Jimmy Recca talks Stooges in a Detroit Rock City outtake

Jimmy Recca, former Stooge, in his inimitable, animated ramble, on writing “I Got a Right” and entering Stoogeland as the bassist. This is an outtake from Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n' Roll in America's Loudest City (Da Capo 2013)

Recca: I joined the band around February 1970. The song that was first recorded by the band the three of us, Ron [Asheton], James [Williamson]and myself as a way to break the ice and to get Ron to accept me as a bass player was “I Got A Right.” We all had the same input on it. We had a lot more songs, but my performance rights to those songs, well, that's why they never did any of those other songs after I left.

Also, they never reproduced them because they were too complex and James couldn't remember, to tell you the truth. He had very little to do with anything other than his parts, his riffs. He had his riffs, I had my riffs, Ron had his riffs. Nobody tries to write a person out of history when that's the way it is. I was there and those guys don't want to write me out of history because they don't want to go back to remember what they can't remember. The only thing they remember is that song, “I Got a Right.” Ron knew it and that's why Ron and I finally got along so well, he knew my ability in that band you know. It took at least seven rehearsals before Ron would even say a fucking word to me. He wouldn't even look at me. He didn't like me. He had that fucking rock star thing like ‘I don't have to accept you if I don't want to. Say whatever you want to. It doesn't matter what you say, we didn't join you, you joined us.’

And I think for the most part, none of it was going to fucking matter, nothing was going to come out of it. Ron started feeling the pangs of James hooking up with Scotty because Scotty and James were the same age and they kind of hung out together and James was getting into the band through Scotty [Asheton]  and Scotty was promoting him to come to rehearsal. Ron was not digging that at all. When things get to him, you know he's fucking caustic, man. But he would get over it eventually. So that's the way it was with James and him and that's how it went on.

The Stooges Were The Best Rock and Roll Band Ever

Since the June elease of my last book, Detroit Rock City, The Uncensored History of Rock ‘n Roll in America’s Loudest City, I’ve talked many times about the importance of the Stooges on the international musical landscape. It took that platform for me to realize and finally utter something unsettlingly ultimate: The Stooges were the best rock and roll band to ever exist.

These kinds of ultimate statements are generally ridiculous. In books, I may feel that Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, Jack London’s White Fang and Robert Greenfield’s STP: A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones, are among the best ever written. In film, I am sure that Down by Law, Angel Heart and Nebraska are among the top 20.

But never have I been so certain that in the field of music that a band measures so highly in terms of courage, which should be the metric of any expression. Not courage by being outrageous, but by being something and doing something that no one would dare do, without a concern for the consequences.

The passing of Scott Asheton over the weekend reminds me of the greatness of the band for the third time in a week for no apparent reason other than to ponder their fearlessness. All the band's music music - including the Fun House box, the extended versions of the first album, the Raw Power box with the DVD and the Easy Action outtakes package - are in constant rotation, part of the soundtrack of life.

I’m currently working in Tallahassee, Fla., on a 10-week assignment. I’m staying in a lower floor apartment in a three-building enclave in the south part of town, and about a week ago on a Saturday morning I was working and heard the muffled crescendo of “Ann” from the first Stooges record. drifting through my open window from up the stairs.

It was the extended version, which gave me time to walk up the stairs and find the source, a 30-something post college guy in his little cinderblock studio, getting schooled. I knocked and said simply, “the Stooges.” Instead of being puzzled or taken aback by a stranger knocking on his door, he just nodded and said “yes. Great.” I walked back down the stairs.

That’s all it takes to connect on that level.

I’m sorry for the family and friends of Asheton, who I’m sure are still stung by the sudden death of Scott’s brother Ron in 2009. Their loss has nothing to do with the Stooges, but with a loved family member. People tend to forget that when bemoaning the death of someone “important.”

From the book, Detroit Rock City:

Scott Asheton: If you think about what was going on at that time, in the early 70s, we were so far harder rock out there than anybody else out there at the time that why we didn’t fit in. When you think was going on was kinda glittery, kinda gayish, kind of going taking the edge off of it, other bands of that era were not even close to rockin’ like we were. I’d say the biggest reason that stuff didn’t do well is because we were rocking too hard.

Esquire magazine 1971 on Alice Cooper: "...Four guys in drag."

AC: Or was that three guys?

Dangerous Minds wisely yanks an old issue of Esquire magazine from September 1971 and examines an insert that purports to be a musical guide to college students. As usual, most of Esquire’s tastes are bland and blander. But it also warns the future pencil pushers of America of some music.

For example, on the Stooges first lp – yes, a couple years late – it claims “lead singer Iggy Pop leaps into audiences, smears his half-naked body with peanut butter, tears his lips open by hitting his mouth with the microphone, and stabs himself viciously with shattered drumsticks.”

Of Alice Cooper, Esquire’s crack music staff claims of the band about to go platinum,  “posthumous rock by four guys in drag.” Umm, that’s five guys.

By the way, Esquire’s musical writing today is similarly unadventurous and uninformed.  

Iggy Pop: Michigan Legislature “Shameful” to Allow Wolf Hunt

As you’ve seen via almost every Michigan media outlet, Iggy Pop is lending his name to an effort to repeal a bill that permits limited wolf hunting in Michigan.

In a letter dated Nov. 12, Iggy asks Michigan Gov, Rick Snyder to halt the hunt that began last week and put the issue to a vote “allowing the people’s voices to be heard.”

 “As a Michigan native and someone who has cared about animals, both wild and domestic, for as long as I can remember, I was dismayed…that a bill you signed last May (S.B. 288/P.A. 21) gave Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission the authority to decide which animals can be hunted…which resulted in the first authorized wolf hunt since wolves underwent state protection in 1965,” Iggy writes.

“It is shameful the lengths the legislature and the executive branch will go to hunt this iconic creature while as the same time opening the door for other species to be hunted, like the Sandhill Crane. The legislature’s actions are nothing more than an attempt to shield their actions and take away the voters’ rights.”

There’s much more to the bill to hunt wolves than just an action to help a small segment of Michigan’s cattle farmers, primarily in a limited region of the Upper Peninsula.

First comes the revelation that many of the complaints about wolves have come from one loud farmer, who has done little on his own to mitigate.

Then there is the travesty of public records reporting. There are few states that rival Michigan for government secrecy in order to keep the public in the dark.

From a story in MLive about the public response to the wolf hunt:  The Natural Resources Commission received more than 10,000 emails after seeking public comment, but there is no tally of how many were pro or con. The NRC chairman deleted several thousand, many of them identical, from all over the world. Most of the rest went unopened, a department spokesman said. They said anti-hunt groups launched an email blast so extensive the agency was overwhelmed.

I’m not sure who would believe that dog-ate-my-homework excuse, but certainly no one with any common sense.

Gov. Snyder is appeasing powerful Republican state Sen.  Tom Casperson, who serves a wide swath of the UP, where GOP votes have been traditionally hard to get.

Casperson is now chair of the Transportation Committee and the Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes Committee. His campaign coffers, like so many, are amassed with cash from special interests.

Perhaps more important in the case of the wolf hunt, he has received $10,500 over the years from the Michigan Farm Bureau political action committee, one of the prime movers of the bill that allowed the hunt.

Most farmers donate to the PAC, and more are members of the bureau.  That’s a big voting block.

Casperson posted a press release in October citing wolf attacks on the livestock and pets of some of his constituents in October while berating the U.S. Humane Society.  Then Casperson cited a poll by a Republican polling group that claimed 67 percent of Michiganders supported a wolf hunt in targeted areas of the state, which includes his district.

Casperson is the same lawmaker who pushed through a bill allowing petting zoo patrons to touch captive bear cubs, explicitly and unashamedly citing Oswald’s Bear Ranch in Newberry, Michigan in a press release as enjoying the benefits of this measure.

Casperson is certainly for sale. Dean and Jewel Oswald, operators of the bear ranch, donated $1,000 each to his campaign fund in August, 2012.

Casperson introduced the bill regarding bear cub petting five months later, in January of this year. The Oswalds had also donated $500 to Casperson in 2010. The price goes up, apparently, according to what you seek. Senate bills must cost more.

As you can see, the wolf hunt is all about the cash and Republican Party fealty.

Iggy’s letter in support of the wolves is a terrific gesture, truly something he didn’t need to do. That speaks volumes. He writes the letter like a man who has read White Fang more than once.

Iggy could make a big difference down the line by funding and supporting candidates to take out such pay-to-play lackeys like Snyder and Casperson. Yes, they’ll be replaced by the same, but the revolving door at least has a small effect on honesty.

Iggy's Video Debut? Whatever, Wears Rational Tee and Whiteface in Nico Vid

Ig in whiteface and tee. Video debut?

Ig without whiteface in tee

You know the story about Iggy Pop and Nico and alla that, recounted so well in his book I Need More. Check out the video he made with her in a southeastern Michigan corn field, him in mime makeup and his now-classic Rational tee, sans the ‘s’. And no, you can’t package and sell cred, no matter how hard you try. 

Check it Out: The Rock HOF LIbrary is Actually Good

Rock HOF Library Card

It’s easy to beat up on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a beacon of many things that went wrong with the money grab that continually assaults the music industry.

I’ve written before about it; the RRHOF is run by 1 percenters, doesn’t pay taxes and has generally played personal politics with what was once the essence of a loud middle finger to The Establishment.

It’s easy to bitch about those excluded and included – really, Herb Alpert, Madonna in, Grand Funk not? – but that’s just about the tastes of a meager few, the nominating committee.

The hall sits on a waterfront piece of land worth $42 million, with net assets of $93 million, according to its most recently available tax return. To some people, nothing says rebellion like a fat bank account.

On a visit to Cleveland this week, though, I discovered the redeeming element of the HOF: It’s newly opened library and archive collection.

The book collection alone is worth a stop – of course it has both the Touch and Go book and the Johnny Ramone autobio, but the best stuff is in the archives. For that, you get a library card and hit the database.  In an hour, I found the lawyer letter from the Carbona company to Sire asking that the Ramones song, “Carbona Not Glue”not be included on any more records – so far, Sire said, it had sold 45,000 of the 60,000 pressed. I also found a letter from Iggy Pop to Guns and Roses thanking them – profusely, handwritten, on yellow legal paper – for covering “Raw Power” on the Spaghetti Incident.  Iggy said it gave him a “huge boost.” I found it in the voluminous collection of materials from Art Collins.

There was more and more and more.  While the RRHOF is an irritating bit of organization to a format that should defy organization, the library is a blessing for those of us who are interested in how it all happened.