94. The Stooges, "Fun House"

 


You almost certainly can't handle this smoke.  This is a caterwauling barrage of sound that's actually borderline unpleasant to listen to, until you finally just give up and let it fucking shake you around.  And that's just the last song, "L.A. Blues," a shuddering freakout instrumental - well, mostly instrumental, Iggy Pop does moan some shit like he's dying; the whole track sounds like dying.

This album came out in 1970, and people really didn't know what the fuck to make of it.  It's certainly related to psych-rock, but there are elements of jazz and swamp rock and god knows what else.  It's more of a feeling than an exact sound, but it's hard even to put your finger on what the feeling is.

I know I'm kind of floundering around here but it's not an easy album to describe, because the Stooges aren't really into conventional things like song structure or melody or the stuff that you associate with rock music.  They're out here really doing their own thing.  

Iggy is not known as a complex and nuanced lyricist, but it's really his screaming yowl that's the point, not the words.  "Loose" is probably the closest to anything like a conventional rock song, and has lyrics that probably got this record confiscated from more than one young boomer:

I took a ride with the pretty music
I went down and baby you can tell
I took a ride with the pretty music
Now I'm putting it to you straight from hell
I'll stick it deep inside
I'll stick it deep inside
Cause I'm loose
Always!

The album was produced by Don Gallucci, who played on the Kingsmen's 1963  "Louie Louie," the very first proto-proto-proto-punk song (which the Stooges regularly covered), and after some failed attempts at conventional recording methods, everyone decided just to say fuck it and go for it.  Iggy sang into a handheld mic and they just set up like they were in a club and went for it.  Amazingly, it doesn't sound like shit.  In fact, given the way it was recorded, it sounds pretty great.  The drums are crisp and clear and, while the guitars are certainly the star of the show, they don't overwhelm everything else.  Despite the wild sound, this album was meticulously made; there were famously 28 takes of "Loose," each one played live in its entirety.

I don't have any personal connection to this album, so I appreciate its place in music history more than I actually like it.  There are a lot of ways I'm not like Henry Rollins and one of them is that the first time I heard this album, it was not immediately my favorite album.  The Stooges, and this album in particular, went on to influence probably every punk band that ever existed, and so I'm glad it exists, but it's not something I'm gonna listen to on the reg.

Is this album in my personal Top 500? Not really?

Comments

  1. StephenSeptember 9, 2022 at 10:53 AM

    This and Raw Power are both easily in my Top 100, which I know is very important information for you and your readers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TKSeptember 9, 2022 at 12:09 PM

      I think it's interesting! (I definitely prefer Raw Power).

      Delete

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