If
the MC5 were Detroit's political spokesmen for the disenchanted youth
of the 1960s, then the Stooges were the loutish kids, heckling from the
back of the room. While conventional wisdom says they could barely play
their instruments, the Stooges left an indelible mark on the world of
punk rock, and the band's initial three albums-The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power-are bona fide classics. In The Stooges: Head On author Brett Callwood treats the band's story not just as an early chapter in the career of its famous front man, Iggy
Pop, but from the Stooges' beginnings at the end of the 1960s, to its
end in the early 1970s, and to its reunion in 2003 through the present.
"Writing
a Stooges biography was a no-brainer for me," Callwood states. "My
first book is about the MC5 and in researching that while still living
in London, I had traveled to Detroit / Ann Arbor and fallen in love with
the whole area and its music. I had made many friends and established
many contacts that were and are associated with both the MC5 and the
Stooges, so that made the process easier to get started. Also, when I
wrote this book there wasn't a decent Stooges book on the shelves. There
are a lot of Iggy books out there, but mine is the first full Stooges biography."
In
compiling this exhaustive account of the band's history, Callwood
interviewed all of the central and sometimes Stooges members, including Iggy
Pop, Ron and Scott Asheton, James Williamson, Mike Watt, Steve Mackay,
and Scott Thurston, and largely lets the band tell its own story in
numerous long quotes. Callwood details the band's genesis as teenage
friends in Ann Arbor, their time living together in their legendary
party houses in the 1960s, and the recording of the three original
Stooges albums. He examines the addition of James Williamson to the band
on Raw Power and how it changed the band's sound and dynamic, along
with the band's fateful meeting with David Bowie on its first British
tour.
As Iggy
broke out as a solo artist during the 1970s and 1980s, Callwood charts
the Asheton brothers' post-Stooges experiences, with Ron's turns in The
New Order, Destroy All Monsters, and Dark Carnival, and Scott Asheton's
time with the Farleys and Sonic's Rendezvous Band. He also provides an
overview of Iggy's solo career, the seeds of a reunion that were planted with a collaboration on Iggy's Skull Ring album, and the eventual reformation of the band and the recording of their fourth album, The Weirdness, in 2007.
Originally published in the U.K. in 2007, The Stooges: Head On
has been revised to expand on the original story and also to consider
Ron Asheton's untimely death in 2009 and his musical legacy, the band's
fate without Ron, and the Stooges' long-overdue introduction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
"Scott
didn't want to talk at all for the first edition... He rarely does
interviews," said Callwood. "However, after his brother passed away and I
was writing for this American edition, he talked to me and really
opened up. It was a very moving, humbling experience."
Wayne
State University Press is a distinctive urban publisher committed to
supporting its parent institution's core research, teaching, and service
mission by generating high quality scholarly and general interest works
of global importance. Through its publishing program, the Press
disseminates research, advances education, and serves the local
community while expanding the international reputation of the Press and
the University.
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