Memories of Ron

Nadja wrote:

it wasn't anything very exciting, just someone on this very board asked me if I was, I think he mistook my name for that of Ron's girlfriend, or who he thought was Ron's girlfriend...maybe 'Niagara' he was thinking of, don't know, think it was something like that

Being confused with Niagra wouldn't be a bad thing.

I should be so lucky! outside of this forum I mean

Well its not as bad as me I got confused for the chubby, fuzzy, goth Robert Smith. Could have been worse though, I could have been mistaken for Mark E. Smith

haha - you mean you've got that Robert Smith hair????

I did

I won't ask what happened to it then

and talking of hair maybe I should post a pic of myself with my DAVE ALEXANDER style!!! only I haven't quite got around to dyeing it orange yet!!

Awesome! What happened was somebody thought it was Russel Brand hair so...that pretty much explains its self. Its just spikey at the moment but in a weird way, long hair doesn't suit me. I love how these threads dissolve into pointlessness. I think that would have appealed to Ron's sense of humour.

not pointlessness ... hairstyles are VERY important!
but yeh I was just about to apologize for going off-topic

This calls for a general topics thread

haha - you wanna start it G?

But thats Stooges hair, this has nothing even Stooge related thanks to me

yeh you'll see I just realized that and edited my post to delete that comment

Hey folks. First post from a long-time lurker. Sorry it took such a sad event to get me motivated to join.

I met Ron at a record show in the Detroit suburbs in '88 or '89. He hung out all day at a table with a local DJ, signing autographs and posing for pictures. On a monitor behind him an excellent quality Stooges show (pre-Goose Lake, as Dave was still on bass) was running constantly. Crystal-clear footage, about 30 minutes long, but the Funhouse record was running in lieu of live audio. I haven't seen this footage before or since. Ron told me it belonged to a 'private collector' and he had no other details.

Ron was totally approachable, happily posing for pictures and answering questions for excitable fans. Someone handed him a copy of Iggy's just released 'Instinct' album to sign. He laughed at the front cover, saying he thought that Iggy was resorting to using old high school photos now. They were clearly on the outs at the time, but beyond the aforementioned dig he refused to badmouth Iggy or Williamson. Class act!

A few years later, a friend of mine was at a Dark Carnival show. The band triumphantly exited stage-left and filed up the hallway to exit the back door of the club for a smoke-break before returning for an encore. They could'nt get back in because the door was locked from the inside. My friend noticed the pounding on the door, elbowed past a crowd of oblivious club kids and unlocked the door. After the encore, Ron was so thankful that he invited my friend and her friends back to an after-show gathering at his home. Again - class act!

I'd seen Ron about a dozen time with local bands. A personal highlight was a scorching 'November 22, 1963' with Dark Carnival at the Rob Tyner benefit (a few months after his death) at the State Theatre.

This sucks. Unlike dozens of rock-stars I could mention, Ron was still vital and relevant. RIP bro'...

thanks for sharing your memories trailerborn, again more evidence of how nice a guy Ron was

and that information about the 1970 footage is intriguing, hope it sees the light of day!

Yeah, trailerborn, thanks for sharing.

great stories trailerborn thanks!!.. sounds like typical Ron...

and SO tantalizing to hear about that footage....!!

Wow that sounds brilliant trailerborn! Even more proof Ron was an awesome guy!

And 1970 footage? This is exciting

Here's a little thing about Ron and CBS forcing him to listen to Raw Power in their office, which I hadn't heard before -

"When the Stooges went to the CBS offices in LA for a meeting there was an acetate of Raw Power on the turntable ready to played for all in attendance. It had been flown out overnight by messenger. Ron walked over to the turntable, picked up the acetate and smashed into a million little pieces. So the Stooges leave, a new acetate is ordered in New York, messenger picks it up and once again an overnight flight later the Stooges are sitting in a conference room at CBS and this time they won't let Ron near the sound system. They made Ron Asheton listen to Raw Power.

I only mention this because I see so many people on this thread referencing that record. Ron played bass on Raw Power. That's because MainMan fired Ron and Scott from the band. They were later asked to rejoin but basically as session guys. He had absolutely no involvement in writing that record. Ron found the whole Raw Power experience to be humiliating.

Obviously, I was a little shocked when I saw the Stooges last year in NYC and Ron played Search and Destroy. I asked him later if Iggy had to bribe him in order to get him to do so and Ron responded with a smile and a wink and a "no comment." It must have been some bribe because when we were doing songs for Velvet Goldmine I offered to pay Ron an extra grand on top of what he was making to record Gimmie Danger. He told me to fuck off. Ron was the best... "

Full thread is on Velvet Rope:
http://www.velvetrope.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=619754&page=1&fpart=5

wow, didnt realise it was a bad as that, never associated the word ''humiliating" with it

always wanted to hear search live, and im glad i did, i just hope Ron liked playing it, i wouldnt want him to dislike playing something

thanks for posting that mc

mc wrote:

I only mention this because I see so many people on this thread referencing that record. Ron played bass on Raw Power. That's because MainMan fired Ron and Scott from the band. They were later asked to rejoin but basically as session guys. He had absolutely no involvement in writing that record. Ron found the whole Raw Power experience to be humiliating.

Thats the way I've always thought Ron felt about it. The Stooges, the band HE co-founded, he helped create, and they only hired him again as nothing more than a session musician. Just goes to show how much Ron was poorly treated back then. Always preffered the first two albums by far anyway. Seems that when he played those "Raw Power" tunes they really were covers to him. Shows how great a guy he is, able to put so much behind him and move on.

RIP Ron

I wonder what Ron thought it was going to be like when he accepted the invitation to be a hired musician. He didn't have to. Maybe nothing much else was happening for him then. He still played a killer bass, needless to say.

I think Ron just wanted to play music, he was in no other bands at that time. He got the oppurtunity to be in the band he started again but he got given no creative control. He was promised The Stooges again but instead became a backing musician.

Wasn't there something about a promise of getting to play the guitar again? gotta find where I had read that.

Yeah Ron was promised he could return to guitar again with Williamson. This was always a lie to keep him happy though and Williamson argued with Iggy that a pianist would be a better addition which is how Bob Scheff came on board.

Angusyd van Hyman wrote:

Wasn't there something about a promise of getting to play the guitar again? gotta find where I had read that.

didn't know that