Record Collector Magazine review

The Stooges - You Don’t Know My Name

Simply the most important Stooges artefact since Metallic KO

“This set is for the hardcore fans only,” says Easy Action’s website, and only 1,000 of the faithful will be able to acquire what amounts to the most historically-significant and, frankly, mindblowing aural document of The Stooges since Metallic KO captured the band’s death throes in 1974.

Stooges lore has monolithic original guitarist Ron Asheton making way for search-and-destroy axe assassin James Williamson, the former later returning on bass for Raw Power. For a few months in 1971, however, both aimed their heatseeking guitars from the same stage, blasting twice the six-string firepower over drummer Scott Asheton, bassist Jimmy Recca and Iggy at his most crowd-baiting, stage-vomiting extreme. If that conjures thoughts of ultimate high-energy heaven, magnify it tenfold and send it to hell.

With the band’s approval, Easy Action has pulled off a major coup, acquiring former Stooges A&R man Danny Fields’ cassette recordings, capturing a previously-unheard transitional phase (complimented by the usual meticulous packaging, including previously-unseen photos). Four CDs present as many sets: their first show in Detroit in April 1971, two from New York’s Electric Circus in May and St Louis later that month, plus a July Michigan show where Iggy and James didn’t show and the remaining three were joined by local singer Steve Richards.

Apart from the stunning thermonuclear guitar avalanches, the sets are startling because, except for I Got A Right, they consist of songs not heard before or since these shows. These include Big Time Bum, You Don’t Want My Name, Dead Bodies, Fresh Rag and the gloriously psychotic Do You Want My Love, which builds to a cataclysmic freeform coda of terrifying proportions.

Some might quibble that this is a cassette recording, but that misses the point. The audience babble adds to the luridly-compelling atmosphere, while Iggy, at his most stoned unimmaculate, croons The Shadow Of Your Smile before announcing, “Our next selection is entitled New York Pussy Smells Like Dogshit.” These field recordings are so car crash vital and elementally-charged that audio-fidelity nit-picking becomes irrelevant, especially as this particular slab of history would never repeat itself. For more info, visit www.stooges1971.com and www.straightjameswilliamson.com.


Easy Action | EAR 023 (4-CD)

Reviewed by Kris Needs

cb
http://iggypop.org
http://straightjameswilliamson.com

good review, thanks for posting

just thinking about it, it probably is the most important document since metallic ko, well along with kill city or some others, but it is extremely important, and EA did pull it off well

Well said Record Collector, it was my favorite magazine in my teens. I fuckin' drooled over all those £1000 mythical LPs they used to go on about even though I had no idea of the music on them.

In some ways the internet has taken away the mystique of all that, 'cos you can find everything at the touch of a button.

I think Record Collector killed record collecting, it put a price on records taking away the chance of a bargain, ebay kinda restored a collectors market as there are still bargains to be had

GO KRIS, GO!!!!

Great review.

Saw Kris in the lobby at the Mott the Hoople reunion shows a couple weeks ago and was too shy to go tell him I enjoy his writing. Wish I'da read that review beforehand, I would stirred up the stones to do it.

I met Kris Needs at a New York Dolls show I did at the Forun in London. He was very pleasant and fun to talk to. He gets it.His book on the Dolls is very good.

nitebob