THE STOOGES – DEBUT LP – Nr MINT ELEKTRA IGGY POP CANADA PRESS

The Stooges
(Elektra Records  EKS74051  Canadian Pressing)

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition

Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, and also known as Iggy and the Stooges, were an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll, the band sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which often involved acts of self-mutilation by Iggy Pop.

The Stooges is the self-titled debut studio album by American rock band The Stooges. It was released on August 5, 1969 by record label Elektra. Two songs, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “1969”, were released as singles and the album peaked at No. 106 on the Billboard album chart.

It is considered a landmark proto-punk album. With Ron Asheton’s walls of distortion, and distorted wah wah solos, textures and power chord riffs, it is also considered to have had an impact on hard rock.

For their first album, the Stooges had intended to record five songs: “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, “No Fun”, “1969”, “Ann” and “We Will Fall”. The five songs were staples—and essentially the basis—of the Stooges’ live set at the time. A typical Stooges song of the period would involve two minutes of composed song followed by several minutes of improvisation. Having assumed that the five songs as normally performed would cover requirements for the album, the Stooges were told by their record label Elektra that they needed more material. According to Iggy Pop, “We handed [the five-song version of the album] in and they refused it. They said, ‘There aren’t enough songs!’ So we lied and said, ‘That’s OK, we’ve got lots more songs.'”

In reality, the Stooges were about a day ahead of themselves when Iggy made that statement to Elektra; overnight, the group wrote three more songs, “Real Cool Time”, “Not Right” and “Little Doll”, and played them for the first time in the studio.

An initial mix by producer John Cale, apparently resembling ex-Velvet Underground bandmate Lou Reed’s “closet mix” of that band’s eponymous third album of the same year, was rejected by Elektra. The mix as heard on the final product was done by Iggy Pop and Elektra Records president Jac Holzman. Four of Cale’s original mixes would later appear on the bonus disc of a 2005 reissued version, with pitch correction applied to them. Five years later, all eight Cale mixes were released unaltered on the first disc of a 2010 collector’s edition release of the album

Track listing

All songs written and composed by The Stooges (Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Iggy Stooge (Iggy Pop)).

Personnel

The Stooges

• Iggy Pop (credited as “Iggy Stooge”) – vocals
• Dave Alexander – bass guitar
• Ron Asheton – guitar, vocals
• Scott Asheton – drums

Additional personnel

• John Cale – piano, sleigh bell on “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, viola on “We Will Fall”, production

Technical personnel

• Joel Brodsky – sleeve photography
• Danny Fields – liner notes (original album and 1989 CD release only)
• William S. Harvey – sleeve art direction
• Jac Holzman – production supervisor