As the new year began, we learned that Ron Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges had passed away.
Iggy & the Stooges were a big part of LOUIE legend. The album “Metallic K.O.” featured, what was until 2003, a recording of the last concert by the Stooges, which took place in 1974. At that particular concert, Iggy sang a particularly nasty rendition of LOUIE LOUIE that left no doubt about the lyrical content. The Stooges certainly didn’t need any F.B.I. investigation to find out if the words were naughty. Unlike the Kingsmen recording, there was no ambiguity about what they were singing. Whether or not you could hear this stuff on the radio was another matter entirely…
When the Stooges did their first reunion show in 2003, some 29 years after their last show (aka the “Metallic K.O.” recordings), there was a lot of excitement in the air. Four years after the initial reunion, I finally got a chance to see The Stooges when they came to San Francisco on April 21, 2007, which also happened to be Iggy Pop’s 60th Birthday.
The Stooges reunion was a wonderful chance for old friends to get together after so many years apart, and receive the proper accolades for all the music they’d created together. It’s so sad that we lost Ron Asheton, but luckily he was able to experience five years of music with the reformed Stooges, touring all over the world, where he’d witnesses the massive appreciation of their music. Who would have guessed that he’d live to see the Stooges inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, hearing their songs performed by such an unlikely admirer as Madonna?
Over at WCSX radio in Detroit, Iggy Pop did his first interview since the death of this friend, which you can hear by clicking here. Iggy gets pretty emotional in this one, as you can hear in the tone of his voice.
To honor the memory of Ron Asheton, I posted a clip from the show Iggy & the Stooges did in San Francisco. It’s a rendition of “No Fun” captured on my little Lumix pocket camera. Iggy invited folks to join him on stage, and there’s some fun pandemonium going on…
Rock on, Ron Asheton! You will not be forgotten!