R.I.P. Scott Asheton (Of The Stooges)

This weekend marked the passing of Scott Asheton, drummer of The Stooges, the seminal 1960-70s band Iggy Pop made his music debut in. He was 64.

The Stooges (1969), Funhouse (1970) and Raw Power (1973) are unbelievable records, part of a not-so-large club in which the first three (and for over 30 years the only three) albums of a band's career are excellent.

I've listened to the eponymous record possibly as often as any Led Zeppelin record, with tracks like 1969 and No Fun rivaling in energy and power anything Jimmy Page has ever put through an amp, and I Wanna Be Your Dog (while a pretty good song as well) inspiring many rebellious teens to become the crusty punks they would otherwise not have the courage to.

And like Zeppelin, The Who and - to a much lesser extent - Cream, the drumming really made The Stooges' sound what it was, and now it is no more.

The band had been inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2010 and were working on a new record, playing unreleased yet oft-bootlegged songs from the 1970s sung by different guest vocalists (Iggy wanted to take a year off).

And like Iggy's tribute to Stiv Bators I posted last month, he also had the most eloquent words about his drummer's passing:

My dear friend Scott Asheton passed away last night. Scott was a great artist, I have never heard anyone play the drums with more meaning than Scott Asheton. He was like my brother. He and Ron have left a huge legacy to the world. The Ashetons have always been and continue to be a second family to me.

My thoughts are with his sister Kathy, his wife Liz and his daughter Leanna, who was the light of his life.

Iggy Pop

Punks Have Feelings Too

If you know me at all, you know my favourite punk rock band of all time were The Dead Boys, originally from Cleveland, Ohio but mainstays in the New York City scene of the late 1970s. They were mostly active 1976-1979, with brief reunions in 1986, and 2004-2005, though more people nowadays are aware of Rocket From The Tombs, the band that preceded them, because they took back to touring in 2003 and haven't stopped yet. RFTT sing about half of the Dead Boys' catalog nowadays, though many of them were existing songs or works-in-progress from the early days anyhow, including both classic songs Ain't It Fun and Sonic Reducer (both of which I also have been singing since I started playing live shows in the early 1990s).

The two main protagonists in the Dead Boys were singer Stiv Bators (né Steven John Bator) and lead guitarist Cheetah Chrome (Gene O'Connor to the I.R.S.), with Jimmy Zero (rhythm guitar), Jeff Magnum (bass) and Johnny Blitz (drums) completing the line-up. Bators and Chrome were the main songwriters, though most of the band shares songwriting credits on their first album, Young, Loud & Snotty (1977).

Bators died in 1990 in France at age 40, after getting hit by a cab, which caused a blood clot to form and causing a brain aneurysm in his sleep that night. Filmmaker John Waters (who had worked with him for Polyester) says Bators' then-girlfriend snorted some of his ashes before spreading the remainder of them over Jim Morrison's grave; Bators was a huge Morrison fan, as were many punks from Ian Curtis (Joy Division) to Iggy Pop.

Speaking of Iggy Pop, here is what he had to say to Bators' parents when he wasn't able to attend their son's funeral:

Iggy And The Stooges Play High Schools

Or they did when they started...

What a story! What awesome pictures!