of the sacrilegious clues for the loss of a horse with a bowels and a tail of a rat. Come again. Choose to go. Now, as anyone who sat down and listened to the Velvet Underground's first album, Knows, John Kale was a man who knew how to meld the other guard with straight rock and roll, especially when you consider that the clip we just played was on the same album

as Run, Run, Run. Teenage bear said on the day I saw my soul must be saved. Gonna take a walk and you need to square, you never know where you're gonna find it. You gotta run, run, run, run, run, take the jacket too. Run, run, run, run, run, Jim's a dead for you. Say what you do. Marguerita Passion, now how to get her fixed? She wasn't well.

She was getting sick, went to sell her soul. She wasn't high, didn't know. Think she could buy it. Run, run, run, run, run, take the jacket too. Run, run, run, run, run, Jim's a dead for you. Say what you do. Another thing you gotta remember is that while we know the Velvet Underground's first album as a half-century old relic of New York hitness, when the Stooges were signed,

that album had only come out the year before. Really? Yeah, maybe two years before. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but less than five. Yeah, oh yeah. It was a super recent, super cool, super hip album. And it's really fun to think about that.

Because I'm sure we both heard Velvet Underground and Nico for the first time probably in college, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by that time, it was 40 years old. But it's fun to think like in that time, John Kale was like a hip, cool, new young dude. That was like doing cool shit where now he's, you know, all these people are godfathers now, but back then all these guys were just kind of in the mix together. That's one thing I've noticed by looking up all these people. I'm like, oh what, they were like 50 or something?

Oh, they've been in the record industry for 20 years? What do you mean you're 29? It's weird. It's very, it's very strange, yeah. But before Kale went into the studio with the Stooges, he wanted to get to know the band a little bit first. So he traveled from New York City to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a nice little visit to the Fun House. John Kale had fun at the Fun House. He did.

Oh, well, except the only problem he really had with them was like there was no food ever. He opened a fridge and be like, there's only Bud lights in there or something. And he's like, hey, where's the food? And then like, how do we eat? And Iggy's like, whatever, man. I think I got some beans. Yeah, like, I mean, that was another way for Iggy to get people motivated, like he would send out for food or get everyone high.

And then that's the only way to get to work. And so John Kale got to see all that. John Kale was also weird in his own right. Yeah. I mean, he would just walk around like half naked. Is that some funny thing? Is it like black bikini briefs? It is funny because like we're talking about John Kale, like John Kale's the adult in this situation.

He's the same fucking age as these guys, like maybe a little bit older, but not much older. Really not much. And he would still like, he would be drinking red wine and hanging out. Drugs, maybe take him sometimes chasing after girls. Like he was just, yeah, he was just another guy. Yeah. After seeing the Stooges live, Kale totally got what they were going for. And he was impressed enough to bring the band to New York City to hang out at Maxis, Kansas City,

in Andy Warhol's factory, which those were two clubs that were the absolute height of New York Cool. And it was at the factory that Iggy met an eternally bored German model cum singer named Niko. And what customs share her poor girl wear, to all tomorrow's parties, and be done best from who knows where. To all tomorrow's parties, and where will she go, what shall she do when midnight comes around. She turns one smart Sunday's cloud, and cry behind the door. Oh, Niko. Female Zoolander. Speaking about Niko, I mean, she was an actress, she was a singer, she was a songwriter.

She did a lot in her lifetime. Niko was like a true artist. Fellini discovered her. She knew how to hang around the coolest people ever. You know, Andy Warhol, and just kind of, because she was so striking, but also she had this like crazy exotic German thing going on, which was very hot. And she also sang famously with the Velvet Underground. And had two fantastic albums in her own, right?

Marble Index and Chelsea Girl. Both fucking great albums. I mean like Marble Index, like... Marble Index. You only need to listen to Marble Index like once. It's very depressing. It's very depressing. I'm glad that it's there.

Of course. But I don't need to hear it again. It's like a, it's like a super depressing movie. Like where you just kind of only need to watch your reversible once. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. Like that's not your favorite movie.

And if you want to watch it zero times, I totally respect that. No, no, I mean, but Nico was, I mean, she was a true fucking artist, and she had a beautiful voice. I mean, I know her voices can be a bit of a choir taste, but I fucking love Nico. Do I stay or do I go and maybe try another time? And do I really have a hand in my forgetting? I'm a Big Nico fan.

Iggy was a Big Nico fan for a long time too. He actually said, he quote, I was one of the very few who actually liked her music. But when the Stooges did come, like they ended up coming to the Warhol factory and they just hung around with all these people. And Iggy just immediately with the New York scene, he just, I mean, they were already known

because they just got signed and everything. He just took to it very well. Ron and Scott and Dave. These are Midwestern boys. Not so much like Iggy is. They kind of just sat on the couch and like with their sunglasses on like sipping their drinks and like, man, this is, we're leaving.

Yeah, what the fuck are we doing here? They didn't last very long there. They just couldn't mingle in. I mean, even when they met Andy Warhol again later in LA, like they just avoided him. Yeah. And Iggy just went in for it. He didn't care.

He wasn't, he was fearless. I mean, honestly, I would have been one of the Ashtons. Like if I were in this situation, like going to Andy Warhol's factory, like, yeah, I would have just sat on the couch and said like, I don't know what to say to these people. What do we do? We just stand there and I'm posing.

And there's all these bright lights on me. Yeah. It's like, what am I going to go talk to fucking Twiggy? I don't know. But so Nico and Iggy met each other and immediately, Nico just being so enamored with this guy who's this amazing like performer and Iggy's like, this woman is striking and beautiful

and so experienced and much older, like 10 years older than him at the time. He was 21. They just kind of got on together like almost immediately and they're just walking around holding hands and everything and just kind of making out. They were in the club scene together and everyone just kept doing like double takes

or spitting out their drink. She's with him. Jessica Rabbit is with Roger Rabbit. The music scene. Well, they said, I think it please kill me that Nico's taste in men was what tragic poets, tragic self-destructive poets, because before Iggy Pop, Nico dated Jim Morrison.

Yeah. So she had a type. And when the Stooges went back to Ann Arbor to the Fun House, Nico went with them. Yeah, she did. She stayed there. Some people said a few weeks. I really think it was a few months.

She stayed there. But you know what? The other guys didn't mind her this time. They really didn't. She would make a lot of brown rice and vegetables. At least they got to eat. Yeah. And then she'd leave around like bottles of red wine

for like good wine for them to drink. And they're just like, she's all right. And she stayed with Iggy. She taught him how to eat pussy. And good for her. Good for her. And good for him. And good for him.

Yeah. And they, hell, they made a little movie together too. Like, I can't remember what it was called, but they went out into the field and painted Iggy's face white and made a nice little short film. Yeah, that was the evening of light song that she was doing like a little promotional, this is before MTV video that she did.

She found like this French guy, Francois de Manille. And he was really interested in making some sort of film with her. And she's like, you got to come to Ann Arbor because I'm here with Iggy and the guys. And they're going to be in the movie too. And he's like, all right, you can find it on YouTube. It's just them like kind of walking around outside the fun

house. She's like all in white. And there's like mannequins everywhere. It's just very, it's very, it looks like a horror movie slash European artsy film. Yeah. And it's fun, but I can only imagine like fucking Nico, like this German art star suddenly finding herself

in fucking Ann Arbor, Michigan. Like suddenly roommates with Iggy Pop. Like it seems like such a fucking fantastic, like it seems like such an out of this world experience. Yeah. Well, she had a good time and they had a great time together, but there were times also when Iggy had to do his own thing. Like she would call up Danny Fields and be like,

Iggy's so mean to me. Danny, Iggy's being mean again. Oh no. And Danny's just like, what did you expect? Everyone knew he was an asshole. Come on. So after Nico left Ann Arbor, it was time for the Stooges to actually get to work on the album itself.

And since they didn't really have the songs, but they were still fantastically talented musicians, Kale told them to just forget about the stage show and just concentrate on the album itself. And so Ron sat down and right out of the gate wrote the foundations for the two best songs on the album. One, 1969, you heard at the beginning of the first episode. But the other was a song that was so simple yet impactful

that it became the de facto tryout song for punk bands for decades to come. Because it was the one song that fucking everybody knew. That song was I Wanna Be Your Dog. So mess up, I want you here. In my room, I want you here. Now we're gonna be face to face. And I'll lay right down in my favorite place.

And now I wanna be your dog. And now I wanna be your dog. And now I wanna be your dog. I love that song. Hey, do you remember when I got you that vinyl for Christmas like three years ago? You got me a first pressing of the Stooges first record. Yes, it was one of the best gifts I've ever gotten in my entire life.

Aw, thank you. This song reminds me of it. Of course. Man, nobody can do Come On like Iggy Pop. Yeah. Come On. It's the best Come On and Rock and Roll. But as the Stooges were writing these fantastic songs,

there's seemingly endless stream of bad luck when it came to the actual business of being in a band began when Danny Fields got fired from Electra. Yeah, well, you know, Danny is wonderful as he is. He is a wonderful man. Go watch the documentary Danny Says. It's on Netflix. It tells you everything you need to know about Danny Fields.

It's fucking great. But he did get fired. Yes. Because he pissed off the vice president of Electra, Bill Harvey, his daughter was getting married and he made a joke around the office saying like, yeah, sounds like a shotgun wedding, you realize me? It's so fucking dumb.

And Bill Harvey punched him in the face and punched him. It's the dumbest shit. Like, all of these things, like, it's not, no one is fucking up on principle. No one's fucking, like, everyone's just making dumb ass decisions left and right. Because after Danny Fields got fired, the MC5 decided they needed to start fucking up

for no reason as well. Oh, fuck Hudson. Yeah, oh, fuck Hudson. Okay, so Hudson's used to be a record chain store in the Detroit area and they refused to sell MC5 records with the word motherfucker in the liner notes of the album. Just in the liner notes, like, not even in the lyrics, like it was just in the liner notes,

which is a dumb decision. Like, I think like Hudson's was definitely wrong here. However. However, John Sinclair and or the MC5 took out a full page ad in the Ann Arbor, Argus newspaper and Detroit's fifth estate that said, kick out the gyms, motherfuckers, and kick in the door.

The store won't sell you the album on Electra. Fuck Hudson's! With the Electra logo on it. It looked like Electra was behind this. I know, I know, and they just did all this shit themselves. Like, I understand that it sounds like a good idea at the time, and I understand putting up your fucking middle finger. You know, but you also got to understand as well,

it's like, these are dudes in their 20s. Like, these are all dudes in their early 20s. They're not thinking shit through. But the thing is about it is that the MC5 were on a trajectory at this point. Like, the MC5 should have been one of the biggest bands of the late 60s, early 70s. Oh, they were great.

The MC5, everyone should know who the MC5 are. But the MC5 just never quite made it over the top, because this little fucking stunt right here completely ruined any momentum that the MC5 had, because they got dropped from Electra. Because as soon as Electra heard about it, because Hudson's actually did have a pretty sizable chunk of the Midwest market,

and Electra still had all those classical music records to sell. Like, Electra was still in the only way that they could get their records back into Hudson's was to drop the MC5. So the MC5 got dropped from Electra, and they never recovered. But the one good thing that came out of all this mess was that even though the Stooges were now tainted

by their association to Danny Fields and the MC5... Oh, don't worry. They're gonna taint their own repetitions very soon. Plenty of taintin' to come. Their manager, Jimmy Silver, was able to negotiate a bigger advance, and the Stooges ended up with $25,000 in their pocket, which in today's money is almost $200,000.

That's a lot of drug money. It's a ton. It's way too much money to give to a bunch of 21-year-old kids that really like drugs. So maybe the MC5 being dropped was good for the Stooges? They got to focus primarily on the Stooges now. Yeah, they did. I mean, there are some unintended consequences.

The MC5 gets taken down a peg, but the Stooges go up a peg. And it really is one of those kind of weird what-if moments in rock and roll history. I mean, even though the MC5 did end up being huge influences on all kinds of people in the punk scene later on, you kind of wonder how the fabric of the American rock music scene

would have changed had the MC5 reached the levels of, say, not even necessarily like a Led Zeppelin, but maybe like the doors. Like if the MC5 had gotten to that level, like if the MC5 would have got just one number one hit. I mean, I think rock music would have changed. Yeah, because I think they made one more album and then that was the end of it.

Yeah, that was it. And there was like a few live albums afterwards. Fred Sonic Smith went out and married Patty Smith. The other guys just kind of went off and did whatever. We'll talk about that later. We'll talk about that, yes, we'll talk about that later. It is like the MC5, if only they hadn't put out that fucking ad, the whole fucking fabric

of American rock music could have changed. I don't know about that, actually. There were a couple other things that also happened that added to it. I mean, that was definitely the gunshot to the head. And then also Iggy did say in the Total Chaos book, he's like, yeah, too bad about the MC5. Also, there was like some photos circulating around with them

and some kind of naked woman. Yeah, so something that just didn't look good. Didn't look right. And she's smelling the glove. Well, as we sit on the first episode, the MC5 has since apologized for all of their misogynist behavior. So the Stooges showed up at the hit factory in Times Square and got to the recording of their debut album.

Now, one of the most famous stories about the recording has to do with volume. From what the Stooges said, they didn't think they sounded like the Stooges unless all the amps were turned up to 10. And John Kale kept trying to convince him, this is gonna sound really fucking bad. They're not supposed to do that.

It's gonna blow everything out and everything's just gonna sound like mud. Why is there a 10 then? You follow my logic? The story goes that the Stooges staged a strike in the studio and refused to play until a compromise was reached to turn the volume to nine. But John Kale said he doesn't remember any of this.

You're wasting studio time. They only had five days to record this album. Plus, they actually added another three when they realized they weren't done yet. John Kale later said, if there was a sit-down strike, it wasn't because they were angry with anything I said. More likely, they just wanted to have a beer.

Most likely. But either way, this seminal album was recorded damn near live with no multi-tracking. And no song took more than two or three takes because, like I said, they only had five days to finish it. In fact, some album tracks like this one are the first take. That's why I couldn't have recorded it ourselves even.

Tonight What do you think I want to do? That's right Can I come over tonight? I said we will have a real cool time Tonight I said we will have a real cool time Now as fucking great as that song is to be fair the lyrics to that song Real cool time are mostly we will have a real cool time tonight. Can I come over?

And part of the reason why that song and few of the others sound so raw It's because the Stooges wrote a lot of them the night before for better or worse Papers do by noon We got to get crackin Which they did at the Chelsea Hotel where eventually Nancy Spungen ended up dying. Oh, that's right dying murdered kills So they show up to New York and they're like, ah, we're ready to record an album. We're good, ma'am Yes, and then they're asked, oh cool, but you got any more songs and they're like, you betcha You bet your bottom dollar

They ran up to the hotel and was like fuck. Okay. All right. All right, Ron You get on that guitar now and come up with some riffs. I'll be back in an hour of lyrics Get me a pet. This is the hotel room. They always have pets And then they just rehearsed a few times and bam, they had an album Oh man and in these songs like you can hear some of the subtle influences we talked about in the last episode Even in the frat rock songs because what's the the old line? I think it was like Steinbeck said like a good artist Create great artist steel There was a lot of theft

In this in this album in this to which the Stooges totally admit to But just for an example of like one of the things that kind of I think they did not admit to stealing this This is just one of my own little things. This is only markets. I know this is only me But I know there's probably like one other person out there that's gonna listen to this and go like yeah, I kind of hear it Let's listen to a comparison of the 1965 strange loves hit I want candy to 1969 by the Stooges. Good luck It's the drums It's all in we almost actually almost got into a fight one day because I kept bringing

Carolina into the office me like I think I got it this time. Listen again. I heard it like seven times in a row Because I like to believe that you're right initially and I appreciate I definitely appreciate your willingness To indulge me on this then I kept getting mad. You should really put a couch in your office Standing there awkwardly is weird Well, of course since the Stooges were recording this album in New York Nico came by and she'd visit here and there. She just sit in the control booth next to John Kale. She just knit And then John Kale for some reason he decided to wear a Dracula cape through the whole thing Yeah, well, I mean he'd just seen Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I believe

And the Stooges did manage to get one track that was probably the closest to what they sounded like back in their drone days That song clocking in at 10 minutes 18 seconds is the velvet underground influenced track We will fall Then I whispered to me Then I'll lay right down And I'll lay right down On my back

You know that was Dave's doing. Yeah, because Jimmy Silver lent him a book by Swami Ramdas Swami Ramdas, holy man. Yeah, he was a guru and which sounded a lot of like one of his chants like the Ramja Because Dave Alexander was always into reading Mysticism and the occult. Yeah, so that was another Chelsea hotel job to do like Dave you take care of the gent thing And he did he did I mean that's I fucking love that song And that's the funny thing about the stage the Stooges were really into the occult at least around that time But on the other hand in 1968 1969 fucking everybody was into the occult Like it was just one it was like ranch in california. I think they got into some weird shit, too

I mean it was a fad, you know, that's the weird thing about the occult. It's like 68 69. Yeah It was just this strange weird little fad They kind of popped up and then I don't know disappeared again. Well, it came back in the 90s And it came back again now. Yeah. Well, well, we're trying our best But the funny thing is that some of the Stooges didn't even like the album because they hated it They fucking absolutely hated it because to them it didn't sound like the Stooges, you know scott ashton Lamenting the loss of his beloved oil drums later described every track outside of we will fall as quote Drippy dweepy little songs. Oh, that's a good alliteration now. It's very good

It's very good alliteration, but yeah Yeah, what was more the Stooges fucking hated John Kale's production on the album And that wouldn't be the last time the Stooges believed one of their records was ruined post recording From what the Stooges say they were just following orders and some of them openly wondered afterwards if recording the album Was even the right thing to do for the band even after the Stooges were revered as legends Well, you got to listen to the John Kale mix. It's on youtube. It's cool. Yeah No, I think it's pretty good, but it's very different from what they eventually came out with Yeah, you know Iggy pop had to sit with jack holtzman to figure out how to make the band happy

Jack holtzman said he got someone else to mix it. Iggy at one point said that he mixed it himself Conflicting reports on it, but both versions are on youtube and I really like the John Kale mix 69 I like the John Kale mix a lot too But if it's not the way the Stooges wanted it to be then so be it then Yeah, I mean it's ultimately it is up to the band what they want the whole thing to sound like And honestly, I'm kind of inclined to agree with Scott Ashton when it comes to side two of the record Because while the first four maybe five songs are certifiable classics

The last three sound like demos. I mean, they're ideas of songs rather than actual tracks You'd put on an album. The one exception is possibly little doll. That's only because little doll is pretty much Just 1969 Revisited I can't forget You know Iggy said he came up with little doll in the lobby at the Chelsea Hotel And as we know they were big fans of Faro Sanders And he said he took from the baseline of Upper and Lower Egypt. Yeah, and I definitely

Checked out Upper and Lower Egypt after hearing that and Yeah You Do you hear it now do you hear it now I want candy Of course recording the album was the right thing for the Stooges to do because after they came out of the studio They had actual songs in addition to confidence, which they didn't really have going in And so the Stooges returned to Ann Arbor in 1969 feeling damn near invincible and Iggy started taking the stage shows Even further Iggy was starting to make himself bleed on stage

Like he started to open up his skin in one show in Ohio He used a broken drumstick and just raked it against his chest And then it just like the blood just went through his white shirt made people nauseous Yeah, I mean he's trying he's just taking it further and further and further and then you can see the scars on him now Well, he wanted to get a strong reaction because that show I told you about in Ohio Uh, they'd played out a venue that could hold like Hundreds thousands of people maybe and only like 12 to 15 showed up and they were all just kind of their board So he needed to do go to the next level. Yeah, and that was you know when um back when I was in bands

Like that was always the philosophy is like you play the same show for five people as you do for 50 as you do for 500 I was like no matter who's there. They came to see a fucking show. So put on a good show every fucking time And Iggy was taking it further than just blood At one festival in Padawatami beach Iggy already bleeding after busting his lip with a microphone started throwing up on stage as muddy waters Watched from the wings in disgust Did he know? Yeah, he knew muddy waters was over there

In a scene that sounds like straight out of like it's fucking straight out of mad magazine Muddy waters told his friend that oh man those boys need to get themselves an act and his friend replied Muddy that is the act But it was during this time of increased excess that Iggy pop met Wendy Weisberg Who was mercifully 19 years old? Now it was said that Iggy was obsessed with Wendy But I think it would be more accurate to say that Iggy was obsessed with fucking Wendy His Wendy was a virgin. That's true. He did meet her even before all this before he got the record deal

Uh, he met her when he was 19 and they were they were both in college But back then she was a white panthers girlfriend. So you know one of the white panthers not just a guy named white panther It is a guy named white panther Okay, so it's actually a dude named white panther. We keep having this The late 60s were very confusing time. Yes, but he was too afraid to talk to her because you know, she was so beautiful Uh, but later he got that confidence after recording the album So when he was doing that show in Ohio, you know the one where he bled from the broken drumstick She came from backstage after the show and was like, what did you just do?

And then he was like, hey, what are you doing later? And she's like, I'm with my boyfriend right now and he said, well, um, can I call you? Eventually he did worm his way into her heart. Yeah, but Wendy was adamant that she would not have sex before marriage So to get through that little roadblock Iggy fucking married her. He bought the cow She was very beautiful. She's not a cow But yeah, because they got together in May of 1969 and they were married by July 12th of 1969 Just it was just a few months and and they got married right outside of the fun house

Jimmy silver officiated the wedding as an ordained clergyman at the universal life church Which Henry Zabrowski is an ordained minister at the universal life church now because he married us. Thank you, Henry Thank you, Henry So the mc5 came Iggy's parents came Danny field flew in for the wedding because the night before he got a phone call And he's like you do it. What? He had to like rush over there to come to the wedding and then Ron Ashton served as best man And was nice enough to leave his ss uniform in his closet, but he wore his lute vatha Uniform because he said they were soldiers. It's not political. It's different. Iggy is marrying

Wendy Weisberg and jimmy silver is officiated They were Jewish And it was very nice That's a nice guy. He's not a nazi as we talked about in the first episode. Ron is not a nazi He just has a weird fascination with them. Yeah. Yeah And you know what they serve for dinner what buckwheat casserole Because they were big into macrobiotics jimmy silver was big into macrobiotics. That's right

And the MC five were so pissed. They didn't even have dinner. So they got trashed Everyone had a great time at the wedding especially uh when Iggy's friends and his best man We're making bets on how long the marriage was gonna last. Yeah, Danny field says that uh, I think he was quoted as saying These fucking shoes are gonna last longer than this marriage Ron said a month and he was the closest to everyone else. He won the pot Technically he shouldn't have won because he went over for going by Price's right rules Technically nobody should have won. No one wins And so Wendy moves in that day. She and her friends are moving up all her stuff up to the attic where Iggy

Was living so they could live together as men and wife Iggy just sees all these boxes going up and he's just thinking how am I gonna get out of this? And the guys in the band, they didn't like Wendy. They called her potato girl potato girl. I know exactly what they mean I can't explain it, but I know exactly what they mean Really? Yeah You know some things are better laid to rest. Some things we don't need to get into Yeah, but and Iggy had some complaints about Wendy as well like for example, she liked to sleep at night

She didn't want him smoking pot and hanging around with his loser friends So Iggy like at night He liked to stay up because he slept all day So at night he had to lock himself in his closet with his guitar and his amp trying to be quiet And came up with down on the beach Which eventually became down on the street Exactly because the rest of the band was like we don't go to the beach Why the beach plus the song wasn't about Wendy anymore

Yeah, so they had to change it around of course So Iggy's already coming up with a second album while she was there. Yeah, and then he realized I can't do both. It's either her or the career So he just asked her to leave, you know, he's like this could only be temporary maybe and she was sad about it She understood though and they got an annulment because her parents were adamant about getting an annulment. It was oh, thank god Yeah I mean she came from wealthy family. Yeah, and according to Ron, but there's no actual proof of this. They hung up the annulment papers On the wall for ages

And Anna it said the reason for the annulment was Iggy's homosexuality That the marriage was never consummated Well, he used that he used that one a lot didn't he? Yeah Now let me ask you you read Iggy pop's autobiography is 1986 autobiography. How many pages did he devote to this story? Four Four pages and it's not a big book It's I mean it is a healthy percentage Of his three week relationship So about a month after the annulment the Stooges self-titled debut was released

Now to give you an idea of what the mood of the record buying public was like at that time Woodstock happened the same week So while most people were looking to feel good about all the useless hippie bullshit that they all ended up betraying Anyway by turning the planet into a flaming fucking shit bag The Stooges were selling reality Which is a state of mind that a lot of baby boomers still have a hard time Grasping Alone fun

Alone fun to hang around Feeling that same old way Alone fun to hang around A freak out For another day For no fun for my baby For no fun For no fun for my baby

For no fun For no fun to be alone Walk here by myself For no fun to be alone But in love We're nobody else The thing is about no fun is that it's not about moping or wallowing Rather it's exactly what Iggy Pop set out to do in the first place

This was his version of the blues In his life Unlike a lot of people at the time Iggy Pop and the rest of the Stooges weren't going to ignore that shit Because people weren't ready for the Stooges The first album sold terribly Moved only about 32,000 copies in the same summer that the soundtrack for the fucking Let's all congratulate ourselves for being hippies musical

The fucking hair Hair sold 3 million That same summer It was fucking mainstream It was totally mainstream Fucking hair 3 million Stooges self-titled debut 32,000

Still going strong As Iggy put it The Stooges were the counter to the counter culture Which wasn't even that much of a counter culture to begin with It was still fucking mainstream He said I heard all this music around me And I thought I gotta attack Cause that's what he did

He put it in your face Not a lot of faces unfortunately 32,000 only Still did It would take years before anyone would give the Stooges their due But even though the Stooges weren't moving units They found that they were suddenly The cool kids

They went to New York City They were like yeah man this is fucking cool Everyone's loving the album Everyone's all of All of the right people are getting the album And are loving it and are giving all these guys All sorts of positive reinforcement But that's not to say

The Stooges were perfect Even though they did make music That truly changed the world The Stooges and especially Iggy Pop Still did some real fucked up shit Yeah See it was around This time that Iggy Pop

At the age of 23 started dating A girl named Betsy Betsy was about 14 Now the subject of teenage girls When it comes to rock and roll musicians You know from I would say the beginning of the genre Up until about

Mankind Up until about like the 90s Is kind of when rock and roll musicians Started saying like ah we probably shouldn't Be doing that no more It came from everywhere Elvis Presley, Jimmy Page Terry Lee Lewis married

His 13 year old cousin Marvin Gaye met his second wife When she was 17 It was hard to say like all of them Like oh you know like everybody did it So that's not a fucking excuse This is a very thorny knot to untangle And this is a hard thing

Even to talk about because like one of Iggy's ex-girlfriends who was also Very young she said in interviews Oh it was different then Which is something you can't always say You can't always say those were the times Can't always say that no And seeing how these men who were clearly

Having these women girls Throwing themselves at them And them taking advantage of that That is a tough thing to hear Yeah it's just that's something you gotta face You can't ignore this shit No no like as me like for example Like as an individual I have to decide

Whether I want to listen to the music Or watch that show or that movie Based on the information I have in front of me Was Iggy Pop a predator No But was he wrong Yes very much so Should we have gone to jail?

Yeah possibly Probably should have gone to jail for that And honestly We're leaving it up to you to decide This is something that you have to Think about with Damn near every artist You have to decide

I know some people walk out of the fucking room When David Bowie starts playing Because David Bowie was also guilty Of doing this shit And we didn't play any Michael Jackson songs At our wedding we requested No Michael Jackson songs Unfortunately now we have to do that

But our first dance was Rock and roll with me So there you go It's up to you to decide It's very much up to you I think part of why they were also into it Has to do with the fact that Like I said in the first episode

And like even Iggy Pop himself said Musicians especially like them They can be like children And the emotional fucking quotient Is quite low I mean Iggy Pop's maturity level At that time was probably hovering around 13 or 14 years old

I agree with that but it's still not an excuse It's not an excuse We're gonna trademark It's not an excuse Both wear t-shirts right now It's not an excuse But you know when I wonder like why Someone like Iggy would date someone so young

Like I can imagine that would be the reason though That was a sexual thing Like it wasn't necessarily a predator thing It wasn't about power It was about oh I can talk to this person This person can talk to me on the same level Where someone that's my own age Will not put up with me being

Emotionally 13 years old Right Nico was 10 years older than Iggy She didn't last very long She did not last long at all And the other part is you know It was like Iggy Pop's girlfriend said Even though it's not an excuse To date a teenage girl

I mean Iggy had the approval of both of Betsy's parents He actually went and asked them Like is it cool if I date your daughter I mean it's partly because he wanted approval But mostly because he didn't want to be arrested For transporting a minor across state lines It's those two things Yeah and you know

We're not justifying this at all But as it is with the Nazi shit While none of it looks good It isn't as bad as it looks In other words like I said Iggy Pop He wasn't a predator He was just super fucking scummy Yeah

But while all this was going on The Stooges were touring And trying to promote their debut See this was a weird time in rock and roll music Because a lot of established blues and soul singers Were trying to recast themselves As psychedelic acts to keep up with the times And when it worked

Oh fuck it worked Oh it worked so well It's like just for example Like the temptations went from singing pleasant But entirely unobjectionable songs Like My Girl in 1965 To singing a song called You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell

Right on Earth on an album called Psychedelic Shack Just 5 years later Suddenly you want to find The things in life But you find it takes lots Of hard work and sacrifice Now you're standing At the crossroads of life

To set aside your personal orders What you do wrong The way you do right One thing you must admit And you know it's true The final decision Is still up to you I'm telling you to let your facts

For what it's worth Is it true? Now I want to listen to Earth, Wind and Fire Well we can do that when we get home Yeah I have a record Of course we actually have quite a few Earth, Wind and Fire records But for every Psychedelic Shack

You had half a dozen other Completely forgotten albums That now only exist In record collections And YouTube rips Records like Chubby Checker To Psychedelic I won't forget you

Victoria Time Just won't let you Victoria Goodbye Victoria Goodbye Victoria Everybody's going to the front So that's not great

I like it I think it's pretty good I think it's not bad It's still like it's the guy from the twist It is the guy from the twist Although he did make it number one in the dance charts In 2008 Really? What for?

A song I don't remember You don't remember but what that album Kind of reminds me of It's the album that a record store employee Is going to try to convince you Is like a forgotten classic And they're going to have it for like $60

Behind the counter You don't even know They don't even make these anymore No really they don't No they don't It was released as I think there was a CD reissue In like the early 2000s

I think maybe the late 90s But yeah Chubby Checker goes Psychedelic I mean it's out there And you know it's fine Good on Chubby Checker for trying that You know good on Chubby Checker for trying What this Psychedelic wave meant In 1970 you could see a bill

With Chubby Checker and the Stooges Cool Which must have been a fantastically Weird fucking night But god have that What have been so cool to see The psychedelic twist Now after the experience the Stooges had

With John Cale in recording their debut Particularly in the mixing phase The question of who would produce their Second album loomed large But finally they settled On Don Gallucci Whose biggest musical contribution Up until that point have been playing keyboards

On one of the Stooges' favorite songs When Don was just 15 years old That song Was Louis Louis You know Don Gallucci is also Don He's also from Don and the Good Times Who are Don and the Good Times

They were house band for like Dick Clark's Like afternoon show that he had So the reason why I mention this Is because when they asked like What do you think of Don Gallucci as a producer Ron and Scott who are obsessed With watching TV were like oh my god Don and the Good Times

Of course Yeah of course we want to get produced by Don And the Good Times Yeah we like that too Yeah Now when Gallucci was in his mid 20s about 10 years after Louis Louis he started working at

Electric Records and he had agreed To produce the Stooges' sophomore record But he thought that getting the band down On tape was gonna be fucking impossible Yeah cause Don Gallucci actually Went to go see the Stooges He saw them play and he calls up Jack Holtzman He's like yeah this band

Is a great great act I guess We're never gonna get this on tape though And Jack replied You're already working for us man Yeah dude like this is not an option This is an assignment You're gonna have to figure it out

But the Stooges had learned a lot Since the recording of the first album Instead of just sort of making it up on the spot Like they'd done before The Stooges were actually crafting and developing songs And these songs would eventually Make up one of the best albums Not only of the decade

Top 10 rock albums ever to be put on tape That album Was Fun House Real old mine See a pretty thing Ain't no wall See a pretty thing Ain't no wall

No wall No wall Yeah deep in the night I've lost your love Yeah deep in the night I've lost your love A thousand lives Look at you

A thousand lives Look at you A thousand lives God it's the sexiest song ever It's so sexy It's so fucking good I can't believe you started writing that In this fucking closet

I'm in here Wendy What is it And so the Stooges flew to Los Angeles On Iggy Pop's 23rd birthday And began recording Oh funny little story as soon as like the first day They got to LA Ron was walking down the street

And I guess he was like jaywalking or something Cause there was a guy in a car Who just slams on his brakes and goes You fucking asshole And then he looks and he sees it's John Wayne That's amazing He got called a fucking asshole by John Wayne On his first day

Sorry continue I remember seeing Clancy Brown In line at Starbucks once in LA That was pretty cool Now during the day Iggy would spend all the daylight hours At the Tropicana And just take in the sun

And then start each afternoon with a tab of acid Before going into the studio To record all night long Oh yeah that was when they were at the Tropicana Andy Warhol was staying there too And he went up to the Stooges He's like hey come up to my room Come hang out

And the rest of the band was like no And Iggy just got up And he's like yeah I'll hang out with Andy Warhol for a minute Yeah Iggy Pop is definitely A man that personifies The power of yes Yeah and then takes two Drops of acid

As we know acid was nothing new When it came to the Stooges But it was during this time that the Stooges And Iggy in particular Had habits that would come to define And sometimes destroy The next decade of their lives See the band took a break

From recording in July to do a show In San Francisco at the new Old Fillmore And who should have been in the audience But a theater troupe called The Cockets And after the show Iggy went to a party At the Cockets communal house For the first time it said

That he tried heroin So this is in San Francisco right With their little break And he was obsessed with this girl Tina There and he's like I want to have you And she's like ah you better Come with us then because I'm not going with you It's smart. Yeah so he went over there

And he said the whole vibe and the whole house It was so weird to him He himself he actually has not admitted That he tried heroin then Really? Yeah but there are plenty Of sources that say that he did try Even Tina herself said like I think we were The first ones who gave Iggy heroin

I mean you know they might I don't know they might be telling the truth But they might also just enjoy the coolness Of being like yeah I introduced Iggy Pop to heroin Exactly but whatever happened Either way it got into his mind right And that was when the band where they were at the

Tropicana everyone was getting to other things Like John Adams we haven't mentioned John Adams until now he was there At the Tropicana too John Adams He was an old friend of Jimmy Silver's He was hired to be a roadie And John introduced the band to Coke Because he used to be a drug addict

He was in recovery for many years For heroin? For heroin yeah But he decided to get into Coke again This guy John Adams They always called him the fellow Yeah the fellow Yeah he had a lot of nicknames like Flaps If he gangsta

Nichols, Peanut, The Sphinx, Goldie The Fellow I mean if you have a lot of nicknames Then you might have been a drug addict Yeah no sober person gets nicknamed The Sphinx Nichols And actually around that time

Yeah like Jimmy Silver Had a kid so he Dropped out said I can't be manager anymore And John Adams replaced him As the Stooges manager That's right because while Jimmy Silver was in LA with them He was getting more into Macrobiotics rather than

The rock and roll scene because he had A toddler Rachel Yeah unfortunately a hell of a lot more interested In encouraging the more debauchery side of the Stooges Than he was in advancing their career And together he and Iggy Started Heavily using cocaine in Los Angeles

During the recording of Funhouse And so the transfer From psychedelics to hard drugs Began But even in the midst of this the output of the Stooges Was still phenomenal Rather than the near You know one and done style of the debut

The Stooges recorded Funhouse On a straight night after night Grind playing take after take after take Until they finally came up With something they liked I wonder how they got to work So many long hours All the time

And you know Those of you who are absolutely insane About the Stooges you probably already know That every single one of those takes Was released a few years ago on a 7 CD box set Yeah well it's all on Spotify now The box set when it originally came out

I think cost $600 $500 It was a 7 CD box set Extremely limited edition But now everyone can hear it And you know why they had to work harder On these takes though Because first they show up

And it's a really nice studio Jack Holtzman was like no expense spared But the band were like This is not going to work I mean what's up with all this baffling stuff over here What do we need that We got to get rid of all this sound proofing We got to make it like a live show

We got to make this room sound like shit Yes so they got Like they got rid of all the rugs And pillows all that expensive shit That Jack Holtzman bought They just threw it out So Don Gallucci just let them set up the recording room Just the way they liked it

So they could do their live performance They wanted to show what they did on stage So Iggy actually even used a handheld microphone So he could dance And come forward around Just singing the tracks into it They didn't even care The amp was in the room

So the noise or the instruments Would bleed into one another but they didn't care Because they wanted it to sound raw And it did This should not have worked Once again Iggy It really should not have worked If you so choose you can go check out

That 7 CD box set on Spotify You can listen to 14 different takes Of Down on the Street You can listen to 28 takes of Loose 15 takes of TVI And while I haven't listened to all of it I've definitely listened to more of it than I should have Like I definitely

Spent more Yes I listened to more than I should Are you okay? But there are some actual gems to be found on there See if you listen to the raw versions Of these songs you can hear The influences a little more clearly For example if you listen to take 5

Of TVI TVI which was originally titled See That Cat It's the first line of the song Good change Well you can hear that song better For what it is In my opinion TVI

Is the Stooges doing the MC5 Better than the MC5 This song speaks for itself Rλιhl Just Hey See That Cat I do meet you

See That Cat You got a TV now. You got a TV now. You got a TV now. You got a TV now. You know what TVI stands for? Twot Vibe. Twot Vibe I.

That means like when you want to give someone the TVI, you're interested in having your twot vibing. Look at me, look at me, Marcus. Oh, I get it. That was Kathy Ashton. She was the one that came up with that, right? Yeah, Ron and Scott's sister. She and her friends, they would come to shows all the time

and they'd always be like, I got a TVI on him. You know what I mean? Well, the Stooges, during the recording of this album, they didn't lose their experimental edge. They still did some real weird shit with this album. On the almost eight minute title track, Stooges brought in a saxophone player named Steve McKay. Steve McKay's work was fantastic on this album.

And it prefigured later punk and no wave acts like James Chance or X-Ray Specs. I feel all right. I just feel all right. You're absolutely right. I remember hearing the saxophone on O-Bondage of Yours. Yeah, it is extremely influenced by that. You know the player in X-Ray Specs, the saxophone player?

She was 15. X-Ray Specs only had that one album. She was like, I got to go back to school now. Oh, Lisa Simpson. I remember hearing the saxophone on O-Bondage of Yours. I remember hearing the saxophone on O-Bondage of Yours. I remember hearing the saxophone on O-Bondage of Yours. Steve McKay doing the saxophone work.

He was doing heavy drugs with them too. He was just laying on his back with his saxophone playing as best he could. He was worried that he didn't know if he was going to be any good. Iggy Pop actually saw him perform before and then called him up and said, come to LA. Steve McKay was like, well, I got college exams next week, but you know what? I'll do them later. I will. That's fucking insane.

That shit just used to happen. And it's like, okay, now you're on one of the best rock records of all time just because you happen to play one weird little show in college. But even though the title track and the literally acid-fueled freakout LA blues showed how fucked up the Stooges were willing to get, the album, which clocks in at no more than eight tracks, is full of seminal rock songs like Loose. Woo! Oh, look out. Oh! Oh, look out.

Oh, look out. Oh, look out. Oh, look out. Oh, look out. Oh, look out. Oh, look out. Oh, look out. But unfortunately, Fun House is kind of the end of the free will and good times for the Stooges.

No. All that drug shit starts off real fun. Always starts off real fun. It's like, man, I got this under control. I don't know what everyone's talking about. Man, what are they talking about? Like, everyone's talking about getting addicted and getting the depths of despair. We just recorded this great fucking album.

Everything's gonna be great. We're now on. I just keep doing drugs. And I can quit when I want to. But although the Stooges were about to morph into the absolutely legendary live band they've come to be known as, now that they truly had the songs, that reputation came as all things do with a price. And that is what we'll cover in the Stooges Part 3. And what we have with this episode, as with every episode, just go to my profile on Spotify

and you'll find a playlist of all the songs that are available on the platform so you can maybe hear some new music that you haven't heard before. Even Chubby Checker goes psychedelic. No, Chubby. Why is it not on there? Because the record company that owns the rights has not thought to put it online and submit it to Spotify. I'll make a call. Yeah, you make a call. You let him know.

All right, we'll see everybody next week. Thank you for listening. Goodbye, goodbye, Victoria. Goodbye. Goodbye. But I don't care Inside Inside

Inside Inside Another five Life Yeah, all right I've been hurt I don't care I don't care

Inside Inside Inside This life Said, do you feel it Said, do you feel it when you touch me Said, do you feel it when you touch me It's a fire

It's a fire Yeah, all right It's a fire It's a fire It's a fire It's a fire I'm just sipping on blue

blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue

blue blue blue blue blue blue Said three I'm feeling when you cut me But it's a fire

But it's a fire Why why why Why why why Why why why Why why why Why why why Why why Why why

Why why Why why Why why