The Stooges's blog

Jac Holzman wondered what he had signed when he first saw the Stooges play to just seven people at a home gig in Detroit - they were terrible, with no obvious material. He insisted the group write original material. On April 1st, 1969 in a small New York studio apartment the Stooges recorded their monumental debut, The Stooges. The album was subsequently unleashed during the weekend of the Woodstock Festival. The album was produced by The Velvet Underground’s John Cale, fresh from arranging Nico’s deathly The Marble Index for Elektra. The Stooges uncompromising debut unveiled punk classics “No Fun,” “1969,” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” all written in a single evening.

A second album, Fun House, was recorded in LA. This time all material was first road tested and then blasted out live in the studio. Fun House was another full on torrent of sound that contained the punk classics “TV Eye” and “Down On The Street.”

At first, the Stooges were not taken seriously, probably due to singer Iggy Pop’s “outrageous” stage performance, which defined the punk image for generations to come. The Stooges’ Elektra albums, initially misunderstood, would soon have a far-reaching impact that has not diminished to this day.