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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Now I wanna be your dog!

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."

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

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

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

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"

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

Pioneering rock Heavy, pulsating rhythms Led with voice of steel

Proto punk, yet it is better than any punk that came after

The highlights are plenty. The infectious handclaps, tambourines, piano drones, the catchy riffs, the growling and grunting. I don't mind We Will Fall as much as some others.

The first punk record

I make an alternative Christmas playlist every year, and for a while now I’ve included I Wanna Be Your Dog on every one, following a discussion with my father about Jona Lewie’s ‘Stop The Cavalry.’ I maintain that it is a Christmas song, he says the only thing that makes it Christmassy is the sleigh-bells. I think I’m actually reinforcing his point by picking a song that’s so obviously not a Christmas song, just because it has sleigh-bells, but it also pisses just everybody off and that’s the main thing about Christmas isn’t it? If I’m being honest, as much as I like The Stooges and recognise their influence in general, and of this album specifically, it’s always been my least favourite of theirs. Outside of 1969, I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun and yes, We Will Fall, it’s largely unmemorable, and although the unmemorable tracks are all important and good guitar tracks, with Iggy Pop being as charismatic as ever, the largest influence clearly comes from the 4 big tracks. If this were a base 10 rating system, I’d give it a 9, so that the greatness of Fun House and Raw Power shines through. But the greatness of the best tracks is enough that it deserves the full 5 despite my misgivings

Every post punk band wishes they were this. The raw unvarnished sound that comes from Iggy and the Stooges is as good as what the VU were putting out at the same time.

Loved this. Didn't expect to 5* it but honestly it blew my expectations sky high. What a fun, interesting album.

Super! Früher Punk mit Iggy Pop, was will man mehr! Vor allem in der damaligen Zeit.

This is definitely a good album to listen to when exploring the early days of proto-punk. It’s a great starting point, but I personally enjoy some of the follow-up albums from The Stooges more than this one.

Iggy and the Stooges. The Fathers of Punk Rock! How he’s still kicking is beyond me, but I love it!

4.7

Great to hear where it all started. 4.5 stars.

Fantastic work.

It's a pleasure and a privilege to listen to this album. Thank you, may I have another? I fanboy the Stooges so I can't give a proper review. I've just loved this record since first hearing it. It is what it is. That's it. You either take it or you fucking don't. My cat is named Iggy BTW.

VMP

Album 446 of 1001 The Stooges - The Stooges Rating : 5 / 5 Favorite Tracks : I Wanna Be Your Dog, 1969 Such a fun album, though I wish they had just left the track "We Will Fall" off as it was long, drab and just didn't fit, in my opinion. Even with that, this proto-punk album rocks. One of those that should be required listening for any melomaniac.

Yes, there are a couple of instances where they mimic the Doors' sound. The difference is that they don't stay there too long. The rest of it is great stuff. To "sort of" quote Lester Bangs: Jim Morrison was a drunken buffoon who thought he was a poet. Iggy Pop had the courage to be a drunken buffoon, and that's what made him poetic."

Rock and Roll nihilism finds a friend in me.

I unexpectedly got to listen to this album for the first time this morning on making love to my girlfriend. We both enjoyed the album.

Arguably the weakest of the classic Stooges era (The Weirdness and Ready to Die are not recognised in this house), but it's all relative - this has so much swagger and menace it's impossible not to get lost in it. Incredible stuff.

Raw, psychedelic, and in your face, this is one hell of a debut album. Unlike Raw Power, this has a more balanced-mix for a Stooges album. I got the deluxe Third Man Records pressing and that sounds fantastic, at least. Even further, it's got more of a range in aesthetics as they were still figuring themselves out to some extent. As a result, we get the sprawling 10+ minute drone-note-driven "We Will Fall" which I quite enjoy. This is a great proto-punk showcase of their talent for crafting super hook-driven grit capturing all the angst & alienation to disenfranchisement & desparation you can ask for in a record that you can party to.

Arguments are made that this is the first punk album. I say it's still proto-punk but it doesn't matter because this album is just a great time.

Explore nos zones sombres en ce qu’elles ont de désirant, d’immature, de malicieux, d’agressif, et parfois d’un léthargique presque méditatif

While I think “Raw Power” is a better album, the impact of this album and the Stooges in general cannot be overstated. I’m going to give it 5/5.

Amazing for 1969

When asked what he thought his legacy was, Iggy Pop said he wasn't sure, but he thinks he helped wipe out the 60s. That along would give this five stars, but I also happen to love this album. It’s not even my favorite Iggy Pop, but it’s still worth all the stars.

HELLLLLLL YEAH!!!!!!!!!! This is a monument wheter you like it or not, even i found a lot of those song boring and repetitive, but they were so influencial, brutal and raw that it's good anyway. The legend tell us that they enter the studio with only a few unfinished songs and they write all the rest of the album them all in just one night. The album was produced by Velvet Underground's John Cale, wich have done a mix accused to be too similar to the Velvet Underground eponymus album. The songs follow all the same path, short lyrics, simple lyrics, brutal rythms section, distored guitar and raw vocals by Iggy Pop. The best song are: 1969 an song about the disilusion of that generation after the colored summer of love, it set the stage for a more dark and brutal decade. I wanna be your dog is perhaps the best Stooges song, his riff is just out of this world, intense and incenssent. The definition of proto-punk rock with and distroted in the red intro, lyrics that tell a tourtured love (bdsm) and Iggy's voice that ript us appart. No Fun is also a song that explain why the punk mouvement simply exist, this is thei moto, long before No Future. Again, simpel lyrics, distroted and brutal riff, and repetitve in general, but that's the spirit. They are a coupple of psychedelic injspired songs: We will fall, a 10 min experimental song, that reminds me of the Doors and the Velvet, almost like a monk on acid kinda sounds. And Ann, a hypthonic song that al,so remind me of Jim Morrison vocals in album like The Soft Parade, but more aggresive. The other song are more in the veins of No fun and 1969: Like Real Cool time, Not Right and Little Doll, i don,t finf them special. It's easy to understand why this album has failed at the time, completly against the tide of popular music a the time, but defenitly ahead of their time. I think this album set the stage but its not The best. I Think FunHouse and Raw Power are way more important and simply better but its just my oppinion without this album, a lot of band and song would never touch our ears.

This album has been getting it's due much more over the past couple of decades, but I think it's a strong candidate for the most underrated album of all time. It's hard to overstate its importance on the history of rock n' roll starting in the 1970s. Every early punk band lists them as a major influence, and it's very likely that the punk music and all of its subsequent genres would look incredibly different without the Stooges In terms of the music itself, this album fucking kicks ass. It's gritty and sexy and doesn't sound like anything that came before it. It's like what The Doors could have been if Jim Morrison was really into acid instead of the smell of his own farts 5/5

Yeah

schöne 60er punk rock bevor punk

Hell yeah

Great

The best thing I heard about this album was in an interview with Iggy Pop where he explained that they wanted '1969' and songs like 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' to be played faster than you hear them on the album, but that the entire band was too stoned to be able to pull it off.

my fav

This was incredible. I don't know what I was expecting. I just didn't expect it to be as great as it was. The track We Will Fall did seem to drag on a bit too long for my liking though.

Love Iggy Pop. I see the Detroit skyline everyday. He's one of the many legends to come from the motor city.

Täydellinen garage levy! 5/5

Do the Stooges sound more or less alien than their weirder contemporaries? While Iggy's voice usually makes for an easy less (and we love him for it), the self-titled feels like it's on both sides. Anything but fence-sitting. Cale's viola is the obvious high point. Thirty minutes of this stuff is somehow still imposing.

10/10 some of the greatest pioneers (or maybe even inventors?) of punk rock they knew exactly what they were doing and executed it perfectly

Yes indeed-always been a fan of Iggy's vocals. Love this album.

GOAT album

So messed up, I want you here In my room, I want you here Now we're gonna be face-to-face And I'll lay right down in my favorite place And now I wanna be your dog 5/5

5/5 klasito dojebany proto-punk, iggy jaki seksiak uwu, oczywiście klasyczek i wanna be your dog, i jeszcze są bardziej psychodeliczne momenty jak we will fall. No ugułem całe te dobrze przyprawiłem

Brilliant! Barely aged in all this time

Excellent sounds.

Fuckin sick

Some of the longer songs dial back the aggressive mood, but solid all around.

Just glorious. the stooges and sabbath both kicked the living shit out of what was left of the 60's and i'm so glad they did

Listened to this shopping on muscle relaxers. Really good album. 1969 and I wanna be your dog are very fun.

Iggy founded his legend status with this. Too rough for me.

I have a nephew who has started collecting records. In the lead-up to birthday and Christmas, I always ask him "are there any records you want? Because, if you don't tell me what you want, I'm going to buy you records that I think you need to have." Bless him, he usually defers to my picks, and this album is one of the LPs I bought him. I _think_ he likes it... I love the Stooges. "I Wanna be your Dog" was the cover song my old band played more than any other. Our attitude and stagecraft had a fair amount of Stooges in it (not to the point of cutting ourselves with broken glass and smearing our chests with peanut butter, but there were quite a few on-stage fist fights, and lots of getting into altercations with the audience). This album is classic, classic Stooges, and, probably has some of the best written songs in their oeuvre. The attitude is fast and loose, and they are rocking out fiercely, but there are proper songs in there under the sneer and fuzz. I Wanna Be Your Dog and No Fun are my favourite tracks. We Will Fall is a reminder that this album was recorded in 1969 (extended raga-like psychedelic jam) and how significant an influence Jim Morrison was on Iggy Pop. Iggy takes the lessons of the Lizard King and, at his best, distills it down to pure Id, jettisoning (most of) Morrison's faux-intellectualism and cod poetry. He is still learning how to do that on this album, but the blueprint is all there. Christgau described this album as "stupid-rock at its best", which is right on the money. It steals all the best bits of rock music that came before it, pushed it through their own dumbed-down and unfiltered performance until it is just a burst of raw power (hey, that could be a good album title. Note that down for later, Ig).

Had not registered before how We Will Fall sounds so much like something from a Swans album for the 2010's...

good

In a Beatles review on here, I mentioned The Stooges as a band that were actually important and influential, and made music that can still be enjoyed today. Listening to this just makes me even more sure of that, it's insane what they managed to come up with in 1969, nearly a decade before punk actually blew up. So much energy, the guitars are screeching and squealing the whole time, it's so easy to listen to. I feel like I would be wrong to give it less than a 5, even though their next 2 albums were somehow even better.

Album #9 It is sometimes difficult to be objective with these reviews. I love everything about this album. It's short and sweet. It was incredibly influential as a "protopunk" album by bridging the gap between psychedelic rock and punk rock. The lyrical content is simply rebellious and cynical. I Wanna Be Your Dog is a nasty classic that I've always loved, and We Will Fall is just an amazing 10 minute experience. And of course, there's 1969's guitar sound that just needs to be heard by everyone. These 8 songs breeze right by (even We Will Fall). It's like listening to the Rolling Stones give everyone the finger, and I'm here for it. 4* for content, but bumped to 5* for personal taste and influence.

One of the best rock albums ever.

I was enjoying the album a good deal. And then We Will Fall played. Then I was loving this album. What an epic stowed inside a tight record.

Raw power

to be perfectly honest this album drags a bit but i don’t care it still gets 5 stars

it's everything and more

"The Stooges" is the debut album by American rock band The Stooges. The band (vocalist Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander) came to NYC to record with seven songs. Their record label Elektra told them they needed more so they wrote four more songs within a week. It was produced by John Cale who also played viola and piano. Cale initially did the mix but it was rejected by Elektra and then re-mixed by Iggy and Elektra president Jac Holzman. I remember a similar thing with David Bowie and The Stooges "Raw Power." What is it with rejecting mixes? On the positive side, I guess it led to multiple re-issues later on. This album was not initially liked by critics but now is considered a landmark proto-punk release. Yeah, this has the punk attitude for sure. The wah-wah guitar and Iggy's "Well alright" and we're off with "1969." The guitar was lifted from The Byrd's "Tribal Drumming" and the drums from Bo Diddly. Who cares? This song rocks. About boredom. A distorted guitar and piano begin "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Hypnotic bass and guitar. Punk. Heavy Metal. Well, Iggy will do just do about anything for...yeah that. The 10-minute long "We Fall" ends Side A and contains a good chunk of chanting and droning pyschedelic guitar. This had to be John Cale's doing. Side B begins with groovy guitar and "No Fun." The handclap becomes a primary instrument. It's no fun being alone. Wow, The Stooges go into ballad-mode on "Ann" all the way up until about a minute left and then Ron Asheton gives a chaotic guitar ending. Thank God; I was losing faith. Is this about a girl named Ann or their home town Ann Arbor, Michigan? I'll say both. The album ends with " Little Doll." Supposedly, it's about a girl they saw in the audience once. Definitely, the most unique drumming on the album. Nice grinding rhythm guitar and another chaotic and pyschedelic guitar finish. This has two essential rock and roll songs. Everything about this album is punk. The lyrics are minimal with very few complete sentences. Iggy's bored, looking for a good time and, of course, wants sex. Some fantastic guitar solos to finish songs. A classic.

Classic precursor to punk rock

So good!!!

Not the best Stooges album but still crazy good.

Whether this is proto-punk or the first punk release is beside the point. This is awesome raw, rock and roll and belongs in every collection. The facts that it is a debut (one of the best of all time) and introduces us to Iggy (a treasure) are icing on the cake.

Wow! It's hard to believe this came out in 1969! I can imagine this kind of sound must have been terrifyingly new back then. This is a real proto-punk classic with plenty of psychedelia mixed in for good measure. Contrary to a lot of reviews I liked the dark psychedelic droning dirge of We Will Fall a lot, but I think it could have done with being at the end of the album for the best effect. 1969 is an absolute banger though, although the whole album is just great. Possibly my favourite album from the 60s that I've heard on the list so far. Favourite: 1969

excellent album, really enjoyed it. Would like to listen more!

This album frikkin rules. it's so yum. it's sleasy and grimy and more musical than i remembered. and i can really relate to it because they're 21 soon turning 22

Another album I've never listened to in full but, of course, knew a fair amount about and has clearly informed a huge amount of music I listen to on a regular basis. It's difficult to not pick up Velvet Underground vibes, I guess that makes sense. I'm familiar with I Wanna Be Your Dog, of course, and it's definitely the best song on the album but I really enjoyed all of it. I'm really really stuck between a 4 and 5 for this but after a second listen I'm gonna nudge it into 5 territory.

Very tight rock and roll

The more I listen to The Stooges the more they become my new favorite band.

This is brilliant. Difficult to believe that it is over fifty years old. Playing it now, it feels fresh and vibrant. Well. Mostly. Five stars for the music. Five for what it went on to inspire.

Raw rock 'n' roll. A new sound was gestating, and this album had its mark. 1969 sure was special!

Great! This is a classic. Iggy Pop is amazing

First time listening to a full album by The Stooges. Obviously very familiar with "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - heck, I even re-wrote it as "I Wanna Be Your Doug" a bunch of years ago for my friend Doug Koyama who was an absolute stalwart of the B.C. summer festival scene, and is one of the best damn huggers I've ever met. Listening to "We Will Fall" now and it's nothing at all like I expected anything on this album to sound. The slow dirge of this is absolutely awesome! Yeah, this is fucking awesome. 100%. I want more!

There'd be no punk as we know it without this album. Gotta give it up to Iggy and the boyz.

Dirty garage rock and psychodelia of the 70's. Somehow the Stooges evade all of the dirty hippie shit that I associate with 1969. Michigan is a long way from NorCal and the west coast, I guess. While everyone was busy being anti-war the Stooges were just enjoying getting fucked up and smearing hamburger meat on their chests. I appreciate the wry unrefined sound and loose play. We Will Fall goes a little too deep for me, but the 'don't care / fuck all, ethos is exciting and fun.

Peak brilliance.

Tense, muscular and tough as nails, with twisted, fuzzy guitars and a frontman who is equal parts charismatic and menacing. This is a band with a sizeable chip on its shoulder and they make you feel it. Years ahead of its time and still crackling today. Fave Songs (All songs, from most to least favorite): I Wanna Be Your Dog, 1969, No Fun, Ann, Not Right, Real Cool Time, We Will Fall, Little Doll

Ajajaj!

Still as fresh today as it was back in the late 60’s. Hugely influential album.

From the other side of the coin that was the druggy decadence of the Aquarian dream, The Stooges hit the nail on the head of the increasingly artful, psychedelic style of rock, reveling in the blood oozing from the temple and dancing around it. With its tapestry of proto-punk freakouts and drone influenced meditations, this debut from four Detroit kids served as the catalyst of what would become of downright dirty rock and roll in the coming decades, being as prescient in this day and age as it did back in 1969.

C’est vraiment sympa mais sans plus pour la plupart des titres. J’aime bien Ann et I wanna be your dog et surtout We will fall. Ce remplissage psychédélique de 10 minutes est incongrus et parfait à mes yeux.