What if Williamson rejoined?

Shakes wrote:

peaches cover of search and destroy.

http://www.myspace.com/warchildheroes

it's different.

I like it actually. I can't stand bands that record covers that are played almost exactly the same way as the original it makes me think "What's the point?". Won't be swapping this over the original though , in my opinion its the best song on "Raw Power".

Does anyone else feel like me that even the live Stooges covers done by Iggy with various backing musicians over the years have been well below the standard of the real Stooges? They were OK to hear as a small part of live Iggy shows, but I can't say I ever play any that made it onto CD. (Sorry if this has been brought up before - I've got a lot of catching up to do on this site.)

I agree, the guitarists never play the riffs properly. They always like to make their own mark on them which ruins them.

i dunno i like a lot of their versions

theyre inferior, but how do you beat perfection?

but i always liked the version of 1969 on wild animal i think is, the wah thing t tha start is good, and the raw power stuff was tackled well, and kill city, esp by sonics rendezvous, but i dont think anyone can play the stuff off the first two albums except Ron

Rob Gallucci wrote:

Does anyone else feel like me that even the live Stooges covers done by Iggy with various backing musicians over the years have been well below the standard of the real Stooges? )

Never heard any, doesn't sound like I missed much.

Don't get me wrong Nadja, they were OK as part of an Iggy live set (I guess Iggy had an obligation to the fans in that respect,) but I never play any of them that got onto CD. They tended to be a bit too... MTV sounding, too "clean" (does that make any sense?!) As HomesickJW said above - you can't beat perfection.

Rob Gallucci wrote:

Does anyone else feel like me that even the live Stooges covers done by Iggy with various backing musicians over the years have been well below the standard of the real Stooges?

I completly agree. They were well bellow standard with the guitarist most often turning them into a generic heavy metal style. Like HJW said the Williamson stuff wasn't so bad possibly due to his more coventional (but still amazing) style. The Ron stuff was appalling though but I am biased.

Saying all that I'd be a bit disappointed if I'd seen Iggy live from 1977 to 2002 and he hadn't played any Stooges stuff. Still since he did several reunion tours with the Stooges there is no need to play the Stooges stuff as a solo artist again.

G, F#, E wrote:

["]They were well bellow standard with the guitarist most often turning them into a generic heavy metal style. .

'generic heavy metal style'...thank GOD I didn't hear them then

Agreed that none of Iggy's solo bands have been able to hold a candle to the originals when performing Stooges material. But the volume levels and crowd energy were usually so high that it did'nt matter. I thought the Andy McCoy band was awesome live ... until I heard the live album.

I've heard zillions of Stooges covers, but the only ones that were worthy IMO would be:

The Birthday Party - 'Loose'
Ronnie Urini and the Last Poets - 'I Need Somebody'
Exploding White Mice - 'Down on the Street'

trailerborn wrote:

I thought the Andy McCoy band was awesome live ... until I heard the live album.

Same here. Although McCoy's backing vocals on High On You always make me laugh.

If Williamson hooked up with Iggy onstage again it would rank up there with the second coming of Christ. Can you imagine them playing ALL the RP songs together again and the songs they collaborated on after that? James is certainly willing and able. The only obstacle is Iggy. Somebody in here posted an interview with Iggy where he said James is not a Stooge and that's that. I don't care, I'll never give up hope. Iggy always changes his mind. It'll happen some day I know it.

Or how about James in his new acoustic mode alone onstage with iggy ? Sort of an unplugged set.

I'd go to that popmansam. Or how 'bout if they got together in a studio and made NEW nasty lowdown songs like they never took a break? Just continued with more of the same where they left off. I'd curl up and die.

popmansam wrote:

Or how about James in his new acoustic mode alone onstage with iggy ? Sort of an unplugged set.

Yeah, new Iggy's and James' LP -> 'Killing Cities' -> done in a genre which is Hawaiian music mixed with jazz And unplugged sets will feature besides new stuff, Raw Power + Kill City era songs, transposed into that style

^ This made me laugh so hard. Thanks JW82.

Iggy wore a hula skirt and played ukulele in 1968. There's PICTURES. It could happen again! It certainly couldn't be any worse than The Weirdness.

Rode Hard wrote:

It could happen again! It certainly couldn't be any worse than The Weirdness.

Gotta disagree with you there. Especially if you hear the bonus tracks. For me "O Solo Mio" is one of the best things The Stooges ever recorded, Ron's last definitive statement.

O Solo Mio is a GREAT song > The best of the last statement.

Yeah, O Solo Mio is great. It should've been the opener on The Weirdness.

okay, I may be a girl and you guys are all going on about James Willamson and Ron Ashton and who is better but.....if I remember correctly Ron was asked or told to play bass instead of guitar. What was the reason for that? My theory is this....I have listened to Ron play lead guitar and he seems to play in a different key than the song is written in.
Do you think that might have been a factor in the reasoning behind the lineup switch? Am I off here? I liked them both! Any true stooges fan would see the brilliance in both their perfections and their beautiful brilliant mistakes. All of which made the whole of who they were as artists! I loved the out of key leads, I also loved Ron on bass and wouldn't have wished the recordings were different qualities or the lineups were all perfect and right for our logical thinking. If anything were different we all would miss the best part.............I got to hear Ron write cool bass lines, I got to hear brilliant leads played in the wrong key, I got to hear thin garage punk high end fuckin awesome Raw Power recording....and it changed my life! And I know it changed some of your lives forerver too. Kristi(Raw Flower)Conlan

Maybe playing devil's advocate here, but...

Re the *possibility* of James re-joining -


He - and The Stooges - are not getting any younger
It's a once - or at least second in a lifetime - opportunity
Ron got the satisfaction of playing in The Stooges to worldwide recognition and honour
He did play on Search and Destroy in the end, and at the time of being made bass player was happy to have a job and do it, even if he was disgruntled.
Ron long knew Iggy would do what he felt he needed to do to succeed : it's the way of the world. I don't like it but compromise makes things happen.
Re the reunion so far, given Iggy / they waited for the time to be right, and got it right, if James re-joined, similarly I feel all concerned would make sure they were damn good and worth it if they hit the stage.

kristiconlan wrote:

okay, I may be a girl

How does that change anything?!

kristiconlan wrote:

if I remember correctly Ron was asked or told to play bass instead of guitar. What was the reason for that?

Its basic Stooges knowlege...

In 1970 James joined the band, him and Ron both played guitar. In 1971 James and Iggy started writting songs together. Iggy took James with him to London to do something new, there were no plans for The Stooges. But no suitable musicians were found so Ron and Scott were brought over. However Ron was moved to bass and promised he would be allowed to play guitar again when a suitable bassist was found. He never was. This hurt Ron a lot as he'd been humiliated.

kristiconlan wrote:

My theory is this....I have listened to Ron play lead guitar and he seems to play in a different key than the song is written in.

How could Ron play the songs he wrote in a different key than they were supposed to be?

kristiconlan wrote:

Do you think that might have been a factor in the reasoning behind the lineup switch? Am I off here?

I think you are.

kristiconlan wrote:

I got to hear brilliant leads played in the wrong key,

Yeah I still don't get that.

Quote :

I got to hear thin garage punk high end fuckin awesome Raw Power recording....and it changed my life! And I know it changed some of your lives forerver too. Kristi(Raw Flower)Conlan

All The Stooges records changed lives. The debut got me into music and "Fun House" actually changed my life.

I agree with stranger 09

James does take sabbaticals from Sony...

cb
http://iggypop.org

Cryptic