The Most Overrated & Underrated Stooges Songs

MAGNET magazine picks the most overrated and underrated Stooges songs:

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2010/03/30/the-overunder-the-stooges/

funny!
hey, but my favourite stooges' song is I wanna be your dog...uhm..

NO WAY! Dog is one of the top 3 Stooges tracks and therefore one of the best songs of all time.

It really is. As "cliche" as it might be, Dog is probably the most definitive Ron Asheton song. My fav. rock song of all time, period.

What an odd article. Over-rated and under-rated by whom?
The way I see it is that virtually all Stooges songs are loved by the devoted few and pretty much unknown amongst the general public so they never get the chance to be under or over-rated...
Still it stirs up more publicity and debate - so that can't be bad!
Cheers,
R

i wanna be your dog is THE stooges song... it's not overrated! it's totally underrated!!! everybody should know this song as everybody knows blitzrieg bop or anarchy in the UK. it's the definitive stooges' song... more than tv eye, more than search and destroy...


and it's ron's best solo too (this is just my opinion, of course)

What a horse shit article. "Overrated" or "underrated" is in the eyes of the listener. Or the ears, actually. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Loose1969 wrote:

What a horse shit article.

+1

Actually, what makes it horse shit is that his whole premise that these songs ARE over- or under-rated is pretty flimsy (when was the last time you heard anyone argue that "Not Right" or "Little Doll" are in the top 5?), so turning around and saying they're not that good/that bad is a pretty empty excercise.

File under: waste of 5 minutes of my life

Loose1969 wrote:

What a horse shit article. "Overrated" or "underrated" is in the eyes of the listener. Or the ears, actually. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

YES!

Loose1969 wrote:

What a horse shit article. "Overrated" or "underrated" is in the eyes of the listener. Or the ears, actually. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Well said as usual Steve.

Well, I can relate to the opinion that dog is overrated. Not that it is not a great song, but sometimes you get the impression that most people think it is by far their best song. I don't agree with that. From the 2 official studioalbums I would say that 1970 is the best.

The criteria for that article seem to be random...maybe something for a personal blog. So that's what Magnet is like....

But, one underrated--or just toatlly neglected song comes to mind: Lucky Monkeys,from I'm Sick of you.

Lucas wrote:

Well, I can relate to the opinion that dog is overrated. Not that it is not a great song, but sometimes you get the impression that most people think it is by far their best song. I don't agree with that. From the 2 official studioalbums I would say that 1970 is the best.

totally agree... 1970 is great, i fuckin love that song!!!!

Mission of Burma do a kick-ass verssion of that song on their live album...

jonachan wrote:

But, one underrated--or just toatlly neglected song comes to mind: Lucky Monkeys,from I'm Sick of you.

Thats not a Stooges song though.

Yeah, only Iggy and williamson. I guess it would be an underrated Iggy song then.

And it's from Kill City, so I'm doubly wrong. Still, I really like that song-- Williamson's Stonesy playing and the chorus at the end has one of my favorites lines ever:"BORN DEAD CRAZY BORN CRAZY BORN DEAD....... "

how is TV Eye underrated? this list is so wrong...

Some underrated songs in my opinion:

-Pinpoint Eyes
-Pumpin for Jill
-Rock Action
-Rock and Roll Party
-I need more
-Johanna
-Street Crazies
-Life of Work
-Lust for Life (just kidding)

adams66 wrote:

The way I see it is that virtually all Stooges songs are loved by the devoted few and pretty much unknown amongst the general public so they never get the chance to be under or over-rated...

I'll answer that with my experience. Take young french people, 20 to 35 now, that's the type of people I know. Students, intellectuals, this kind of crowd. They ALL know Dog and No Fun. That all know Iggy Pop. Since the Stooges toured pretty often in France, they now also know he's part of the band, even if they have absolutly no interest in rock music. But my point is that these two songs are definitive pop culture references. Even Search & Destroy isn't that well known. So in the light of this constatation, and even if I don't agree with the guy, I can see why he would find I Wanna Be Your Dog as an overrated song. Why would it be the definitive Stooges song, in the place of, let's say TV Eye or Search ?

And even if the exercice is pointless, just for kicks, my top 3 Over/Under would be :

Over-rated :
We Will Fall : Never understood it. Really, guys, had to come up with ten more minutes for the album ?
No Fun : Don't tell it to my friends. I'll allways take the song's side against anybody of talk dirt about it. That's kind of an historical song, for it's simplicity and sheer violence. But I'm kinda bored of the riff.
L.A. Blues : C'mon, had to come up with five more minutes for the album ? Again ?

Under-rated :
Open Up & Bleed : I will just pick one of the "lost" songs, but it's not the only one I love. For me, any rock fan should know these stonish rocks. The possible fourth studio album is one of the few mythical lost opportunities of pop music history, like the Beach Boys's Smile. I really hope they will reccord some of these things for a new album (kinda like Brian Wilson did with Smile in 2004).
My Idea of Fun : What can I say, I'm behind the dude on this one. I remember hearing it first on the Telluric Chaos live album, and I was amazed. Best Iggy Pop pure rock and roll song in decades.
L.A. Blues : Yep, twice. That's boring, BUT pretty exciting to listen to. In fact, all the work of the bass and tenor sax on Fun House is under rated, we tend to forget that it's a great black music album. They bring in James Brown's funk and Coltrane's late free jazz. Like Kick Out the Jams. The original 15 minutes jam on the Fun House Sessions is incredible.

I think that "we will fall" is excellent... i find it relaxing, sexy and dark... darker than any other stooges song. almost everybody don't get the song and hate it, but for me is brilliant and one of ron asheton's best guitar work...

Couldn't Dirt or Death Trip be considered as mainly dark songs ?
Even Penetration fits your description, it has a sexy tone and a pretty dark vibe.

Concerning We Will Fall, my dislike could essentialy be explained by it's conformity to the rock music of the era, and it's "non Stooges feeling". I can enjoy dark moody pieces, but I certainly wouldn't think of it as the Stooges' strong suit. Always thought of it more as a Velvet/John Cale, or even Doors, influence.

rabid_fish wrote:

I think that "we will fall" is excellent... i find it relaxing, sexy and dark... darker than any other stooges song. almost everybody don't get the song and hate it, but for me is brilliant and one of ron asheton's best guitar work...

i'm with you on this one rabid_fish
Ron's guitar is very eerie on this track. Superb (as always). I really like that dark rumbling bass too.

ziggy wrote:

Couldn't Dirt or Death Trip be considered as mainly dark songs ?
Even Penetration fits your description, it has a sexy tone and a pretty dark vibe.

Concerning We Will Fall, my dislike could essentialy be explained by it's conformity to the rock music of the era, and it's "non Stooges feeling". I can enjoy dark moody pieces, but I certainly wouldn't think of it as the Stooges' strong suit. Always thought of it more as a Velvet/John Cale, or even Doors, influence.

of course, it's the less "stoogesque" (don't know how to say it ) song... but, hey, i think that every musician should try something different that what they usually do every once in a while... the stooges did and it sounds great!