I bought The Stooges second album "Funhouse" at a small, record store (and head shop) - called Metamorphosis in La Crosse, WI in September of 1970. I was flipping through all the bins with $6 in my pocket, determined to buy something. When I came across this record I'd never heard of it, I thought the band name was a bit lame, but I liked the cover art. After risking $5 of my hard earned lawn mowing money, I quickly rode home on my bike knowing the house was empty. After removing my Mom's Tony Bennet LP from our console stereo, I put on my new record and cranked up the volume. It was the loudest, rawest music I'd heard and really blew my 8th grade mind. I was really pumped up about it and shared it with many of my friends, but only a few, well maybe only one guy, actually liked it.Undeterred, a few weeks later I went back and special ordered The Stooges first record. A couple of years later Raw Power came out when I was in high school. They were now calling themselves Iggy and the Stooges and the album was produced by David Bowie. I was the only hardcore Stooges fan that I knew in high school, but when I went away to college I met quite a few others. I saw Ig
gy on tour in Madison, WI in 1977 at the Orpheum Theatre. It was great, but I would have loved to see him with the Stooges back in the day. I still crank up those first 3 records now and then.Iggy Pop later went solo and worked with Bowie on two albums in the late 70's - The Idiot and Lust for Life. The new sound on these albums was cool, but completely different than what Iggy put out with the Stooges. You hear Lust for Life on Carnival Cruise Line ads now. Iggy reunited with the Stooges and went back on tour in 2008 with a pretty decent new CD. Guitarist Ron Ashton died in January 2009.
Here is a great short documentary on The Stooges from YouTube.
