1000 Albums Project

ALBUM 36

The Stooges, by The Stooges
Suggested by Neil Hodgkinson

One of the surprisingly fun aspects of this project so far is seeing the sheer variety of styles on offer. As I know you all at this stage, or most of you at least, it’s also good fun to see exactly who is recommending what.

Extrapolating this incidental data feels like a social studies project. In this corner there’s the young ‘ums, choosing bizarre rap and R&B albums by people with punctuation in their names in place of real letters. That corner houses the beer-gut-and beardy Cargo Short Brigade, pointing me toward jackhammer assaults that growl about distended rectums. Another corner houses the Pop Princesses, championing songs that show off the (usually female) vocalist’s supreme mastery of their art. And yet another corner sits the aging curmudgeons, selecting classic albums with a steely resolve, almost daring me to say a bad word about a single song.

Don’t worry, folks. I’m only joshing. I love you all, I really do.

But The Stooges, the 1969 debut by, well, The Stooges, definitely sits in Category Four.

On checking the tracklist, there’s only one song I know, the stone classic I Wanna Be Your Dog. I do like Iggy Pop, and he’s written some crackers down the years. Passenger, Real Wild Child, Lust For Life… I spent a large part of my University career consumed by alcohol and listening to F**kin’ Alone on repeat. So it’s safe to say that I went into this selection with ill-disguised glee.

Song 1. 1969. So far so good. Reminiscent of an anarchic and slightly pissed Stones. Iggy’s voice is an acquired taste, but his energy is undeniable and his sound is iconic, so it’s a big tick from me.

Song 2. I Wanna Be Your Dog. Classic. Best thing on the album, calling it now.

Song 3. We Will Fall. A TEN-MINUTE GONGY BONGFEST FULL OF MONASTIC CHANTING AND MUMBLY FUMBLING.

What in the BLUE HELL is THIS?!

I’m sorry, but I don’t care how big a legend Iggy damn Pop happens to be. That was ludicrous.

We Will Fall broke me, I’m sorry to say. I nodded along to the more conventional remainder, but I kept thinking back to the ridiculous noodling and losing my musical train of thought.

So, it’s two good songs, followed by NONSENSE, then a few more aural apologies that can’t sweep the nonsense from your mind. I give it 5/10, in deference to the one full-on banger on the album.

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