Review from 1969

I recently ran into this review of the Stooges from the Ann Arbor Argus. It ran in the April 14-25 issue in 1969.

Here it is

The Stooges at last report were off to New York recording with the help of John Cale of the Velvet Underground for Electra. I'm glad to hear that they are connected with the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed of the group says he likes rock ' cause it's loud and it's repetitive and it's loud and it's repetitive and it's loud...'

Well, that's the Stooges. Their songs are just two or three chords repeated over and over. And a solo means the guitarist jumps up and down on the wah-wah pedal. I can't really imagine them doing an album. But... in person it's something else. Because there's Iggy! And the music of the rest of the group sets him off perfectly. Iggy is presumably the singer, but mostly he makes faces, dances furiously, abuses his body, leaps on people in the audience, crawls up the mike stand, wriggles, wriggles and more.
He's the height of perversity: i.e., he's beautiful, he's unique. I really enjoy watching him cavort. The songs are great, about The Secret Storm, Asthma Attack, Piss in Your Face, Spiders, etc., although it's real hard to hear the words. Well, we'll get to hear them on the album when it comes out, but you get a feel for the lyrics when watching the band because of Iggy's interpretative dancing. They don't get to play too many clubs because of asinine things like obscenity laws, prurient interest, people who get grossed out and other such trash. I thought all those things died with Queen Victoria. And yet people are complaining about something as comparatively timely as Jim Morrison. Ah well, Iggy's time will come.

Funhousehideaway#2 wrote:

The songs are great, about The Secret Storm, Asthma Attack, Piss in Your Face, Spiders, etc.

Wow..another Holy Grails of the Stooges Thanks for the article!

Thnx for the great article funhouse!!!

ah...do i wish i was there...to see and HEAR these songs The Secret Storm, Asthma Attack, Piss in Your Face, Spiders performed!!!...unbearable

Fascinating stuff.
I wonder what happened to these songs, or if there are recordings anywhere...
I suppose that it's possible that these titles relate to songs we already know by another name. Just as "The Dance Of Romance" (performed extensively in early 1969) turned up on the debut album renamed as "Ann" it may be that these titles are early names for songs we know. But looking at the titles I really can't see how they'd fit with already known songs.
Cheers,
Richard

I've just added those to a track listing I did in a forum a while back. Could I'm Sick and Piss In Your Face be early versions of I Wanna Be Your Dog? Sick sexual stuff? The Secret Storm could be Ann as it changes from quiet to loud very fast. I have no idea about Spiders though. However I'm Sick and Asthma Attack could be the same if you look at it from a different angle.

My best guess is these songs are in line with a lot of the Stooges early work. Whether it's Asthma Attack or Dance of Romance the names didn't really matter too much. They were more conceptual pieces that went this way or that way. But Jimmy Silver did say that the band could do grand impressions of other Michigan bands at the time, whether it was the Amboy Dukes or the Up, etc.
Maybe this is where songs such as Piss in Your Face were meant to go, a sort of parody of other bands in the area. As for Spiders I know Ig used a line from one of the old Dracula movies in 1971 while performing in New York.
"Flies... big juicy flies and spiders."

Very interesting - never heard of these song titles before bar Asthma Attack. Anyone heard of these from another source?

Ron mentioned in some old interview that they rehearsed a 45 minute rock opera called the Razors Edge very early on but then dumped it.