bidhardcore.com

Well, Ron Asheton, founding member of the Stooges was discovered dead this morning. He was 60. Given the kind of drug consumption the Stooges were known for, it’s a wonder he lived this long. Asheton’s loose guitar mangling was a huge part of the foundation that the first 2 Stooges lps, 1969’s self-titled debut and 1970’s Funhouse exist on. In some ways he’s the first guitar player to really matter for punk, and by association, hardcore. He’s definitely the first guitar player that I care about whose abilities were minimal, but whose technique and creativity were limitless, a concept that a majority of the bands covered on this site owe a debt to. 

In the context of this site, the importance of the Stooges can’t really be understated. The Bad Brains “I” is essentially a re-write of Funhouse’s “1970″, which was covered on the first Damned lp, another (massive influence on the Bad Brains). Black Flag frequently name checked Fun House and Greg Ginn’s free-style guitar  shredding owes a large debt to the path that Asheton helped blaze before him. Negative Approach, were always proud of their Detroit rock roots, and were known to play Stooges classics like “I Got a Right” at gigs. John Brannon additionally had a pre-NA band, Static, that was said to have been heavily indebted to the Stooges. Ron Asheton himself was even briefly a member of cult favorites The State. When the State’s classic No Illusions 7″ came out in ‘83, Asheton himself was the producer of the sessions. (Side Note: No Illusions is #8 on my top 10 USHC 7″s ‘80-83. ) The reason I’m bringing all this up, is just in case there’s any question as to whether this shit matters here. It does. It matters a lot. You can draw a pretty clear line from the Stooges to any formative hardcore band, and at the end of the day it’s all Rock n Roll to me, and the Stooges were about the best there was for a minute. 

Then the drugs caught up with them. That and poor sales. Almost no one got the Stooges in their day. In fact the word is that the label wanted to drop them after their first lp tanked, but they were kept on Elektra because Iggy was considered as a potential replacement for Jim Morrison (his departure one way or another, already anticipated by ‘70). Thank god for that, because they were able to work up the material to Funhouse in that time, their finest hour for sure. After Funhouse sold even worse than their debut though they did get dropped, and they were all screwed up on dope, which is a bad way to be if you’re looking for work. It took 3 years to piece together a new album and get a record deal. By that time Ron Asheton had been demoted to bass, with the vastly inferior (though still competent) James Williamson now filling the guitar slot, and also the primary song writing position. The differences between Funhouse (Asheton’s finest musical moment), and Raw Power (a better known album that is about half as good) are massive. It’s full of sleazy shimmy-shake glitter garbage, that’s as good as the best Dolls shit, but when you put it up against the mean as hell insanity of say, TV Eye (which has possibly the best opening rock riff ever put to tape), it’s a fucking joke. Say what you want, but Williamson’s sheen and polish just don’t have the same kind of fire and menace that Ron Asheton did. I’ll save the side by side comparisons of pre-Williamson/post-Williamson Stooges for another time, both have their merits, but I’m of the firm belief that Ron Asheton was the only guitarist the Stooges ever really had. R.I.P.