1 post tagged “the stooges”
Ron Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor, Michigan home yesterday. He was 60.
As the cofounder and guitarist of Iggy and The Stooges, Asheton laid down riffs nobody else could in the mid-1960s. Take any "rock and/or punk-type" band of the last 20 years, any of them, here I'll help you -- Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Sex Pistols, Clash, Pearl Jam -- and you have a list of people who owe their careers to Asheton's work.
The Stooges were arguably the original punk outfit. Some would argue that Neil Young fits in that category, and maybe he does, I don't know, I'm not the one pigeonholing artists into respective categories, but anyone over the age of 30 who picked up a guitar and tried to blow it out, is more than likely citing Asheton as an influence. And if they are not, then they're lying to themselves.
The guy hit it. Period. And he was really one of the first ones to make that sound with an axe. It's that fucking simple.
One of the smartest things I ever did in my life was to buy a ticket to the 2003 Iggy and The Stooges reunion show. I was speechless throughout. And in the days afterward, I felt like I'd been in the presence of some sort of deity. Those guys destroyed that stage that night. I've read a bit about Asheton yesterday and today, and I keep coming back to that concert. The Stooges were before my time, age-wise. And when they reunited when I was 34, the decision to go was an easy one. I didn't feel that way when the Sex Pistols got back together and I didn't give a fuck when the Who, AC/DC or any of those other tired rockers came through my town. But, The Stooges? Uh, yeah. Lucky for me I was dating a woman at the time who was just as into this as I was -- although I would have easily gone it alone -- and she was down for seeing the show as well. She was cool. She played herself as this bookish, recovering band geek type, but she had outstanding taste in music and was a lot of fun to be around, until she unceremoniously dumped me (to her credit, I shoulder much of the blame; writing was on the wall but I was feigning illiteracy). The show itself was phenomenal. The Von Bondies started first, to be followed by Sonic Youth and their unrelenting art school noise. The Stooges were crisp and loud, and I left the grounds nothing short of completely throttled.
Ron Asheton is dead and, presumably, so are The Stooges. And I can say I got to see the man do his thing in person.
