TOTAL CHAOS: The Story of The Stooges / As Told By Iggy Pop

Very exciting news: http://thirdmanbooks.com/book/total-chaos-the-story-of-the-stooges-as-told-by-iggy-pop

http://pitchfork.com/news/65052-iggy-pop-chronicles-the-stooges-history-in-new-book-total-chaos/

midnight frank wrote:

Very exciting news: http://thirdmanbooks.com/book/total-chaos-the-story-of-the-stooges-as-told-by-iggy-pop

http://pitchfork.com/news/65052-iggy-pop-chronicles-the-stooges-history-in-new-book-total-chaos/

Simply awesome. I remember reading somewhere where Bowie once told Iggy, around the time that Iggy was writing his autobiography, that you only get to write your memoirs once, so get it right the first time. I guess that isn't really true, at least in regards to a partial bio. I was disappointed in Brett Callwoods' Stooges bio called Head On. Though he was given access to all of the band members, even Scotty, it offered little insight or information on the band that wasn't already known. The subsequent chapters of the book on New Order and Destroy All Monsters offered a lot more illumination on those bands than was offered on the Stooges overall. His book on the MC5 was a whole lot better though.

Iggy recently described his memory as a "sieve" but I've always been impressed by his uncannily sharp recollections of the old days. This book should be good.

Great! I'm always up for unseen Stooges photos! I doubt there will be that much new info in it though.

I'll buy it but if the author really turned 2 chats with Iggy into one book , it sounds a bit thin to me...

I'm in, just for the pics.
In an old Mojo (?) interview of Iggy by Jack White, White mentions seeing several photos of Zeke Zettner. Here's hoping those are in there.

A few years back Ig referred to his London/Raw Power recollections as "random scenes from a lost movie" (paraphrasing) - i.e. he's forgotten a lot.

But listening to some recent interviews - such as Jonesy's Jukebox - there's a lot of stuff Iggy remembers quite clearly, but has never mentioned before. Gimmie trivia!

Jeff Gold is a smart guy, and he's not a super Iggy-fan, which is kind of a good thing. He won't be as invested in all of the old stories and the old relationships and can get a clean take. I have high hopes that this will be a definitive scrubbing of Iggy's memory banks. This will be the first time he's gone in-depth since the Ashetons passed away, and I wonder if his stories will be any different now that he does not need to be concerned about upsetting them (or contradicting them).

Some pages were posted on the book's website: http://totalchaosbook.com/sample-pages/







Looks so good! Great year for the Stooges this one...

a few new bits, and a Q&A with the co-author:

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/total_chaos_an_exclusive_look_at_must_have_iggy_pop_book_that_goes_way_in_d

I'll buy the book without hesitation but feel uneasy with Ig's claim that he wrote some or most of the music on Funhouse and then had Ron playing what he'd composed. He made a similar claim many years ago when Ron was alive (long before the reunion) and Ron said then that there was no truth in it. Furthermore, the riffs on Funhouse are great but it's really Ron's guitar tone and soloing that elevate the album to greatness and that's undoubtedly Ron's work.

Whilst I appreciate that this is Ig's book 'in his own words' and all that but, as pointed out by the man himself on the Dangerous Minds post, some Danny Fields input would maybe have made for a more accurate telling of the story.

Iggy Pop is a genius but when it came to Funhouse he had an even bigger genius behind him playing guitar.

Good post Rigsby. I agree.

Wish Ron had written an autobiography!

Yep, Iggy has no one from the original Stooges to dispute him at this point (they are all dead).

He's been talking shit about the Ashetons for years, and of course he did kick Dave out of the band, I wouldn't be surprised if he was just lying to make his own role seem more important

Iggy can be his own worst enemy. Regardless of the absolute truth of the authorship of the Funhouse album Iggy should have the smarts by now to know that any claims he makes which are seen to diminish the role of Ron Asheton (and the rest of the band) are only going to make him look egotistical and dishonourable.

I guess these disputes over who did what back then are typical in bands made of super heavy egos.
apart from the obvious that nobody will challenge ( TV Eye = Ron ) , let's keep in mind that reality is usually more subtle than " singer = lyrics " and " music = guitar player " which is what the general public thinks...
some songs in FHouse are based on very simple chord changes ( 1970 ) and somehow anybody could have come up with that one , what makes it so special is Ron's touch and sound , which makes FHouse particularly heavy and flamboyant !
just my thoughts....

Trouble is there's no dispute possible if there's just one surviving band member who can make all kinds of new claims of authorship without any risk of contradiction from the other 'super heavy egos' (?!) because they're all dead. That's what is unseemly.

Funnily enough, I watched the first episode of Vinyl today (the Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger HBO drama loosely based on the New York music scene of the early 70s). Anyway, the episode featured a band called Nasty Bits (who seemed to be very loosely based on the excellent Jack Ruby) and the singer of this mostly fictitious band said something along the lines of 'Iggy Pop is a prancing idiot, it's the Asheton brothers who provide the real fire and danger' (I'm paraphrasing slightly). Sounds like this chap probably agrees with us when it comes to who did what on Funhouse. 'Prancing idiot' is a bit strong though.

A few page shots from the book:
http://icky-pop.tumblr.com/post/152876924062/so-i-was-lucky-enough-on-friday-to-pick-up-an

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The book is a beautiful production. However, Iggy's monologue really leaves me breathless. If one thinks he has talked crap about the Ashetons for years, wait until you see how hard he is on James here. He's very interested in explaining how he was the main creative force behind all the songwriting, which is hard to take when his songwriting over the years without a strong creative partner (I.e. Ron, James or Bowie) has been erratic at best. In the documentary, Jarmusch did Iggy a favor in his editing. Here, Iggy shows his ego and need to be flattered as intelligent and talented to be pretty raging. I have no axe to grind. I'm a fan of Iggy's work with all three of his strong creative partners, and of Iggy too. But the book is more often annoying as opposed to illuminating. Curious to see what Natalie thinks.

Well, Iggy's best sole record (new values) is written without partner

Lucas wrote:

Well, Iggy's best sole record (new values) is written without partner

Produced by James. But you knew that.

Yes, I know. But a producer is completely different from co-writer

Anyone seen this for sale in the UK yet? I was waiting for Amazon UK to get it but they don't have it yet.

Same here, mc. I'm also waiting for my UK Amazon order. Maybe Amazon were optimistic by quoting a release date of 17 November.

Byron Coley and Chris Stigliano mentioned the book on their twitter and blog this week so it looks like US punters are only just getting their copies. Ours should be here in a week or so I reckon (even though Amazon haven't told us).