The Stooges

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Beautiful pressing of a legendary creative effort beautifully presented with this excellent edition.John Cale, the Asheton Brothers, Dave Alexander, and Iggy Stooge = Godhead!

This album has so many 5 stars that adding another review with an "I love it" mark isn't adding much. You should already know if you want to buy this, it's Protopunk and Garage Rock! I'm going to review it anyway, because I often find a lack of in-depth reviews on this site.So it's 1969 (pun intended) and The Stooges just got their album released on the same label that the MC5s original stuff was and, strangely enough, the Doors. Iggy Pop was not the successful solo artist most people know him as today, and the closest thing to "punk" was the MC5 and the Sonics. Then "The Stooges" come out and doesn't change much, since protopunk at this point was pretty much dying. I'm not saying this album is bad (look how many stars) but protopunk was basically all it could be at this point, and it was losing popularity.So, what's the deal with this album? People call it "punk" but only three songs on the album are considered "Ramones length" and there's a ten minute jam with chanting? Even though it is constantly labeled as punk, it's probably closer to psychedelic punk, or maybe even heavy drone rock. Simple chord progressions, long impressive solos, energetic performance, and everything is extended just before it becomes dull. And then there is "We Will Fall." Most people absolutely hate this song because of how jarringly different it is compared to the rest of the album: slow, chanting, stoned, a bit weird, yet still simple. This song is more reminiscent of Indian music than punk. I actually like it, and I'm probably the only weirdo who likes this song AND the rest of the album, but I wouldn't say they go together well.The version I have, the 90's reissue CD with no bonus tracks, handles the mastering well, in my opinion. No clipping (like the infamous Raw Power CD) and it doesn't sound like treble or bass was raised or lowered too much. Sucks that there are no bonus tracks, especially since I long to hear the original John Cale mixes, but for a CD that's about 20 or so years old with a cheap price, I can't complain much.Really, if you want this album, you shouldn't read the reviews, and if you are on the fence, just listen to "1969" or "I Wanna be Your Dog" on YouTube and decide for yourself. High amounts of praise can damage expectations, but the five stars are probably worth it this time.

Excellent. Iggy and the Ashton’s masterpiece! Recommended!

I would love to have given this five stars. I was so excited to be getting the 2 CD edition of this fantastic record with all the John Cale mixes and alternate vocal takes, as well as a remastered rendering of the original album. When I opened it up and successively put each of the two discs into my Sony disc player (Which has never failed to play any other disc I've ever introduced into its tray) it slowly attempted to parse the information on each of them, finally presenting a grossly garbled partial sampling of the content. After the fact, I did notice that nowhere on the discs or packaging can the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo be found. Are these actually CDs? They both play just fine in my LG M-DISC DVD recorder attached to my desktop computer. My plan now is to burn copies of each disc to use in other machines, but honestly this is unacceptable, and I won't buy another CD from the Amazon UK Global Store, certainly not at full price.Once I was actually able to hear the music on these discs, it was everything I'd hoped it would be, but I can't get the full LOUD high fidelity experience I was excited to hear without jumping through the hoops of duplication.

Heard this at a friend's house and ordered it that day. Up to now, I've only been able to listen to this on the original vinyl without puking--the Elektra CD is that bad. This remaster is very good: you can hear Iggy's voice and tell how young he is and you can hear the nuances in all the songs (which sound dull and repetitive on the Elektra CD). Maybe most important, they included all of Ron Asheton's guitar solos here, which makes this a must buy, even if you're a vinyl freak with the original in decent condition. And the John Cale mixes are interesting, much better in my opinion than most of the reviewers here say.As to the album itself, if you don't know it, well . . . just listen to the Amazon sampler of "Now I wanna be your dog"--it'll only play you the instrumental lead in, which should be enough. I dare you to name a better, hotter lead than that, ever, except maybe Chuck Berry on "Johnny B. Good." Everybody talks about how the Stooges were punk before punk on this album and metal before metal on Raw Power and free jazz/rock fusion on Fun House, which was recorded before the Stones' Exile on Main Street. All true, but so what. Get this album (buy all three, actually) because the band was fantastic: hot, tight, powerful, as hard-core as it will ever get. You'll never hear anybody play or sing with more conviction than this. In the end that's what counts, and what should last.