The Stooges (1969)

The Stooges is the self-titled debut studio album by American rock band the Stooges, released on August 5, 1969, by Elektra Records. Considered a landmark proto-punk release, the album peaked at number 106 on the US Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The tracks "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "1969" were released as singles; "1969" was featured on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs" at number 35. In 2020, the album was ranked number 488 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background and recording

For their first album, the Stooges had intended to record seven songs: "I'm Sick", "Asthma Attack", "Dance Of The Romance" / "Goodbye Bozos", "No Fun", "I Wanna Be Your Dog", and "1969". "I'm Sick" was a bolero that Iggy Pop had written on a Wurlitzer electronic piano and when performed live he would flop around on the stage going, "I'm sick! I'm siiiick! I'm sick! Blah!". "Asthma Attack" was a completely different composition than the version of the song utilizing the same song title that appears on the album reissue. According to Iggy Pop, "['Asthma Attack'] was a structured piece of repetitive descending chording that sounded a lot like 'Interstellar Overdrive.'" He elaborates further, "And it was B, A, G, E. Like a Who thing – and then I would wheeze and say, 'asthma attack.'" "Dance of the Romance" / "Goodbye Bozos" was an early version of what became known as "Little Doll" without the Ron Asheton guitar audio feedback cacophony known as "Goodbye Bozos" that originally ended the Psychedelic Stooges live performances of 1968.

"No Fun" took inspiration from the Johnny Cash country song "I Walk The Line" and the main guitar riff to "I Wanna Be Your Dog" took inspiration from the opening guitar riff to "Highway Chile" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Early versions of all seven songs were initially written from mid-late 1968 and early 1969. These seven songs were staples—and essentially the basis—of the Stooges' 1968 and early 1969 live set at the time. A typical Stooges song of the period would involve either two minutes of composed song followed by several minutes of improvisation or avant-garde, free-form workouts. However, having assumed that the seven songs as normally performed would cover requirements for the album, the Stooges were told by their record label Elektra that they needed more material. Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, is quoted having said to the band at The Hit Factory recording studio, "Are those three tracks ('1969', 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', 'No Fun') all you have? Do you guys have enough material? Do you have more songs?" Ron Asheton replied, "Yeah, we just showed you one part of the pie. We've got several more songs." Jac Holzman then reportedly said, "Good to hear. You fellas have 5 days." The band wrote three completely new compositions over the course of the five day recording sessions to complete the album. The songs were "We Will Fall" (based upon a musical chant by Dave Alexander), "Real Cool Time", and "Not Right".

Production

After producer John Cale informed the band that they needed "one more song to complete the album", Iggy revised and extended "Ann", which was the first song he wrote for the Stooges and had been initially discarded by the band in 1968. Iggy Pop's vocal fragments such as chants, howls, screams, and yelps were lifted from three of the four improvisational avant-garde instrumental jam session recordings, and edited into pre-existing original songs with only the recording "Goodbye Bozos" of the two part "Dance Of The Romance" / "Goodbye Bozos" being completely discarded. The recording "I'm Sick" was now subsumed into the composition "Ann" and tacked on as a musical coda after the main song piece. "Dance Of The Romance", based upon the Bo Diddley beat, with an additional chord sequence and structured lyric now became revised as "Little Doll".

An initial mix by John Cale was rejected by Elektra. The mix as heard on the final product was done by Iggy Pop and Elektra president Jac Holzman. Four of Cale's original mixes would later appear on the bonus disc of a 2005 reissued version, with pitch correction applied to them. Five years later, all eight Cale mixes were released unaltered on the first disc of a 2010 collector's edition release of the album.

Reception and legacy

According to music historian Denise Sullivan, The Stooges was "disavowed" by most critics; Sullivan nonetheless called it "a rock'n'roll classic". In a contemporary review, Edmund O. Ward of Rolling Stone called it "loud, boring, tasteless, unimaginative and childish", while conceding that he "kind of liked it". Robert Christgau gave it a backhanded compliment in his column for The Village Voice, deeming it "stupid-rock at its best", but did give it a "B+" grade overall.