Ready to die - Iggy and the Stooges
 

http://vimeo.com/60293792

http://vimeo.com/60293119

The clip sounds awful

im extremely skeptical about this after the tragedy that was the weirdness

Of course "Scarerecrow" doesn´t sound as great as any song in Raw Power, but anyway it sounds lot better than anything in Weirdness. I really consider to buy that new one...

I'm not sure I'm ok with anyone- not even the Stooges- using Ready to Die as an album title. For some reason it just doesn't seem right to me. It's one thing to cheekily call your album Let it Be and fill it with greasy sloppy American punk... Or to swipe a title from CCR and reinvent and own it so completely that John Fogerty himself would have to admit that you used it better. But this just seems lazy and a little irritating.

I am thankful for the Stooges reunion, but only because it gave me the opportunity to see them live. I'd rather they not attempt to add to their once perfect discography.

won't be as great as Biggie's Ready to Die.

At first I really thought it was Loose (the riffs are very similar).

most albums in general aren't

Got this yesterday. Cover is great, but it´s only thing that´s great in it. Only thing that makes it better than Weirdness is Williamson is still one hell of a guitarist. It seems Iggy just have nothing left about the wild beast he used to be in the seventies. Hope the name means they don´t do any studio records anymore. The most interesting songs in the album are those three ones that don´t sound Stooges at all. Maybe they should have gone that direction instead trying to make "Stooges-riffs".

[quote=dazedcola]im extremely skeptical about this after the tragedy that was the weirdness[/quote

This isn't the same band, though. Must be remembered.

This isn't the Stooges in their prime, but it's considerably better than most everything else rock coming out these days. James guitar playing is badass. The weakest link, as I've come to expect, is Iggy himself. Seems as if a fair amount of time went into the actual music. I can't say the same for the lyrics. It is better than The Weirdness. Considerably so. But then again, it's not really the same band either. Something important most forget about the Stooges is that those first two records, and Raw Power were NOT the same, nor intended to be the same, bands. James Williamson added an element that was very different than those first two records as him and Ronnie are two very different types of players. Ron played little to no role in the writing that went into Raw Power. They are fun to compare and contrast....

Ron, way more poetic, loose. That trashy blues and free jazz and Ravi Shankar no doubt came out in his playing in various ways.

James - More technically efficient (most guitar players, including myself, will tell ya his riffs are much more difficult to play. I honestly can't play many of them). His influences weren't as obvious, which is funny cause the argument could probably be made that his playing is/was more generic than Ron's.


It's not the best record ever, but it's a lot of fun. I recommend giving it a listen. I was honestly surprised at how good it was compared to what I thought it would be.

I agree that I became in a very good feelings after listening Ready to die yesterday. So I think I will listen it at least few times. And listen also in the future when I need music that isn´t too "heavy". I didn´t expect much for this, but maybe I expect little more...

Their discography is far from perfect. there are some seriously boring filler tunes on Raw Power and Stooges and Fun House. For all the rightful praise the Stooges get, I see too many people ignoring their tepid filler material. They did not make great complete records in my opinion. (I know this will make swa(y) cry out his eyeholes...)

What the hell counts as filler on funhouse?

one man's filler is another man's slightly boring 3rd tier tune...

Sure, but I'm just curious which songs you find to be filler on that record, because to me it's perfect from beginning to end.

Funhouse is the best collection of songs no doubt. It is my fave Stooges.

Yeah, but please name the filler songs. I can understand why you'd say there's filler on the other 2 though.

To me there are no fillers of any of those three albums. If I have to say one filler, it will be We Will Fall, but on the other hand I like it very much too & it´s hard to imagine first album without that tune. To me perfect album doesn´t mean every song in it is perfect. It´s the entity. Or do somebody say every song is perfect for example in SY DDN?

I gave the new album a listen last week and honestly, it sucks. 60 year old guys writing songs about their dicks etc just sounds a band desperate to re-live their early years.

I'm not fond of We Will Fall, nor I Need Somebody, and sometimes (often) I skip Gimme Danger but only because after Search and Destroy I need to move straight on to Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell!

To me whole Raw Power is just dynamite! And Gimme Danger is one of my favourites in it (others are Search & Destroy, Penetration, Raw Power & Shake Appeal, so almost the whole album). I think both Gimme Danger & I need somebody bring a little change to the atmosphere of the album, I think the album would have been a little boring if there had been only that kind of rock-pieces like Search & Destroy. It´s the same reason why I love most of the Stones albums so much, there are always those Stones-rockers, but then there are also some songs that go to the somewhere else.

About the Ron & James as a guitarist, I really like also Ron´s style. But I think James took the whole thing a lot higher level, so that´s the reason why I think Raw Power is their best album.

For the longest time I didn't appreciate Raw Power much. I thought it was a bit too straight forward (for what my taste was at the time...), and much preferred the weirdness (no pun intended...) of Ron Asheton's playing. I eventually came to point to weird I enjoyed the occasional "softer" elements of the record, i.e. the ballads. Dark and bluesy. When Ronnie died and there was some word on the street talk of Williamson coming back on board, I tore the album apart and realized it has something to say that I felt historically, and personally, I could identify with. It's wild and crazy as fuck. It's not the "I'm bored let's do drugs and hang out and be sexually frustrated" teenage thing often heard on the first two records. It's a drug addled pissed off Iggy. It's "I'm poor, yr rich, fuck you. Fuck everything". I could identify with that sort of progression at the time. I still can sometimes. There, for me, is no filler on that record. The whole album, sonically while some songs are better than others, is just wild/pure emotion. Not many records pull this off so well. Very few do. Too few do. I think, lyrically, it's Iggy in tip-top form.

As far as the first record, goes...I think it's a good introduction to things to come. It's young, it's honest. The music is interesting but that Fun House...lordy....what a fucking record. My favorite "rock" album of all time. I still swear by if anyone doesn't like it, then they don't truly like punk rock. Those guys might have taken some notes from the Doors/etc, but they pushed that to an extreme. They weren't speaking for the hippies...they were speaking for those few other weirdos that might have been associated with hippies, but were anything but. I think those old Stooges records still have the same effect on people today. It can be "fun", but there is something far deeper there. Something worthy of thought. Something I don't think was really intended for everyone to get...hence the brutal honesty that for me was always...and still is...the Stooges. Pure ass American middle class white boy blues rock n roll. That's what Iggy wanted to create, quite specifically. As a young person, before the Stooges, he came to Chicago to drum for some of the older blues guys. He, all of the Stooges, loved blues. He didn't always identify directly with some of the issues many of the older black blues guys were expressing, but he felt the honesty of it...and whilst sitting on the water, on some dock, in a place I can't yet but hope to some day find, he made the decision to create his own version of the music he so loved. No one's done it better. No one.

If you're looking for filler, ya can find it. You can find it on most any album by most any artist. With the Stooges I never really hear it though. But then again, I'm not looking for it. I feel no need to. I love those albums that much.

I saw them live last year. To date, one of the best rock shows I've ever seen. On par with Mudhoney.

Which post-Lust for life iggy material is worth the dough?

Of course. Sliding the blues is sick, man. Ron always knew what the fuck he was doing.

As far as non Stooges Iggy...

Kill City with James Williamson is a kickass record.

Of course, The Idiot

One Iggy record few ever mention is Zombie Birdhouse. I highly suggest the track "Street Crazies". The whole album is decent though. Not his best, but very good.

Basically anything he did that wasn't dumbed down 80's rock (yeah, unfortunately he moved into that direction) has it's moments. Preliminaires that came out a few years ago was interesting. Not great, but interesting.

Funhouse was the shit. Remember liking a lot of the first reord but don't really remember it. I remember disliking Raw Power a lot. I just didn't get all the hype. I should give it another try it was a long time ago.

One of my favorite times to listen to Raw Power is when I'm out driving around.

hahah does it make you drive fast? I noticed a while ago my driving is affected by the music that plays in my stereo. Like chill music and I drive more realxed but I put on some fast loud shit and I drive faster and more aggressive. I do it subconsciously but I noticed one day and now I notice all the time after the fact.

I love all those 3 albums from start to finish. I think We Will Fall is a great song, certainly in the context it was put in.

I'd like that song much better if it wasn't for all the "tra la room papaa" type stuff

That's one my favourite things going on about that song.

I've never been much of a fast driver (overly cautious and paranoid by nature), but it makes me want to...sure.

Agreed.

You probably know already, but that was Dave Alexander's only solid musical contribution to the band (sans drumming on the first two records). The whole chanting thing was his idea.

Naughty Little Doggie is quite good (of course not like Lust For Life). I also liked American Caesar when it came, but I don´t have it anymore, so it´s hard to say does it still sounds good to me. I have never loved any Iggy´s solo as much as those three Stooges album. I also love Gimme Some Skin-compilation although the sound quality is in b-side quite poor.

Yeah, Funhouse is the most sexual record ever made.