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‘Building Fun House’ by Iggy Pop

On the eve of the release of the Fun House Deluxe Box Set, Iggy recounts the creation and recording of the album.

Fun House 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Building Fun House

I was laying on my back on the floor of the Stooges rehearsal room, stoked on LSD and reefer, staring at the lovely amplifiers and egg cartons on the walls, when I thought I saw the word “Funhouse” hovering above me in the air, just below the ceiling.  We were about half way through writing and preparation for our sophomore album, and it needed a title this time.  I remember thinking “this is it; we’re going with it.”  

The rehearsal room was set up in the former salon of a lovely old farmhouse we rented for $325 a month on the outskirts of Ann Arbor.  It had a wide porch, a stately driveway, and a nice lawn and trees.  There was an abandoned corn field and junked car in back.  The farmer was too old to live there anymore, so we took over.  There was a kitchen, rec room, tv room, rehearsal room, 2 proper bedrooms, 2 separated apartments, and a converted attic and basement.  6 of us slept there, most of the time.  There was a lot of dope smoking, some good writing, and a bit of rehearsal done at that house which later became known as “The Funhouse” after the album.  The songs on the album were all written there, most of it in my attic bedroom.  Ron had gotten his hands on the best private apartment, and a nice girlfriend too named Shelly.  So, he wasn’t as prolific as he had been previously, and I don’t blame him.  Anyway, I’d write a number that I thought the group could play well, bring it downstairs from my attic room and try to rehearse it up.  Once it was solid, we’d play it at our gigs on the weekend.  Scott Asheton and myself were both very keen to do something much more aggressive than our first record which was more laid back in certain ways.  I’m not sure what Ron thought about that, but he definitely enjoyed what we were doing on this new record.  As the concept progressed, I felt that the kind of music we were doing needed to expand and explode as the record moved forward, and that’s why we brought in Steve Mackay to help blow us over the top with his psychedelic sax.  

The group had 2 vehicles that we depended on.  One was a black ’57 Chrysler New Yorker with push-button transmission.  John Adams, who lived in the basement and did a variety of chores such as driving us around, getting us to gigs, and humping the equipment was the owner and chauffeur. We also had a rented truck that was driven by Eric Haddix, who was a very tough boy and all-around cool soul, who for some reason almost always wore black leather gloves.  Not a guy you would want to fuck with.  

So, one by one, the tunes were falling into place.  T.V. Eye was the key number on the record for me.  To get that, I had to camp in the hallway outside Ron’s door for over an hour pounding and pleading with him to let me come in and write a god damn song.  He finally compromised by coming out into the hallway with his Fender Princeton practice amp and his Strat and played me the riff.  I thought, “oh shit that’s really got it!” but the way he was playing it, in the style of “No Fun” or “I Wanna Be Your Dog” from our first record sounded too large and thick to allow the song to go anywhere.  So I asked him to throw in a variation for my tag line, and to begin the number in the style of John Lee Hooker, an artist we both liked, playing the single notes against a one string drone, blues style, before letting it build up to full sonics.  This was right up Ron’s alley.  He had a beautiful set of fingers and a wonderful touch on his instrument.  So many hard rockers are ham handed.  Not Ron.  Yet he managed to be very, very heavy.  One key to this, and in a way the key to the whole sonic beauty of the album, was the fact that Ron played with a heavy gauge set of guitar strings. He did this, he told me, because he was originally a bassist and the heavier string was just more comfortable, but it also gave his style a kind of massive ambience.  

As we began playing this stuff live it was becoming obvious, we had some very strong shit.  

So, springtime rolled around, and this small, very underrated band was flown to Hollywood, somewhere we’d never been, to record this very sleek and sexy repertoire in a uniquely beautiful studio.  

Elektra Studios was a lovely little Spanish Colonial Adobe style structure with a nice little garden area under the California sun, which was great for cigarette breaks.  A far cry from the dump over a Times Square peep show where we recorded our first record.  There was a modern, mid-sized, tastefully appointed single studio inside, where we could fill the room with our intense vibes.  This felt like a place where we could make some fucking art.  So, we did.  The set up was all of us together in the same room, not so far apart, where we could all see each other and stay in touch.  Dave played a half stack, and Ron played a Marshall Combo 50 watt.  I used a Shure SM57 and an Electro Voice split signal to the booth and the other half through an EV speaker from our live set up.  All of our equipment made the trip with us, both to keep the sound in our control and because we were booked for shows in LA and San Francisco after the recording.  The set up was prone to leakage, but Stooges leakage was not like other people’s leakage.  The Stooges leaked pearls.  

Anyway, after the usual vain attempts to conform us to studio recording standards were abandoned from the first recording day, the whole thing just took off like a Ferrari.  We would devote an entire day to gaining a great recording of each song.  In other words, the first day was the day of Loose, then the next day Down On The Street, and so on.  We later switched these 2 numbers in the sequence.  Everything else was exactly as we’d been playing them live.  It was our entire set at the time.  About 40 minutes before we were due to start the days takes, I would drop a tab of acid.  I never mentioned this to the fellas.  But it was my job in the group to radiate vibes and belief, and that’s the way I did it at the time.  So, as the stuff was coming on, we were jamming.  And that was the most authentic experience I’ve ever had in a recording studio.  

There was not a druggie vibe at all, we would take cigarette breaks, and that was about it.  My acid was on the sly, and while we all smoked a ton of weed at the time, we kept it all out of the studio.  Everyone was pretty damn impressed to be making a record in a beautiful, slick, pro place right in the middle of Hollywood, so we were on our best behaviour, I would say.  As the recordings show, I sang live and in full, take after take.  There was very, very, little vocal overdubbing, only a few lines I thought I had blown, which were redone one afternoon at the end of the sessions.  These were on T.V. Eye for sure, maybe parts of Loose, and possibly Dirt.  The key feature of the arrangements was to avoid the mindless overdubbing that was popular at that time in commercial shit.  So, there was no doubling of parts or what they call double tracking.  No wall of sound, but instead, a snaking witchery of sound.  Ron was over-dubbing a single string counter part to himself on Loose.  On Down On The Street there are 2 lead guitars which added more action to the space.  Dirt has a single over-dub guitar on the chorus through a Leslie speaker to complement the Wah-wah guitar on the basic track.  

The number where we really went to town with studio possibilities is L.A. Blues.  Live, we used to just call this number “The Freak Out.”  And what we played on the basic track was a very true rendition, but it didn’t sound insane enough.  So, we freaked out again, while listening to what we had just freaked.  It was pretty amazing that everybody was so closely invested in what they had been playing on the basic take, that we were able to follow it smoothly and ferociously again, without benefit of riff, chord, notation, or any sign post.  Something about this record that I like is the way it begins with a couple of very short, fully structured numbers, and then slips farther and farther out of control, and away from song structure and sing along shit as it progresses.  Yet it never loses a structure of its own, and each number has a dignified ending.  Peaceful in a way.  This is not a meat and potatoes record. It’s not “10 really good songs that the consumer can depend on.”  If you want your meat and potatoes, and 10 really good songs, I suggest you stuff them all up your cheesy ass.  

There’s a lot of Zeitgeist in this record.  The darkness of New York City in the end of the 60’s had followed the group to LA and we found ourselves booked into the amazing Tropicana Motel for these sessions, right on Santa Monica Boulevard 2 blocks from the studio.  We all stayed in shabby suites, grouped around a tiny kidney shaped pool.  Our neighbors there were Andy Warhol! Paul Morrissey, Joe Dallesandro, and the beautiful Jane Forth.  They were making the Warhol film, Heat.  Danny Fields was there with us.  I was camped next door to Ed Sanders, the writer and leader of the Village Fugs, who was writing his book on Charles Manson, and looking for Satan under every coffee table.  I took a walk around the boulevard one day and saw a cool red dog collar in a pet store called the Bowser Boutique.  So, I bought it for myself.  Ed scowled at me and said, “you don’t know what that means do you?”  Andy used to like to watch me swim under-water laps in the pool.  And he asked me one day, “for your next record, why don’t you just play the newspaper, you know, word for word.”  I would wake up in the morning choking from the LA smog which got me really bad because I still had asthma from my childhood.  So, I would sit on the motel steps smoking reefer and drinking take out coffee and having a coughing fit until I could breathe.  The reefer helped me do that.  The others would get up around 12, but had to be prodded, and then we’d all walk to the studio, Abbey Road style with guitars.  We were usually done by 6 pm.  There was a liquor store on the corner where Ron and Dave would go for the booze they liked to drink while they watched the all-night movies on TV.  Once, Ron saw Marc Lindsay the singer from Paul Revere and the Raiders in there.  He was pretty excited.  I was almost run over one day by John Wayne in a black Caddy convertible Deville while I was jay-walking across West Mount.   He cursed me.  I thought, “cool.”  One day I walked up the hill to the Sunset Strip to get a tuna sandwich at Ben Franks.  Frank Zappa was sitting there at the counter, looking just like Frank Zappa.  The whole area of Hollywood and the Hills was like a sketch that had just begun.  There were large empty spaces.  And plenty of room for parking.  Most of it on gravel or dirt.  But also, a lot of green and a beautiful light.  

Eve Babitz and Christine from the GTO’s used to visit me during those sessions.  They’d bring me presents and flirt a little.  Eve took me to a house in the Hills where I heard Bitches Brew by Miles Davis and I thought, shit, we’re barking up the same tree.  Christine had a car, and she took me to the drive-in movie to see Superfly.  When you’re 23 and you’ve never been anywhere these were compelling things to do.  Find the ocean, get gifts from your fans, and make some fucking art.  So, we did.  

Iggy Pop

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Rolling Stone Takes Deep Dive Into Henry Rollins’ History With The Stooges’ ‘Fun House’

Among those who have had their minds blown to bits by Fun House is Henry Rollins, former Black Flag and Rollins Band vocalist, and author of the illuminating liner notes for a new super-deluxe 50th-anniversary version of the record, out July 31st. Spread across a whopping 15 LPs and two seven-inches, the set features a newly remastered version of the original album plus the vinyl debut of The Complete Fun House Sessions, originally released on CD in 1999 and containing every single studio take that the Stooges put down at Elektra Sound Recorders in May 1970, plus between-song banter.” – Rolling Stone

To read the full article, click here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/henry-rollins-interview-stooges-fun-house-1022661/

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Unboxing The Stooges ‘Fun House’ 50th Anniversary Edition

Rhino is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fun House with the first LP edition of the 1999 7-CD Rhino handmade boxed set (1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions). Limited Edition Boxed Set – 1,970 individually numbered copies: https://Rhino.lnk.to/FunHouse

Fans will hear a newly remastered 2-LP version of Fun House, cut at half speed (45 rpm) for optimum audio quality, with a 4th side vinyl etching. The set’s remaining 13 LPs contain nothing less than every take from the Fun House sessions, in order, exactly as The Stooges recorded them. Those studio tracks are followed by a recording of The Stooges performing live in New York City in August 1970, just as Fun House was released. The 39-minute concert remained unreleased until 2010, when it came out as Have Some Fun: Live At Ungano’s.

Rounding out the music in this deluxe set are two mixes of the single “Down On The Street”/“I Feel Alright.” The first is the “Mono Single Edit” released in France, and the other is the unique “Single Mix” that was unreleased until the original 1999 boxed set. Each one is pressed on 7-inch vinyl and presented in a sleeve with reproduction artwork.

Beyond the music, the collection also includes a 24-page booklet with rare photos and extensive liner notes, featuring an essay by Henry Rollins and testimonials penned by an extensive list of rock ‘n’ roll luminaries including Henry Rollins, Clem Burke, Flea, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, J Mascis, Duff McKagan, Thurston Moore, Tom Morello, Karen O, Andy Partridge, and Steven Van Zandt, among others, plus posters, prints, a turntable slipmat, and a 45 adapter.

Rhino is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fun House with the first LP edition of the 1999 7-CD Rhino handmade boxed…

Posted by Iggy And The Stooges on Saturday, June 20, 2020

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The Stooges ‘Live At Goose Lake’ To Be Released August 7

The Stooges - Live At Goose Lake: August 8, 1970

THIRD MAN RECORDS ANNOUNCES THE STOOGES’ LIVE AT GOOSE LAKE: AUGUST 8TH, 1970 OUT ON VINYL, CD AND DIGITAL ON AUGUST 7, 2020

Third Man Records is excited to announce The Stooges Live At Goose Lake: August 8, 1970. This previously-unheard, high-quality soundboard recording of the original Stooges lineup’s final performance — recorded just before the release of their earthshaking 1970 album Fun House — will be available on vinyl, CD and digital on August 7, 2020, nearly 50 years to the day after the performance. Hear “T.V. Eye – Radio Edit” HERE, and pre-save the album HERE.

The audio was lovingly restored by Vance Powell (The White Stripes, Chris Stapleton) and mastered by Bill Skibbe at Third Man Mastering, and liner notes were written by Jaan Uhelzski (Creem Magazine). There will be two limited-edition colored vinyl variants available as well — the Rough Trade version will be on purple-colored vinyl with a standard LP jacket, and the indie exclusive version will be on cream-colored vinyl with a screen-printed LP jacket. Pre-order the album on CD HERE and vinyl HERE.

LISTEN TO “T.V. EYE – RADIO EDIT”

The apocryphal tale of the Stooges performance at the Goose Lake festival has been told countless times over the past five decades. Bassist Dave Alexander, due to nerves or overindulgence or whatever you choose to fill in the blank, absolutely spaces in front of 200,000 attendees. He does not play a single note on stage. He is summarily fired by Iggy Pop immediately following the gig. Here starts the beginning of the end of the Stooges.

But what if that simply…wasn’t the case? What if you could prove otherwise? Well, it’d be the proto-punk equivalent of having an immediate, on-the-scene, man on the street report of all those folkies booing Dylan’s electric set at Newport in ‘65. Irrefutable evidence  of what ACTUALLY went down.

Found buried in the basement of a Michigan farmhouse amongst other tasty analog artifacts of the same era, the 1/4” stereo two-track tape of the Stooges complete performance at Goose Lake on August 8th, 1970 is the Rosetta Stone for fans of this seminal band.

Not only is this the last ever performance of the original godhead Stooges line-up, but it is the ONLY known soundboard recording of said line-up. Playing the entirety of their canonical 1970 masterpiece Fun House, the sound, the performance, everything about this record is revelatory.

Would you believe that…Alexander actually DID play bass on this occasion? Or that, despite grievous failures on some songs, Alexander is damn solid on others? Especially on the bass-led songs “Dirt” and “Fun House”? Does Iggy provoke the crowd to tear down festival barriers? Did the powers that be pull the plug on the Stooges? So many questions are answered only to have more arise.

Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the performance, Live at Goose Lake: August 8th, 1970, is the rare release that literally rewrites the history of these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.

LIVE AT GOOSE LAKE: AUGUST 8TH, 1970 TRACK LIST

SIDE A

1. Intro

2. Loose

3. Down On The Street

4. T.V. Eye

5. Dirt

SIDE B

1. 1970 (I Feel Alright)

2. Fun House

3. L.A. Blues