The Stooges

Was going to give it a 3, but then a vision of Iggy Pop's shirtless body appeared to me in a dream, guiding my hand to the 4th star.

“The Stooges” by The Stooges (1969) Never heard this album, and I’m only slightly familiar with the later work of frontman Iggy Pop. Proto punk is anti-music. I get it. But after 50 years, this album is an archaeological artifact. Heroin always screws up the music. Always. “We Will Fall” should have ended with the sound of your dad pounding on the bathroom door, yelling. “Hey! How long you gonna be in there?” At some point, Iggy Pop must’ve said to himself, “Ya know, I bet I could make enough money to keep me stoned just by doing a bad imitation of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison.” And so he did. Southeast Michigan produced Motown, MC5, Grand Funk Railroad and Bob Seger. Could’ve skipped the Stooges. That’s all that comes to mind after listening to this mindless album. 1/5

If you want me to love your record: - Make it 35 minutes long - Have lots of fuzzed out guitar - Don’t be afraid to drone - Don’t be afraid to get weird - Play with a sense of urgency The Stooges debut LP checks all those boxes and then some.

Imagine hearing this in 69

Listening to this LP all I could imagine was a couple of Beetle fans having their minds exploded and corrupted after a friend slips them this album and gets them to drop the needle on it back in 1969. I mean the opening track ‘1969’ is enough to give listeners like myself goosebumps still today so I can only imagine what impact it had on the youth of yesteryear! Sparkly pop and cheerful melodies are suddenly overtaken in the charts by what I imagine parents would class as devil music with it’s fuzz & distorted driven guitar solos and primal sounds. To think only 9yrs before this album hit the only music you could buy at the local record store for a comparative rock fix would have been Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue. And Elvis Presley still had three singles in the top 30 of the same year. Sometime between then and 1969 Iggy and his band discovered a whah pedal and the joys of driving a vox or Marshall tube amp into heavenly distorted territory few had probably even heard before. What a time it must have been to be alive...but also young and totally naive to all the legendary music that was yet to be made in your era by the most famous performers in the whole of rock music history. But I digress...I also probably have all the exact timings in history incorrect but you get what i mean. Older vintage albums like this, I believe, need to be scored by the impact and what was fashionable in music in their time. If the music still manages to fill the gap between then and today in listenability and reverence then it should get many more bonus points. This overdriven soul dripping rock album covers it all...and I can imagine it still exciting a couple of keen young teenagers starting out on their musically life journey today. 5 Stars

This album spawned a million copycats. The lineage of influence you could draw from this record and the two that followed it is far and wide. This sounded like nothing else in 1969 and it still sounds incredible today. The fuzz guitar, Iggy yelping and screaming like a madman, a badass rhythm section. This is a classic. This isn’t even my favorite Stooges record either, or my second favorite. Favorite track: I Wanna Be Your Dog Least favorite track: psh there isn’t one

Definitely hear their influence on similar bands from the 2000s. Like The Strokes. I hate The Strokes. Do not like this.

I feel like I understand music history better from having listened to this. It feels like the bridge between psychedelic rock and punk.

Admittedly I went into this album knowing the name of the band (and that Iggy Pop was in it) but not recalling any of their songs or anything about them so it was mostly a "blind" listen. - Iggy Pop has a great voice on the record. Love the performance and production of it on this album and how it is allowed to shine. - Some of the tracks get pretty repetitive and not really in a good way. I'm a big fan of when rock bands use the 2nd or 3rd tracks of an album as an upbeat one (or at least something that keeps a listener engaged) and while I think it's fine to not follow that tenet, I was pretty dulled out by the third track on this album being a 10 minute repetitive / meditative drone piece. The violin on it is really incredible, but unfortunately it comes in at around 8 minutes and 45 seconds into the piece- too late in my opinion. I do think this track would have been great as the album finisher. - Production-wise, the hard panning (some voices were panned 100% left / 100% right instead of more common 33%, 66%, 75% etc) was a little grating for some tracks and unfortunately its pretty prevalent. I hate for this to take away points because this was a time period where it was being experimented with, and while the execution might not always be there on these early records, I do recognize that we wouldn't have things like panning technology today without the experimentation. - I do think its a great blend of punk and psychedelic rock which has to be two really difficult genres to smash together. I wish there were more songs that had both of those elements together in a more homogeneous way. While the album has plenty of both types of genres, I find it unfortunate that they are almost completely split up. "Here's a punky song." "Here's a psychedelic song.". I would have loved a "Here's a punky song with psychedelic vocals and guitars." or "Here's a psychedelic song with punk vocals."

I was extremely sober listening to this and I feel like I could have enjoyed it being extremely high. But as such, I didn't enjoy it.

This rules and it’s almost unbelievable how current it is

I was not expecting an album that is 34 minutes long to have a song that is 10 minutes long.

אלבום טוב אבל באמת שנשבר לי הזין מהז'אנר ומהמוזיקה הזאת

Today I learned that The Stooges debut album was produced by John Cale and man does that explain a lot. Iggy Pop and his band reached to all kinds of rock and roll influences, both contemporary and classic and imbued it all with a truly raw energy. The sound of the singles would later be called punk but we're not quite there yet. True to form, The Stooges produced only a few short tracks for their demo, insisting that they had more, and were given 5 days to record a whole album. With Cale's influence, tracks were torn apart and turned into long avant garde pieces to fit alongside the proto-punk tracks, sounding like a Velvet Underground for the non-art school kids. Pop would later revisit this kind of structure on his first solo albums, with help from Berlin-era David Bowie. This album helped pave the road for punk, with an extra lane open for the experimental post punk era that would come later. Anyone who likes punk and art rock will love this one. If not, steer clear. Recommended additional listening: the unused John Cale mixes on the bonus editions.

1,5; sounds like a group of children somehow getting the mic, repeating the same words over and over again and trying to sing over the same boring melody through the whole album wtf is this

It's crazy how simultaneously 60's and not 60's this album sounds.

Now I wanna be your dog!

This must be good because the parents of 1969 surely would have hated it. 4 stars or B-.

I wanted to hate it, but it really wasn't all that bad and was pretty experimental for the time. We Will Fall is certainly a failed attempt at something more profound, but still gotta give props. 3/5

Anyone for a poor Mick Jagger cover act with repetitive riffs and lyrics penned by a toddler?? No?....Me neither!!

If you can believe it, I've never heard this whole record before, just tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" on the radio. Most of this is fun loud garage/proto-punk stuff with great fuzzy guitar bits, which I love. I was mildly baffled at first by the 10-minute psychedelic track at the end of the first side that had with Iggy singing about his usual subject matter over sitar and Hindu chanting, but let's remember that this was recorded in 1969, not 1979. The second side is great - turn it up louder. Even louder. Thank you 1001 albums generator, it was lots of fun listening to this today. An excellent break from the standard Christmas Eve day playlist. 5/5

On Sonic Youth’s “Bad Moon Rising”, “I love her all the time” is preceded by a distorted cassette recording of “Not Right”, which even in that smashed, snipped form I recognised was heavy with doom, menace and poise, and was all I heard of this album for a little while (I started with “Funhouse” because Albini adored it). I’ll cop to reading the Wikipedia summaries and despite having loved this album for decades, I’d never realised how last-minute, riff-thrown-together it is, half-songs slammed into improv. Yet every track’s a banger apart from “We Will Fall”, which should be a bore but I never skip, perhaps for Cale’s viola, as likely for the palette cleanser. Minatory sex music, don’t dream of waking up being spooned by a Minotaur.

My favorite Stooges album. Perfect mix of melody, noise and sleaze. How many great (esp. debut) albums has John Cale produced over the years?! [EDIT - what a week! FNM the only turd in the punchbowl]

Already had a few Iggy Pop solo albums. Liked this one as well.

Iggy Pop's snarling, disassociating, do not give a fuck garage is what I always want to embody. I love tracks like 1969 and I Wanna Be Your Dog, but also loved the unexpected treats like "We Will Fall"

NO! NO MORE IGGY POP! SHIT!

If chaos and noise had a baby and raised it in a garage, this album would be its first words. Iggy Pop sounds like he just woke up from a two-day nap and decided to scream into a microphone while the band fumbled to find the beat. The Stooges give us all the energy of a junkyard being hit by a tornado, except somehow less interesting. Forget music—this is the sonic equivalent of being chased by a lawnmower.

Ekki fyrir mig

Dumb, unimaginative, untalented, moronic - boring. My dog has farted out far more creative melodies - and lyrics. Staggeringly awful and pointless. 1/10 1 star.

Fucking awesome. I just got out of the hospital with my 3 week old and this is what I needed to hear.

שמזמזם אלבום שמזמזם בדיוק כמו שאיגי פופ עושה

Massively influential. Rough, raw, noisy, messy, and an absolute delight. A direct line from The Velvet Underground to punk.

no idea they wrote we will fall

Godfathers of punk baby.

Dios se levantó con resaca .Prendió un cigarro ,le dio play y subió el volumen al máximo. Y construyó mi mundo... mientras iggy ladraba quiero ser tu perro...El caos llego y no es divertido ,es el punck antes del punck. Nada va a ser igual después de los stooges

I heard the Stooges in college. "The Stooges" was given to me as a story about the beginning of punk music, an album without which the Sex Pistols, but also the Ramones, wouldn't have had a context. I listened to it then, and now, with that intellectual frame--and yes, we can hear energies of those futures in these thrashing gyrations. But of course, we can also hear the psychedelic Hare Krishna chants played in the Temple of Doom, the wah wah wanking, of the kind of rock Iggy claimed to hate. I wish I'd listened to psychedelic garage music of the period beyond that one compilation album I got at Disc Diggers... but then, I'm ok without a whole lot more of that genre--or of the Stooges. IMO Iggy has been a parody of himself for decades now. Also IMO, Iggy manifested a kind of nihilistic, abyssal whirlpool of inchoate unconscious material that my whole body still responds to in "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and for that I'll always be grateful. He was right to put the final nails in the coffin of 1960s rock.

This is one of those albums that forms a substantial stepping stone in the development of rock music; and Iggy Pop is one of the primary individuals in said development. To get even more specific, I Wanna Be Your Dog is a hugely influential song.

El álbum homónimo de The Stooges es un monumento sónico que ha envejecido bien, manteniendo intacto su carácter retador y su valor histórico como el plano arquitectónico del rock visceral. En este trabajo, la simplicidad y el minimalismo son un manifiesto propio; lejos de resultar monótono, el disco demuestra una genialidad cruda donde cada acorde repetitivo y cada golpe de batería tienen un propósito disruptivo y directo. A pesar de su naturaleza salvaje y ruidosa, la producción posee una gran claridad de intenciones: se entretejen muy bien la voz y los instrumentos, logrando una amalgama perfecta entre la apatía desafiante de Iggy Pop y las guitarras distorsionadas de los hermanos Asheton. Es un álbum conmovedor, crudo y real que rechaza los adornos para abrazar el impacto puro, consolidándose como una obra súper enérgica que sigue sonando más agresiva y moderna que muchas propuestas actuales.

This album is fantastic, and I didn't think I would like it that much at the beginning, but We Will Fall is a fabulous moment, such a great song, with hints of drone music, but also a very folk sound, and, definitely, the one that has convinced me of the greatness of this record. It's pretty solid, with a very cohesive sound and a dark atmosphere, so delightful. And the songs are all pretty great, some better than others, but very pleasant and enjoyable. So, at the end, I can say I've loved this.

Probablemente uno de los álbumes más revolucionarios de la historia de la música popular del siglo XX y XXI. Instaurando el punk como movimiento sonoro contracultural, en donde todas las estructuras que se conocían sobre canciones relacionadas al rock 'n roll fueron destruídas, Iggy y compañía revolucionaron completamente al mundo en 1969 (el mismo año que Beatles llegaba a la cúspide con Abbey Road, un trabajo completamente diferente). El LP The Stooges se siente como el "borrón para una cuenta nueva", el comienzo de la historia del punk. Sin contar, que también es el comienzo discográfico registrado para Iggy Pop, uno de los icónos más grandes de la historia del rock. En el aspecto técnico, las guitarras saturadas a más no poder crearon géneros y pistas atmosféricas como "We Will Fall" son la génesis de lo que hoy conocemos como "gótico". Pistas destacadas 1969 I Wanna Be Your Dog We Will Fall No Fun Real Cool Time Ann Not Right Little Doll

The link between the Velvet Underground and punk. A definitive statement on youthful restlessness and inventiveness.

My daughters recently had an end of season figure skating performance, with all of the different groups in the club doing a routine to some pop culture tie-in, often Disney or other things of that ilk. There was a 101 Dalmatians routine, and the skaters did it to “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” What was at the time loud, dumb, and menacing, is now children’s entertainment. Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

This sounded more like a 90s album than one from the end of the 1960s. I would give it five stars just for the three or four big tracks, but there's no real dip in quality with the tracks I'm less familiar with. Even the 10 minute long drone stays interesting.

I wanna be your dog is fire

WOOOOOW. What a kickass, short and sweet, amazing rock album. Everything was incredible. The electric guitar is played like it’s actually electrified. Not quite a no skip for me as We Will Fall doesn’t do it for me. But everything else is just perfect. More Stooges please

Bored delinquency never felt so fun.

Perfect soundtrack for today. "1969," "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and "No Fun" are absolute all-time bangers. This is really a six-star album, imo, due to how far ahead of its time it was and the influence it had.

Epic punk. Punch through a wall and then skateboard down the street.

This is the best of the three. The original, pure, unadulterated idea.

This is one of the most influential punk albums of all time.

Those tonez. Those vibez.

Oh heck yeah!

Oh god a perfect album.

This fucking rocks.

Oh my, and boo hoo.

Absolute banger!

Somehow, this record manages to be as punk as proto-punk can be, and also psychedelic, remniscent of some of the work The Velvet Underground was putting out at the time. The latter part is more evident in the John Cale song, of course.

Iggy Pop is amazing! This is a really good hard rock album! Definitely one of The Stooges best works!

I first came across 1969 when I heard a cover by the Sisters of Mercy in 1986. Nothing prepared me for hearing the original, it was so far ahead of its time. Punk as a genre didn't become a thing until nearly 10 years after this. The Stooges are one of the corner stones of alternative rock. From start to finish, this is a sonic kick in the head, plus the lack of technical ability is more than made up with attitude and downright anger against the world. Almost perfect.

- .... I was completely blown away when reminded that this record was released in 1969. It's not a perfect release but I'm gonna round up because it's so far ahead of the curve. -

Love this record. The only sometimes skip is we will fall which has a little too much John “serious” Cale influence. No Fun is probably my favorite.

Yeah.

God-tier rock 'n' roll right here. We Will Fall could be a lot shorter but that's a very minor gripe considering the MASSIVE impact this album had on pretty much all the music I love.

Holy Cow! Must crank this one. Takes no prisoners. Get in the car and step on the gas.

Great debut album, one of the best debuts for the time period

The bridge between the Stones, the Beatles, the Who and punk and hard rock.

Music for a rampage.

Unique, essential

Fantastic album. Many consider this the very first punk album, it's raw and powerful. this one should be in every rock/punk fan's library. it's a five star for me.

Frontloaded af (med mindre man blir pleb filtered av den John Cale-drevne We Will Fall), men så er det også 22 minutter av den viktigste musikken som noensinne er laget. At the Stooges på oppfølgeren klarte å lage enda viktigere musikk, er nesten utrolig i ordets mest bokstavelige betydning. At de fire siste sporene ikke klarer å levere på samme niveau som de fire første, er mer en kommentar på hvor ikoniske de innledende er enn en kommentar på kvaliteten av de fire siste. Real Cool Time er omtrent en reprise av I Wanna Be Your Dog og Little Doll er omtrent en reprise av 1969, så de kan ikke være dårlige, de bare lever i skyggen av sterkere spor. Jeg digger atmosphæren på Ann da, men hvis man skal spikke flis (som er det jeg driver med nå), så lever den litt i skyggen av We Will Fall. Ikke et vondt ord om Iggy's innflytelse på popmusikken, men at skyggen hans ruver høyere enn Ron Asheton's er faktisk på grensen til en tragedie. Det skulle vært Ron Asheton and Stooges, for gitaren hans er sounden deres røff, psychedelisk, og elektrisk. Ikonisk.

Man ikke annet enn å ha en real cool time når man hører på denne skiva. For en hat-trick de tre første platene til Stooges er. Det er nesten helt utrolig at de har klart å få til dette i 1969. Det er mye som ligner i ettertid, "Not Right" kunne vært skrevet av Jack White, men Stooges er likevel noe helt eget. Litt som The Doors egentlig, og "Ann" høres faktisk litt ut som en Doors-låt. Men det er mye mer frampå enn samtidige protopunkere MC5 feks. Gitaren drar mye av lasset, men Iggy Pop har en slags Mick Jagger-vibe over både scenepersonlighet og stemme. Første gang jeg hørte "I Wanna Be Your Dog" trodde jeg faktisk det var Jagger som sang. Tekstene er kanskje litt banale, men i 1969 ser jeg for meg at de føltes litt forbudte. Enten å ville være underdanig noen (om det er det som ligger å i være noens hund), å betrakte ei jente med sigarett, eller bare rett fram si "I want some" fra "Not Right". Kanskje derfor det var så lett for meg som tenåring å plukke opp denne plata, og den tidløse musikken, såklart. Evig klassiker.

Way ahead of its time

What the hell have I been doing with my life? Why haven't I taken a serious deep dive into the Stooges music? I've known how influential and beloved they are by many other artists that I love. I've listened to and absolutely adore Iggy Pop's later work like the Idiot and Lust for Life, but for some reason I've never bothered to go back further than that. I genuinely can't believe this album came out in 1969. It's just so much more noisy, aggressive, and savage than anything I expect coming out of the 60s. I also gave Fun House a listen for good measure and absolutely loved it as well. They're both 5/5s!

Love this record. Most great “punk” records are just great rock and roll records. The distinct post-summer of love and general disenchantment with the promise of America, give the tone of this record a weirdness and unsettling energy that is completely compelling. But at the heart, The Stooges and their counterparts need to be celebrated for finding a way of pulling the thread of rock and roll through the hippie malaise for a generation who were untouched by its middle class sentiment.

Indispensable, coom cualquiera de sus primeros tres discos. Aquí la cara A es imbatible: 1969, I wanna be our dog y la lúgubre We will fall. La B solo por No fun ya se justifica. Que no es el mejor de los tres?, Puede, pero aun así es mejor que cualquiera de muchos.

1969 y sacan esto. Dale dale que me voto encima. 10/10

Not my favorite Stooges, but still a classic.

I consider this to be one of those all time classics, an early example of a new genre that would influence everything for decades.

Everything I want in a 60s album

So fucking good. Real rocker shit

Absolutely love this. Great songs, and a great production, with each instrument and Iggy's voice all sounding crisp and clear. Always loved No Fun after growing up with the Pistols' version. And what an opener in 1969. War across the USA indeed. This time around the treat was the droning We Will Fall which I have not really listened to before. Worth 5 stars for that 1st side alone. More punk than punk, etc.

Förstår inte hur detta är 1969. Varierat och jävligt ballt, och är nog nu jag förstår hur Iggy Pop är så stor som han ändå är.

own

Me gustó mucho este álbum. Trabajaron sobre distintas atmósferas a lo largo de la obra dentro del rock, yendo de lo más psicodélico hasta un estilo más punk y trash. La voz de Iggy Pop es excelente para el estilo, la grabación es de muy buena calidad, aunque la mezcla por momentos no está pareja entre tema y tema (me imagino que debe haber sido difícil considerando la diversidad estética del álbum). La energía de los primeros temas es increíble y memorable. El tercer tema "We Will Fall" es absolutamente psicodélico y me encanta, aunque en lo personal hubiese preferido que esté ubicado en otro lugar del álbum, porque contrasta demasiado con los temas anteriores. En fin, un gran álbum, representativo de lo mejor de la época, al mismo tiempo que innovador.

Just legendary theres nothing else to say

Iggy and Stooges put Detroit on the punk map for sure.

Seminal record that is part of the start of punk a few years later. Iggyz’s snarl says it all.

Know it already and love it! 9/10 one of the best of the 60’s. Funhouse better

One of the albums that made punk possible. Does I need to elaborate why this is a masterpiece?

An album as timeless as it was misunderstood in 69. Between bands like The Stooges and Velvet Underground, the culture discovered just how much heroin plays a role in making great music! That was a joke kids. Don't do drugs.

Grunge goes way back.

The Shape of Punk to Come

The genesis of Punk, Hardcore and almost every other relevant rock genre of the past 50 years. This album is a great collection of noisy somewhat pop-tinged songs. The songs feel a little unbaked and unrealised compared to their later 2 albums, but they are great to listen to nonetheless. I love listening to the stooges and even something like the awfully positioned We Will Fall doesn't deter me.

Biased given familiarity. Like Raw Power is lags a bit at the end but the mixing, the sound of the guitars, the percussion is iconic. Then the break with We Will Fall into No Fun. Great stuff.

This is pretty mad for 1969. Essentially a punk album years before anyone even considered this. It's a great mix of strong riffs and more Avant garde noise which sits together really well.

magnificent, canonical album of songs about being bored and frustrated, from the surliest punks

John Cale produced

Genius

The beginning of the master. An epic album that has influences across all your favorite bands. One for the ages.

Very fundamental in influencing many follow on musical genres that's why I have great respect for the punk movement.