The Stooges – an appreciation.

In light of Iggy's recent piece about Scott and The Stooges for Rolling Stone magazine, here is my thank you to The Stooges:

I always wondered that many who heard the Stooges did not see beyond the noise, the scandal, the facade, the Godfathers of Punk thing.
It was not only about the noise and the scandal in an age in which scandal has become a common currency.
The Stooges were not just the Godfathers of Punk, far from it, or maybe very close, because they were human creatures, far more human than most who ever walked out onto a stage and in front of an audience. Human creatures that the gutter press has no right to judge, because their songs, their concerts, Iggy's voice ringing out into the night, Ron's menacing wall of noise and Scott's primal beat that was filled with the echo of time itself illustrated what it meant to be human, made you feel things you did not even know existed.
They were born and raised on the edge of the great lakes and they went out into the world to battle the demons of the night armed with just a voice, stringed instruments and by beating sticks on skins. True warriors, true heroes, true originals.
It was not just the obvious, the roar and the thrust and the volume. Sometimes one word, one beat, one chord was enough to tell everyone who was willing to hear, who was not deaf from having seen it all and from snobbery and from the hunt for new sensations that there is "you" and "me". That there is pain in this world and hate and love and tenderness and brutality. The Stooges were grand in everything they did, even when they failed to reach their goal, because they did know what the goal even was. They were ten times as grand, larger than life, with every howl, every move, every turn.
They did not just play songs, they performed on the razor's edge, they took an ancient art form and made it new. Not just new, but real. They were some of the few who had the right to step out onto the stage in order to make chills run up and down the spines of the people in the crowd, to drum them up into a frenzy, to unleash ancient instincts. To bring people together and, like shamans, make them whole. They were artists. They lived the life, they talked the talk, they walked the walk. They were human. They put their life on the line in order to bring joy into this world.
The Stooges were one of the last adventures of our times, one of the last truths that an audience could hope to experience. They always hit the mark, they never budged an inch. They made the world listen. Listen through centuries and into the future.
It is very hard or very easy to acknowledge true greatness. The Stooges were greatness, are greatness, unfamiliar in a world of mediocrity and perfection.

Stooges, I salute you!

Thumbs up.
Thank you.

Beautifully put, Luzern.