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The Stooges – Fun House
Down On The Street
Loose
T.V. Eye
Dirt
1970
Fun House
L.A. Blues
A half-century on and we’re nonetheless driving the ripples of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House. It’s a lovely factor, a seven-track examine within the feral and unhinged.
Essentially, however for its rock-friendly parts (guitar, bass, drums, vocals, angle), it’s a file that’s bought much more in widespread with the free interpretations of up to date jazz than with the uniform strictures of the punk scene that it apparently sired.
Against the brute minimalism of the rock-solid but instinctively fluid Stooges, Iggy Pop’s voice extemporises, blurts, explores and punctuates like Miles’s trumpet in full-on gonzo shaman mode, sounding like a savage messiah left for useless in a dumpster on droning psyche-punk classics like Down On The Street, TV Eye and 1970.
Scott Asheton’s drums are a stoned, tribal thump that appears decided to boost the useless or soak the bottom with Devil’s rain, whereas Ron Asheton’s guitar is a looping, feral acid journey that throbs like a warfare wound.
Marred by the meandering, self-consciously Doors-y title track and the jazz-skronk splatfest LA Blues, as an album Fun House doesn’t quite have the bite of its predecessor, but it’s still a wild ride.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums launched in July 1970
- Cactus – Cactus
- Osmium – Parliament
- Cosmo’s Factory – Creedence Clearwater Revival-
- Time And A Word – Yes
- John Barleycorn Must Die – Traffic
- Number 5 – Steve Miller Band
- Devotion – John McLaughlin
- Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow – Funkadelic
- Full House – Fairport Convention
- Humble Pie – Humble Pie
- James Gang Rides Again – James Gang
- The Last Puff – Spooky Tooth
- On The Waters – Bread
What they mentioned…
“Fun House is where Iggy Pop’s mad genius first reached its full flower; what was a sneer on the band’s debut had grown into the roar of a caged animal desperate for release, and his rants were far more passionate and compelling than what he had served up before. The Stooges may have had more “hits,” but Fun House has stronger songs.” (AllMusic)
“The Stooges appeal to me intellectually – their monotonousness obviously transcends competence and the introduction of a saxophone on this record represents a nice synthesis with new thing jazz – but I have to be in a certain mood of desperate abandon before I can get on with them musically. Can that be good?” (Robert Christgau)
“Unhinged is too weak a word for the wildest moments of Fun House, especially closer L.A. Blues, a fiery freakout that’s more heroin than LSD and makes no pretence of song structure. Saxophonist Steven Mackay adds a nasty edge to the album’s second side, blazing right along with the rest of the band to create a texture that sounds exactly like the album cover – Iggy tossed in a flaming sea, possibly hell. (Pitchfork)
What you said…
Zak Browne: I have to go 9.5. It’s not perfect, but it’s really close.
Chris Elliott: I kind of appreciate this record. It’s a bit like art that’s interesting/challenging, but you wouldn’t want it in your living room. I love the albums that followed (once Bowie made them play songs). This is raw garage, and its energy is undeniable. There are a couple of great tracks, but it’s a jam band being self-indulgent (albeit at speed) for great chunks.
Nigel Mawdsley: I’ve not listened to Fun House for over 40 years, since a friend lent me his vinyl copy. I’d forgotten how good this album was.
This album must have influenced so many music genres: punk, glam, new wave, to name but a few, and hundreds, if not thousands of bands, from Motorhead to The Boomtown Rats; from New York Dolls to The Sex Pistols (that’s only 4) must have fed off the raw power (see what I did there) of this album. Great!
Andrew Cumming: Fabulous album. Still sounds great today. I guess the fact that it was so raw and unpolished at the time has given it a kind of timeless quality. The songs on side one are punchy and intense, TV Eye probably the best known, but Loose is just as good. After side two kicks off with 1970, the whole thing spirals into oddness with Fun House and LA Blues. Heaven only knows what they were thinking as they wrote and recorded the songs, but it worked then, and it still works now.
Mark Herrington: I remember first seeing one of Henry Moore’s sculptures in Kew Gardens. I could clearly see it was well executed, but it literally did nothing for me.
I feel the same way about this week’s album.
It sounds ahead of its time, full of energy and steering clear of the crowd, but I find little here that actually moves me. It is obviously influential and one of the early trailblazers.
However, when I put Sabbath’s debut on from the same year, 1970, and it still reaches down deep and resonates across my musical core, I know where my heart lies.
Evan Sanders: I really like this pick, especially with it coming not too many weeks after what many considered the first-ever punk album, Never Mind The Bollocks. If that is true, then Iggy Pop and The Stooges were proto-punk multiple years before Johnny Rotten was finding ways to insult the Queen.
From the opener of Down On The Street, straight through to the title song, then L.A. Blues, I find the songs to be an assault of unpolished guitars and vocals, in a good way. At a time when rock was fracturing after the Beatles’ break-up, albeit with strong rockers such as Paranoid, Layla, and Live at Leeds, we see that the Stooges kept to an even more raw sound. A worthy one for the playlists. 7 or 8 out of 10.
Gary Claydon: Released amid the post-Altamont death throes of the hippy zeitgeist, and this sure ain’t no summer of love, baby. Raw, chaotic and looser than a lactose-intolerant person at a cheese tasting, a vibe reinforced by Gallucci’s ‘live’ production. Iggy bestrides Fun House like the colossus he is, but the Ashetons and Dave Alexander rarely receive the credit they deserve for providing the unrelenting sonic superstructure that the frontman climbs all over.
Largely ignored at the time, over the years, Fun House has, rightly, come to be regarded as seminal proto-punk/alt. rock.
Ben Smith: Can we just skip to the ratings already? It’s a 10
Greg Schwepe: Every music scene appears to have its epicentre; Birmingham, New York, Seattle, and London, to call a number of. And the epicentre and fertile floor for Midwest storage rock is Detroit. And whereas The Stooges technically hail from close by Ann Arbor, it’s shut sufficient to have that Motor City vibe.
Fun House and its sound suits the gritty, hardworking ethic of the blue-collar Motor City area: Don’t fuck round, simply hit me with energy chords and a 4/4 beat, get to the purpose, after which we’ll knock down a number of Stroh’s Beers after we’re performed. Led by the shirtless, sinewy, gyrating vocalist Iggy Pop, his antics hold your consideration, even within the studio.
The first three tracks, Down On The Street, and T.V. Eye actually kick out the jams, to borrow a line from one other well-known band from that space. This a part of the album has extra of a proto-punk vibe, such as you’re getting smacked with a two-by-four. Short and candy, nothing additional.
Then we begin to get a bit of drawn out. Dirt is possibly the one track the place the beats per minute are lower than 200. Maybe extra of a barely psychedelic take right here. The band provides us all an opportunity to catch our breath right here, as a result of the final three tracks will check your mettle.
Here’s the place it’s not three minutes and outta right here. 1970, Fun House and L.A. Blues are the place issues get a bit of extra strung out. 1970 is a rave-up with numerous wah-wah guitar and lots of sax. Fun House brings extra sax, pressing drums and clocks in at eight minutes. The closing monitor L.A. Blues jogs my memory of nothing to do with L.A. or the blues… so possibly that’s the purpose right here. Somewhat irony within the title. A whole lot of random grooves with Iggy working laborious to shred his vocal cords. Who is aware of, this might have been the producer going, “Hmmm… we got enough space left for one more track, whatcha got? Anything? Go!” as he hits the file button. Five minutes of frenetic sounds to complete out the album.
7 out of 10 on this one for me. I get what The Stooges are doing right here; some received’t! The first third of the album is of extra curiosity to me, however it all works.
One barely humorous sidebar to finish this. I noticed Iggy Pop open for The Pretenders within the late 80’s. The spouse of the couple that went with us mentioned, “This will be fun. The last concert I saw was James Taylor back in college.” “Oh, she will be in for a real treat when she sees Iggy!” I assumed to myself. I look over midway by means of his set as the standard shirtless Iggy is writhing and gyrating throughout the stage; my buddy’s spouse’s eyes have bugged out to the scale of grapefruits, and her jaw is firmly sitting on the ground. A glance of shock on her face! And that, my buddies, is rock and roll.
Iain Macaulay: It’s uncooked, it’s messy, it’s unfastened, and with seven songs at 36 minutes lengthy, it’s over earlier than you realise. Yes, there are a few lengthy songs, however for essentially the most half, every monitor is its personal entity, with its personal model and flavour. And, you can say every monitor was the bottom zero for a number of totally different music genres that have been nonetheless manner off within the distance.
This is the sound of 4 guys realising they made it previous the primary album and located themselves nonetheless alive, in order that they revelled within the glory of doing what they wished with out worrying about any kickback, as a result of they knew it wasn’t going to final for much longer, and it didn’t, for that incarnation of the band.
The album was recorded stay to get the aggressive sound that bought them seen, and you may’t deny that it labored, warts and all. There are many higher stay recordings of those songs all through Iggy’s solo profession with totally different lineups of musicians, however every lineup reveals how nicely these stripped-back songs have been written within the first place, as a result of they nonetheless get up.
John Davidson: Fun House begins out sharply with a punchy groove and a few aggressive guitars on Down On The Street. Loose continues the groove and by chance invents each indie and stoner rock alongside the best way. TV Eye continues in an analogous vein however is much less nicely executed Dirt finishes off facet one and feels like The Doors greater than the rest. Side two is much less profitable, devolving into noise by the top of LA Blues.
I am unable to consider every other bands from 1970 that may have seemed like this. Most of the British heavy rockers have been classically educated or steeped within the blues, or in Hawkwind’s case, stoned out of their minds.
Side one is fairly intense and units up the template for lots of music that got here after it – mixing uncooked vocals, heavy guitars, distinguished bass and a gradual groove – whereas facet two devolves into pure aggression.
Interesting to assume this was made in 1970, and whereas I doubt I’ll add it to my common listening, it truly is a standout album.
Philip Qvist: You get albums that take months to file, with each word polished and re-recorded till you get that excellent sound, and then you definitely get albums that take mere days to file and produce, leaving you with a uncooked sound, full with a take-it-or-leave-it angle. I’m unsure which method is the higher choice (I’m extra the center floor sort of individual in the case of music), however there isn’t any doubting below which circumstances Fun House was recorded.
It is unfastened, uncooked and spontaneous, which is each its power and weak spot. Side one advantages from that minimal method, with the likes of Down On The Street and TV Eye, however it then begins to get irritating when the saxophone makes an look on facet two. I assume Iggy Pop and co have been having enjoyable on the time and doubtless enjoying by ear, however the closing monitor LA Blues, was only a mess, though the seven-minute title monitor was okay sufficient for me.
I’ve by no means been an enormous fan of The Stooges, however not less than I’ve now listened to one in every of their albums. Although it’s one file that I’ll most likely by no means take heed to once more, I’ll nonetheless give Fun House an honest sufficient rating, as a result of it was enjoyable sufficient to take heed to.
Mike Canoe: A buddy as soon as described the Stooges’ Fun House as “stumbling into a tent revival sermon to find a preacher hollering about sex and drugs instead of Jesus.”
Inherent crassness of that assertion apart, it is an ideal description. Fun House is transcendent, ecstatic, highly effective, cathartic, an awesome sense of being enveloped by the next energy you possibly can’t absolutely perceive, however you place your religion in it as a result of it makes you imagine. And who higher to guide this worship than the unique manic road preacher, Iggy Pop?
Even with none visuals, Iggy Pop is completely charming and transfixing. I’ll argue right here and within the hereafter that Iggy is just not solely one in every of rock’s best frontmen however one in every of its best singers. His voice can do all of the issues: whoop with pleasure, howl and growl with lust, wail with ecstasy, and even croon with real emotion and feeling.
Like any band with a magnetic and charismatic frontman, it is simple to overlook the Stooges have been a band. Iggy would not have sounded practically pretty much as good with out the sonic tidal wave that the Stooges allowed him to surf on prime of. Ron Asheton’s guitar sound is really revelatory, brute power repetition that instantly careens wildly like an Oldsmobile on an icy Detroit street with out ever truly crashing. Brother Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander lay down a groove as deep because the Mariana Trench and hold the proverbial wheels from falling off.
It appears limiting to consult with the tracks on Fun House as mere “songs.” They have extra in widespread with the best way jazz classes have been recorded on the time. TV Eye, apparent traditional, however so are Down On the Street and Loose, with Dirt destroying energy ballads earlier than they ever even existed. Side two is when the freak out actually begins with the pummeling 1970 and the orgiastic title monitor bringing in Steve Mackay to contribute some wailing, by no means flailing saxophone.
Closer L.A. Blues is the toughest one to digest, however I hear it as the ultimate exhilarating climax of a rock live performance the place all people is simply bashing the crap out of the whole lot, solely stretched out to track size. It’s not a lot by itself, however it’s a becoming chaotic nearer to the album.
This is the one that really had all of the uncooked energy, however the title Fun House suits it so a lot better. Ten out of ten, solely as a result of I am unable to give it infinity.
Final rating: 7.94 (53 votes forged, complete rating 421)
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This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you possibly can go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.loudersound.com/music/albums/the-stooges-fun-house
and if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us
