Ungano's arrived today

Holy Christ. This is really, really great. An amazing CD of an amazing live band. Rather than retype, I am going to be lazy and repost something I posted on another board while I go and listen to it again. I hope no one minds.

My copy arrived today and I just finished listening to it. I am awestruck. Speechless. At a loss for words. I've really never heard anything quite like this before. I would have loved to have seen this era of the band live.

This is the expanded 6 piece Stooges; Pop/Asheton/Asheton with Steve Mackay (sax), Bill Cheatham (2nd guitar) and Zeke Zettner (bass). They lay down a gigantic wall of, slab of, layer of SOUND. It is massive and relentless and enormous and dense and, mostly, thrilling. They run through all of Funhouse with no extras and no deletions. There is a song "called" Have Fun At Ungano's/My Dream is Dead but I can't see how it is anything more than a live version of L.A. Blues. While the versions are pretty close to the actual Funhouse LP; they play them with such ferocity that they take on a whole new life. The expanded instrumentation allows them to build to an intensity I could not have imagined.

This is a great live record. The quality is better than I could have hoped for. A document of a band and a time that I am glad is being made available. I don't understand how, with the endless bootleg and quasi legal releases of the Stooges, this was never bootlegged, copied and whored out. But it's here now and if you dig the Ig you are going to want this. I'm going to go and listen again.

...Callin' from the Fuuuunhouse....

I received mine today as well. Agreed about the mistitled L.A. Blues; however, there are elements of songs contained within. The sound is good bootleg overall, with on and off muffled moments, but about half way through, the recorder stayed out of the pocket (or wherever it was). At one point, I thought the speed might be slightly on the fast side, but on second listening, it seems to be correct. The packaging is ordinary: slightly oversized box containing the CD in a cardboard sleeve, booklet that folds out to a poster, a reproduction clipping and two black-and-white photographs. Overall, a magnificent find and one of the most important complete concerts ever to be released.

specotron wrote:

I received mine today as well. Agreed about the mistitled L.A. Blues; however, there are elements of songs contained within. The sound is good bootleg overall, with on and off muffled moments, but about half way through, the recorder stayed out of the pocket (or wherever it was). At one point, I thought the speed might be slightly on the fast side, but on second listening, it seems to be correct. The packaging is ordinary: slightly oversized box containing the CD in a cardboard sleeve, booklet that folds out to a poster, a reproduction clipping and two black-and-white photographs. Overall, a magnificent find and one of the most important complete concerts ever to be released.

Complete?? Isn't Funhouse and the encore song truncated?

Sorry... complete, as in all the songs performed are there. Funhouse does sound truncated; the rest do not. Never mind Rhino's name for it, L.A. Blues is over 10 minutes and the CD is over. No encore present or even an indication of it.

So do we think this Have Some Fun/My Dream is Dead track is Way Down in Egypt or not? Does Iggy cry "I'm Dead" during it?

This is exciting! Is the sound better than disc 1 of the EA box?

It's hard to believe that after almost four decades of having nothing but one almost unlistenable live recording of the 1970 band, all of this is coming out now.

Many thanks to Danny Fields for taping this show. Yeah it's probably as good as 20th century technology done 40 years ago is going to get us. It's basically the same set I witnessed, minus Down on the Street ( Iggy sang The Shadow of your Smile) Ron's blistering guitar work, Scott's steady beats and Zeke's bass playing, but fans listen close, I mean listen real goddamn close, there's ONLY ONE GUITAR MAKING NOISE, where is the second guitar?? I hear a second guitar on all of the live stuff from 1971, I hear Ron and James, on any bootleg of the MC5 I hear two guitars, Wayne and Fred, but were on this live recording of the Stooges is Billy Cheatham? The set I saw 40 years ago, I only saw one guitar player Ron. I'm not saying on some other night Billy was playing, but not on the night I saw them and not on the night this recording was made. Fred Kirby's review of the Stooges, August 29th 1970 does not mention Billy Cheatham, only Zeke. I leave this up to 50+ year olds like myself to chime in.

I stated exactly that on the other Unganos thread. Billy was on stage at least one night during the Unganos run. There is a photo in the Stooges authorized biography. Also in the same photo book, there is a photo where you can see Billy standing next to Jeanne on the side of the stage in the audience watching. Jeanne was my friend who was working for Elektra at the time. Billy was never really comfortable on stage and only played a few gigs in August and September 1970. He promptly switched back to roadie in October when James joined the band. I have not received my Unganos CD yet but I am ready to listen and see if I hear one guitar or two.

If you have the Popped set, look in the booklet that accompanies the CD. There is a photo of Billy on stage that I took in September of 1970.

BTW, a ways up on this thread, it was stated that there are only 2 black and white photos from Unganos. Many of the photos in the 1000 Lights booklet are from Unganos and the photo of Iggy on the tee shirt was also taken at Unganos. I only took photos one night during that week.

When I heard the samples on Rhino's site I was concerned that the speed might run a little fast. But now, having heard Popped/1000 lights, I am thinking they just pushed the tempo a lot in those days. High energy! What would have come next if they hadn't discovered heroin!

Has anyone checked to see if the 2 "New York 1970" tracks are the same as Ungnos?

According to the Hound, the voice at the beginning of the tape is Patti Smith:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6910067&postID=3695464948858083406&isPopup=true

Still waiting patiently for mine to arrive ...

I have not had the time to do a side-by-side test to see if the Popped New York tracks are from the same show. That said, I did do a quick time check, which revealed both versions being off time-wise from the others. 1970 is a full minute longer on Ungano's.

Still not sure about the speed. Most of the time it sounds fine, but there moments when it does seem just a little fast (or my imagination?).

Sound quality is good, especially for million year old cassette technology... better than Popped and 1971, but not as good as the Peaches show. Overall, it's really great considering its time-frame and featuring more quality than any could have ever hoped for. Still, it is technically a legal bootleg, so expect no point-blank miracles. The microphone used to record the show spent quiet a lot of time "under cover" during the first few minutes and therefore, the sound can become quiet muffled. Fortunately, the mike finds it way out of wherever it was for the majority of the show and it is clear from then on.

Additionally, it seems as if no songs are truncated. Fun House is very short (under 4 minutes), but I was not able to hear a tape recorder splice between it and L.A. Blues. The last track may have some controversary to it. Is it L.A. Blues with elements of one or two potential new songs rising up out of the cacaphony only to fall back in? Or are they two truly new songs blending with elements of L.A. Blues?

The voice at the beginning does sound like Patti Smith, but then that's a pretty standard accent for the time/place

My copy arrived today. The sound is good enough, improves a little after the first couple songs. The drums, bass and vocals are clearly audible, Ron's guitar more in the background. I can't hear another guitar. Either there was only Ron on stage that night, or the other guitar was inaudible, which I frankly doubt.

The performance is terrific. I just want to crank it up. Not sure about the tape speed (this is a Rhino release...), but the band seems to be on fire.

The final track seems to begin as the freak out of L.A. Blues, but continues as a jam and may or may not continue fragments of songs.

A great release. Even the packaging isn't terrible. I bet EA could've done better, but I'm happy with this.

Got mine over the weekend and it really does kick ass. It's possible that the tape was running a bit fast, but Iggy's voice sounds pretty normal to me. I just think they were playing the songs faster live. I wish Funhouse was complete but the freak out at the end is killer.

does Iggy sings "i'm dead" at the end of the freakout??

No he says, I had a dream, but the dream is dead. Only listened to it once so far on the way to work. It had been such a long time I forgot I ordered it.

Got mine yesterday & wow... I'm loving hearing a full set of the 1970 era band. It sounds crazy, but I was originally disappointed to hear that it was going to be with a second guitar as I've always wanted more (actually make that ANY) recordings of the original lineup. So I'm happy to hear that it's just Ron wailing away, not that I'd turn down the opportunity to hear any lineup of the band blasting it out live or otherwise. Aside from the obvious original band around the time of the first album & before, my holy grail is still the Cincinatti Pop Festival in full. I know it ain't gonna happen, but going by the sound of what's on the limited TV footage, that would've been amazing.

But I've got to say that I am a bit disappointed by the packaging. When it came I was expecting something more judging by the size of the box. I'm sure everything that could be written about the Stooges has been by now, but the liners were a bit underwhelming & I'm sure the pack could have been padded out with a bit more in the way of extras. A nice little booklet with more pictures, especially of the other band members would have been nice. Don't hold it against me, but ENOUGH OF (just) IGGY ALREADY!!! I still think the rest of the band get a bit ignored while the record companies (Easy Action is the exception here) keep selling the band on Iggy's schtick to the exclusion of any real acknowledgement of the importance of the BAND. One token profile shot of Ron ain't cutting it for me & the whole package feels a bit 'budget', despite the quality of the recording as well as the price tag. Come to think of it, the title 'Have Some Fun' reeks of the same thing as well as a real lack of imagination on Rhino's part. I reckon that the idea of the reproduction photos & news clipping was lifted straight from Easy Action's releases.

Still the quality of the sounds on the disc, & the fact we have a decent Ron-era show to listen to is enough for me. I'll get over my gripes with the packaging.

Ok got my Funhouse set and teh Unganos today SICK SICK FUN FUN FUN!!!!! I love how Down on the street ends and teh adlibbing come on!Shakin down in my bones,balls on TV EYE!!!

Anyway want to touch on something,Iggy voice is at perfect speed,heres the thing he was WAY YOUNGER so he may sound different than what your used to recently,or on more recent albums,oer just because the recording is much clearer than teh messy ones oft heard in older bootlegs,also when you play teh same songs alot,you tend to sometimes sing "loosely" out of need for change,or mood of teh night,etc,sometimes you feel crazier or whatever,Im a frontman and singer and know this to be fact.

Ungano's arrived in Sweden yesterday, (together with the Rhino Handmade Richard Thompson release). The best early Stooges live recording yet!! I was sure I was going to have to pay taxes, but I was lucky this time, even though the declared value was $59.

not arrived in manchester uk

Arrived in England this morning.

Yup London today, no chance to listen yet though.

Any VAT to pay on UK orders? I got stung for 13.67GBP on the Rhino first album in May.

After a second listen, have to agree with totenkopf, only one guitar ,Sounds great though.So does Zeke.