Maybe only Bawdy will appreciate this post, but (p)unk guitarist Ron Asheton of The Stooges has been found dead in his Ann Arbor home. He was 60.
City police Sgt. Brad Hill says there were no signs of foul play, and the death appeared to be of natural causes.
Hill says officers discovered Asheton early Tuesday after they were called to his home around midnight by an associate who hadn't heard from him in several days.
Asheton was an original member of The Stooges, the influential protopunk band founded in Ann Arbor in 1967. Asheton's brother, Scott, was the band's drummer.
Asheton's distorted guitar was a hallmark of the Iggy Pop-led group's late-1960s and early-1970s sound. He was named the 29th greatest guitarist of all time in 2003 by Rolling Stone.
If you've never heard The Stooges you really oughta give 'em a listen. They are an acquired taste, but once you acquire it, you'll savor it!
Here a link where you can sample their seminal 1970 album Funhouse.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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2 comments:
i was just jammin on "i want to be your dog" yesterday, "search&destroy" the day before. he was still young, relatively; how sad.
at least he left us with great memories.
Essential rock and roll and extremely influential without knowing it at the time, The Stooges made all the frills rampant in the music at the time look silly. These four dumb kids sucked the hyperbole out of the hippie movement's number one emmissary into the '60's psyche by paring the music down to its roots of rebellion, sweat and danger. Along with the MC5, the Stooges laid the groundwork for the punks of the late '70's to do the same thing, sweeping away the insipid corporate rock of Fleetwood Mac and Foreigner.
I will always be indebted to the Stooges, though they were before my thinking adult time, for guiding me towards the musical paths I have taken since and without a doubt, "I Wanna Be Your Dog" has got to be one of the top three in-your-face, I-don't-give-a-shit, stick-it-up-your-ass, muthufuckin' rock'n'roll songs ever.
Mr. Asheton dying is a very sad occasion for me and my friends, for if we were to be given $100 for every instance of playing this fortifying bracing music, we would have been retired from toil twice over.
R.I.P. Ron.
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