The Stooges - Cock In My Pocket

ORIGINATION Head On
RECORDED IN 1972
LAST LISTENED TO a week ago
RATING ★★★★★

Yesterday I read a news article by a journalist who was either very pushed for time, or just plain lazy. It parroted and assertion made by the music industry that the recently-published decline in physical music sales in the UK is due to online piracy. Not only is this impossible to prove, indeed there never seems to be any proof attached to these statement but some of the proof available actually points to the opposite truth – that online piracy has led to an increase in consumption of paid-for music by these very pirates themselves. On top of that, there is the heavy irony of the music industry accusing others of piracy, given the notoriously tiny percentage of each sale that goes to the artist and that's when the CD is full price, one wonders if artists make any money at all from cut-price CDs.

Which brings me to this morning's song that I found on a double CD of bootleg recordings, apparently officially released, on sale at less than half price. Given the sound quality of the music, and at times the quality of the music itself, the price does seem rather appropriate, artist payments aside. The songs all come from the period when The Stooges where disintegrating between music contracts, although the energy in the music shows that they were still on top of their game. Cock In My Pocket is one of the most coherent songs on the collection. Focused and taken at a blistering pace, it gives the listener to wondering what would have happened to the Stooges if drugs had not taken their toll. As ever, and in particular due to the lyrics that would almost certainly never have seen a commercial release at the time, this is not music for the faint-hearted. From James Williamson's guitar to Iggy Pop's snarl, that is as raw and uncompromising as anything in The Stooges official catalogue. It also stands apart from that official sound with the addition of a piano, here not only used for colour as happened on occasion previously, but as a full part of the song. Indeed both the pianist Bob Sheff and Williamson are invited (or possibly directed) by Pop to takes solos during the song. Memorably Pop calls out Williamson by shouting "Any time James" during Sheff's solo. For an supposedly unfinished piece, it is quite a song.

Iggy & The Stooges - Search And Destroy

ORIGINATION Raw Power CD
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT detonate for me
RATING ★★★★★

I do love The Stooges and this is one of their best. No question. From nine seconds in when James Williamson's first blistering guitar spits in, to Iggy's higher-pitch-than-normal vocals, to the very last bars, it does not let go for one second. It grabs you by the throat and pulls you along for the crazed ride, for three and a half minutes of pure adrenaline rush. There is little else like it and there is only one way to listen to it and that is a speaker cabinet-rattling volume. The neighbours can go take a hike.

Sadly, these days the world we live in intrudes on the cosy memory of revolutions past. Yesterday's artist is today's salesperson. Would that it were not. So now most times when I listen to The Stooges, I can't help but picture Iggy's face on the back of a bus, hawking insurance. I'm so lucky that I do not own a television.

"Here's the deal, folks, you do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll call forever. End of story. Okay? You're another corporate fucking shill, you're another whore at the capitalist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head, everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink…" - Bill Hicks

Iggy & The Stooges - Search And Destroy

ORIGINATION Raw Power
LAST LISTENED TO not sure
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT still good
RATING

Yes! Now here's a way to start the year. Happy b*st*rding New Year!

I like The Stooges. If you've ever enjoyed a distorted guitar you do too. Or you'd better. They came out of '60s garage rock, but managed to push it further and harder than almost anyone else.

Search And Destroy is the opening track from their final fling in 1973. Bearing in mind that The Stooges where harder and meaner than almost any other band of the time (and today), this track is probably their fastest, rawest, most high-octane moment. There are no words to express how utterly marvellous this is. It's a desert islander. I'd jump around to it until my brain numbed and my ears bled and i wouldn't care.

When this LP was initially released, it was produced by David Bowie and it was pretty weak. Bowie did his thing, but it wasn't right for the music. It wasn't until a couple of years back when it was reissued that it was finally given some balls and by no less than Iggy himself.

Go and get this CD. For that matter, get all of The Stooges CDs. You're wrong if you don't. Go away now.