James Williamson news

Hello all-

I'm a lifelong Stooges fan but new to this forum.

I am very excited to announce that within a few weeks the new issue of Fretboard Journal hits the news stand, including a feature article on James Williamson and what he's up to musically now, in addition to lots of photos of the "Raw Power" Gibson Les Paul Custom and a sidebar on the recent restoration of this guitar. This was a very exciting article to write, and it has been a great pleasure speaking with James not only about the old days but also what he's been doing recently musically.

AND, On 1/23/09, James will be doing an autograph signing at "On The Corner Music" in Campbell, CA to coincide with the magazine.

exciting stuff!!!!

Welcome!

Dammit, I used to live in Campbell.. Talk about poor timing..LOL

"also what he's been doing recently musically."

James, the coroprate honcho, has been doing musical stuff, recently??? If so, I'd love to hear it!

Cheers,

Richard

Signings?! Why must I live on this island!

congrats on the article.

i have to say though - and this isn't in regards to yourself, just a personal opinion - no one could even pay me to want to go meet james williamson even if he was two houses down from me.

great news, love to be there for a autograph and to meet him, but thats a good, like 3000miles or something, not even sure haha

can someone post the article?

thanks for the info dereksee

also

Quote :

no one could even pay me to want to go meet james williamson even if he was two houses down from me.

wow, what!! you kidding? the man who made that music, lived with those guys, a f**k'n stooge!! and you wouldnt go see him if he lived that close! lol

why?

i will always see the stooges as iggy/asheton bros./alexander. i can see how watt is the honorary member.

i see the raw power album as pretty much a ... iggy/williamson collaboration w/ the asheton bros. as hired guns in a last minute desperate plea. bowie's decision for "iggy & the stooges" didn't really make it any better either. i can honestly see why ron was pissed all this time about it, and i'm sorry, but i'm in his corner.

I am with Shakes on this one. Raw power is a far worse album than the first two. Kill city is better

James is an incredibly nice guy. Can't see why anyone would slag Raw Power. Even if its not one's cup of tea, its still an incredibly influential album. As for it not being a Stooges album, c'mon. Scott's Detroit swing drumming is one of the defining features of the Stooges sound.

dereksee wrote:

James is an incredibly nice guy. Can't see why anyone would slag Raw Power. Even if its not one's cup of tea, its still an incredibly influential album. As for it not being a Stooges album, c'mon. Scott's Detroit swing drumming is one of the defining features of the Stooges sound.

completely agree with ya hej and welcome!

i'm sure he's very nice. there have been many people i have met that other people feel weren't so nice. i just don't really care to meet him.

personally, i cant believe that, raw powers an amzing album, and every bit as 'stooge' sounding as the first two, not the styles but ''that stooge sound'' sure the first two albums sound nothin alike, but anyway, i dunno how ppl can and do just shut out raw power its an aamzing album, to each his own i guess but i think the exclusivist thing, and the whole choosing sides is weird, and cuts ppl out from appreciating stooges 71 onwards, whch is a shame, cause they created some brilliant stuff

That choosing sides as Homesick says is weird indeed.
common.. the Stooges are together again!!! so all the reason to take the past for what it was.
And appreciate nowadays everyone who helped to make that total special Stooges sound in it's variety.

what i meant by being in ron's corner is that he has a desired right to be pissed off at the situations involved with raw power. that's all. it isn't like i'm saying ron should go beat up james or something. hahaha.

I've heard people say the Stones stopped being the Stones when Brian Jones left. I've heard people say that the Mick Taylor version was the best version...

I am all up for debates, but maybe we should move that to another thread and leave this thread to talkin' bout the article and James's latest activities?

Agreed. If anyone would like to hear the story about how the article came to be I am glad to share.

mg196 wrote:

I am all up for debates, but maybe we should move that to another thread and leave this thread to talkin' bout the article and James's latest activities?

if i was a mod or something i would move all the debate out, asap (not a dig to you hl...)

yeah, fuck me..right? sorry dereksee..back to your article. sorry man.

same, here, settled, doesnt matter

but of course dereksee tell us more, how is he nowadays?

I preffer the first two Stooges albums to "Raw Power" by far BUT saying that the unreleased material ranks beside the first two albums in my opinion. "I Got A Right", "I'm Sick Of You" etc. Not to forget that Williamson penned "Search And Destroy" one of the greatest "FUCK YOU!" songs of all time.

Ron will always be my favourite of the two but that only makes Williamson the second greatest guitarist of all time in my opinion. Sure he didn't write "I Wanna Be Your Dog" but if it wasn't for Williamson can you imagine what "Raw Power" would have sounded like? Imagine the god awful session guitarists Iggy could have hired.

Ron = God
James = Mad prophet

I've always been under the impression James wanted nothing to do with music anymore. Any talk about what will happen if "The Stooges" get a nod for the R&R HOF...any thoughts on whether he'll be invited or not?

How did you manage to get an interview?!

Curious!

im sure he'd at least show up to RNR HOF, but i dont think he'd play with them, ron's the star again now, and he's obviously, i hope, put it behind him, the raw power days and the 'usurpation' for want of a better word, but i think williamson playing with them again might take the spotlight off him, and its cool, for raw power fans, that he's playin songs from that time, but yeh,i think williamson will probly show up, but hopefuly not play

I guess this means James is now at peace with himself over his musical past. If I was within a few hundred miles I'd pop on down for sure. There's no way I'm taking sides, Ron and James have equal rights as Stooges in my eyes.

For R&RHOF I would love to see Ron and James on guitars doing "I Got A Right" 1971 style.

So this is how it came to be...At the music store I work at, one day last spring I was helping a gentleman out with Martin guitars and we instantly had a nice rapport. He was asking excellent questions, valued my input and was just a really great customer to deal with. We didn't have the particular model he wanted in stock, and I offered to call or email him when the model came in within a few days. He said "sure, my name is James Williamson, my number is...' My jaw dropped as I knew he lived in the bay area but had no idea THIS would ever happen. I said "whoa, wait a second. The James Williamson who cranked a Les paul in the early 70's"???" He chuckled and said "yes, you're TOO YOUNG to know who I am". I quickly shot back that there are people far younger than me who know and love his music (I'm in my 30's). We ended up talking quite a bit and throughout our conversations he told me that he was just getting the bug to play back after many years of NOT playing at all, and told me about his current interests.

I checked with Fretboard Journal to run the story idea by them, and the publishers gave me the green light. I asked James, and he was happy to give the interview and I made sure to not only cover current events but studied all of the past interviews with him and got a few stories that haven't been unearthed before.

During the time I was working on the article, our shop also did a restoration of sorts on his Les Paul guitar, and we took many photos and wrote a sidebar article about the guitar and its restoration process.

Unfortunately, the story already went to press when James told me about something that recently happened. He was on vacation in hawaii, and was visiting a local music store. Two kids were (probably influenced by its' appearance in "Guitar hero" trying to work out "Search And Destroy". They were having a hrad time, and he walked up to them and said "hi, I actually wrote that song and I can help you guys out if you like" at which points THEIR jaws hit the floor.

As a side note, a few months ago James and his son came to see my band. It was one of the most exciting and surreal moments of my life to have one of my guitar hero's watch ME playing guitar!

So there you go. The issue should be on the news stands within days. fretboard Journal is a quarterly publication so it will be available for 4 months.

WOW SWEET !

You should put a tab for the exact way james plays search and destroy !

I'll be buying this !