The Stooges‘ debut album from 1969 didn’t even crack the Top 100 album chart, so it wasn’t like too many people were waiting for the follow-up. Which was just fine. Without expectations, the band was free to explore almost any path it wanted to on the follow up “Fun House”. The Stooges (1970): Here’s where the first seeds of punk sprung, and with such force that ‘Fun House’ still sounds fresh. The funny part? Iggy Pop says he drew inspiration not from fellow modernists like MC5, but from Chicago blues master Howlin’ Wolf.
Still, their record company had faith in them and the Stooges were slowly picking up fans with their plugged-in, distortion-overloaded brand of scuzzy garage rock. So the second album, while maybe not as anticipated as some of the other post-hippie records that were starting to trickle out around the same time, was still under the watchful eye of the band’s bosses.
The label enlisted former Kingsmen keyboardist Don Gallucci to run the sessions, which were already booked for a two-week period in the middle of May 1970 in Los Angeles. And like former Velvet Underground member John Cale, who produced the Stooges’ self-titled debut, Gallucci realized that the group’s proto-punk attack wasn’t easily captured on tape. So he did what he figured was the most sensible thing: He had the band play the handful of new songs it had written for the album a dozen times each, sorting through them later to pick out the most usable version.
Not that that made things any easier. As anyone who’s heard Fun House in the years since its release in July 1970 (or especially the seven-disc, 1999 box set 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions) can tell you, the record is one of the most abrasive, pummeling and aggressive sonic assaults ever made. Capturing that on tape, and then settling on a definitive version, must have been no easy task.
But because the Stooges really had almost nothing to lose — their debut made little to no impression in mainstream circles they pretty much recorded Fun House the way they played live with their amps cranked to full power, band members huddled together in one room, singer Iggy Pop recreating his stage show in the studio.
The result is one of the most primal and unhinged albums ever made. Saxophone player Steve Mackay, a temporary addition to the band who also came from the Stooges’ hometown of Detroit, blurts his way through songs in an acid-damaged take on free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman’s improvised soloing, pushing Fun House into a sort of avant-jazz proto-punk garage scuzz-rock genre all its own.
From the opening smackdown combo “Down on the Street” , The Stooges could groove with the best of ’em as ‘Down On The Street’ proudly proves. The opening track on the band’s 1970 classic ‘Funhouse’ is hard, loud and heavy for sure, but that rhythm section of Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander drive this thing home. Ron Asheton’s guitar is brutal, while Iggy is in full force here. The song was released as a single, with added organ that, while adding a cool spice to the mix, ultimately cluttered the song. Pure bravado like this needs no extra ingredients.
“Loose” How many different ways can we say ‘sex,’ ‘danger,’ when talking about the Stooges? This is not music for the faint of heart, or the lame of mind. It’s gutturally cerebral, or was that cerebrally guttural? Either way you slice the cake, it oozes the same tasty slime to bathe in. Bring your unhinged self and immerse in the glory of it all. When Iggy sings, “Now I’m putting it to you straight from hell,” he ain’t kidding, and when he sings, “I’ll stick it deep inside,” well, we’ll leave that one up to you.
“T.V. Eye” “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence, the word and the act.” One of the most righteous screams ever opens this barn burner. The guitar riff from the heavens above pummels into the brain as the onslaught builds. The whole song sounds like a riotous street fight as guitars slash like razors, drums splatter like machine gun fire, and Iggy screeches like a Molotov cocktail.
The closing “L.A. Blues,” probably the most unstructured song released by a major label during the first half of the ’70s, “Fun House” is a mess of sloppy guitar riffs, thrashing drums, larynx-shredding screams and saxophones . check out “1970” Over a Bo Diddley-inspired rhythm, the Stooges blast through this primal, life affirming rocker. The song’s riff, described by original Damned guitarist Brian James as “instant mayhem,” is relentless. You simply can’t help but get sucked into the vortex here. This song, and the attitude within, probably put more fuel in the tanks of punk rock, noise rock, and grunge, but still trumps them all in spades. The chaos grows and by the end of the song, the appearance of wild sax from Steve Mackay takes the whole thing into the stratosphere.
It’s also brilliant, a pre-punk milestone years ahead of the movement it unwittingly helped inspire.
Any surprise then that the album fared even worse than its predecessor? The Stooges didn’t even make the Top 200 this time, and when the band regrouped, after breaking up, a couple of years later to record its third LP, “Raw Power”, it was for a different record company. Drug addiction, alcoholism, low record sales — nobody could blame Elektra for severing its ties with the band. And hardly anyone noticed. At the time, anyway. It would take a fair few years, but “Fun House” eventually became known as an early punk classic, a landmark that inspired its fans to pick up instruments, not bother to tune them and bash out unregulated noise that amounted to a merciless attack on all accessible senses.
The Fat Angel Sings 