When a musician, author or actor dies, it splits the public in half. On one side, you have the people who genuinely admired their work and want to talk about them as a way of paying their respects. On the other side, you have everyone else, people who don't really know that much about the artist but are too intimidated to admit that for fear of being excluded the conversations that everyone seems to be having. Then the worst faction of this group overglorifies the person to make up for their ignorance.
About a year ago, I read a book called Please Kill Me, which is an oral history of punk rock. It's more about the different groups that formed around different bands, and how everyone was intertwined. It starts out with The Velvet Underground. Nico hooking up with Iggy Pop connects the Factory scene to MC5 and The Stooges in Ann Arbor. Ron Asheton, The Stooges' guitarist, is in the book a lot talking about what went on in The Fun House during the 60s. It was his stories, as well as those of the other musicians, that made the book influence me so much and provoke me to listen to the music they were talking about.
Since then, I've come to love a few Stooges songs but never took the time to find anything more. Two days ago, a song on my beloved 89X Timewarp show caught my ear. It was the first time I'd ever heard "I Wanna Be Your Dog".
It's ok if you've never listened to The Stooges in your life. Go ahead and start now, because they're great.
Above image stolen from Rolling Stone.
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