100 Greatest Guitarists Of All time - Guitar World 1997

"We practiced from midnight to six, just like that great Pretty Things song "Midnight to Six", and then we made the record Raw Power"

- Ron Asheton

In the annals of primitive six-string genius , few can compare to the Stooges' Ron Asheton, who used fuzz, wah-wah and distortion to create sonic poetry before he'd even mastered the technology. The evidence is there on 1969's The Stooges (Elektra), to many the ground zero of punk. His playing on songs like "Little Doll", "Not Right", and "I Wanna Be Your Doll" suggests that Asheton was learning his instrument as he went along (which he more or less was). That feeling of untutored discovery juices the music with an excitement that's still palpable more than a quarter of a century later."C"mon, Ron -- tell "em how I feel", Iggy exhorts the guitarist during "No Fun", and Asheton answers him with a flailing solo that perfectly captures the sullen angst and inarticulate rage at the heart of the Stooges music. The track fades out with Iggy praising
Asheton's work: "Yeah--my man!" And a man for the ages .

And I might add that this praise all came before the Deluxe Edition of The Stooges came out. I've listened to a lot of Deluxe Edition CD's over the years and I don't think any enhances a work more than Electra's Deluxe Edition of the first LP of the Stooges does. On the extended tracks Ron demonstates that he can be every bit as raunchy and in-your-face as James Williamson can. And this was 1969!!

'That feeling of untutored discovery juices the music with an excitement that's still palpable more than a quarter of a century later.'

Thanks SB. There are some who might argue that improving technique actually diminished the impact of Ron's playing. Sometimes genius is most apparent when its least cultured.

The more I listen to the full length versions of "No Fun" and "Ann", the more I think that Ron had indeed mastered the technology, in such a short period of time, or at least come awfully damn close. I've heard a lot of guitar workouts over the years, none more impressive than those two. They are both just breath taking in their in-your-face belligerence. On the original versions Elektra faded the band out just when Ron started cooking. Which is kinda understandable, since they (Elektra) wanted to sell records, and this music was considered just too extreme for 1969. But thank God the tape survived. Thank God it didn't just disappear into an archival vortex the way the MC5's 2nd album studio demos for Elektra did.