FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
The Stooges - Fun House
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FOR this Vinyl Corner…
I am focusing on an album that I am a big fan of. The Stooges’ Fun House was released in July 1970. The second studio album from the Iggy Pop-fronted band, it remains hugely important. Musicians such as Mark E. Smith and Nick Cave have named it as their favourite album. Songs from the album have been covered by a range of artists. Featuring seven tracks, one might feel Fun House is too lean to make an impact. There is great focus and economy on the album, though a couple of the tracks (Dirt and Fun House) exceed seven minutes. There is an urgency and thrill to the album that wowed fans ands critics in 1970. Over fifty years later, Fun House remains so exhilarating and important. I would urge people to buy it on vinyl. At the moment, one can get the vinyl through Discogs. It is harder to find it at your standard record shop. Let’s hope the band/Elektra release Fun House or remaster it very soon. One does not need to be familiar with The Stooges to appreciate Fun House. It is an album that, once heard, stays long in the head. Rather than bring in a feature about the album and its creation, there are a few reviews that tackle the album is different ways. It is rewarding seeing how such a classic has resonated with so many people.
In this expansive and fascinating review, Elliot James provided his take, thoughts and opinions on Fun House back in 2017. He makes some great observations and points:
“What makes Fun House so great? You can start by appreciating the howling craziness of one Ignatowski “Iggy” Pop Music “Pop.” Fun House is his most inspired performance of all the Stooges’ records. On opener “Down on the Street,” he is a cheetah on the prowl, crooning and swaying until BAM, he unleashes his fury and lets you know what you’ll be dealing with for the rest of this record. When he’s not singing like a greaser angel he is positively unhinged, a detail I noticed when I was sitting on the deck with my baby listening to Iggy scream like a maniac, leading me to fear judgment from my neighbors in their backyard who might think I’m purposely polluting my daughter’s mind with traumatic music. But those neighbors have motorcycles, so their opinion on literally anything in life is null and void.
Iggy’s yelps and squeals come between lyrics that boast of his strengths and inadequacies as a lover and as a human being. He might brag about being “Loose,” and he sees pretty things “Down on the Street.” He also spends seven minutes telling us he’s been “Dirt,” but he doesn’t care. It’s no accident that he sounds much more believable when he runs himself down as opposed to when he’s building himself up. There’s too much eagerness in his proclamations of grandeur, it’s like he’s over-compensating. The Stooges were dirtbags in an era when being a dirtbag didn’t sell records. The big rock bands in 1970 were larger than life, or at the very least appeared to have their shit together. Even the Stones were less ragged than this.
The rest of the band pounds out careening feedback and menacing rhythms that don’t go far to soften the blow of Iggy’s wildness. They mostly favor insistent rhythms like “T.V. Eye,” where Scott Asheton just never stops hitting the snare, or “Loose,” which rumbles forward with no mercy. Only on “Dirt” do they bring things down in a jam that is decidedly not punk, but does tap into a feeling of alienation most punk bands could only dream of imitating. Bassist Dave Alexander is absolutely essential to the success of this record, as his basslines provide the melodic foundation upon which everyone else just goes nuts. The title track is a jam and a half, but that bassline is key. By the time they get to album closer “L.A. Blues,” everything has fallen apart and no one wants to play together anymore. It’s five minutes of unorganized chaos, and even if it’s not the most listenable track in the world, it acts as a funny final statement: we can only be nice for so long until we explode”.
I am going to wrap it up soon. I wanted to convince those – if it was needed at all – who have not heard Fun House to give it closer investigation. I think that it ranks alongside the very best albums of the 1970s. Welcoming in a new decade with something so explosive must have stunned people. I think of Fun House as a Punk album, though it predated the movement. It is hard to genre-lise the album and define it. It was definitely a wake-up call to so many other musicians. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to offer:
“The Stooges' first album was produced by a classically trained composer; their second was supervised by the former keyboard player with the Kingsmen, and if that didn't make all the difference, it at least indicates why Fun House was a step in the right direction. Producer Don Gallucci took the approach that the Stooges were a powerhouse live band, and their best bet was to recreate the band's live set with as little fuss as possible. As a result, the production on Fun House bears some resemblance to the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" -- the sound is smeary and bleeds all over the place, but it packs the low-tech wallop of a concert pumped through a big PA, bursting with energy and immediacy. The Stooges were also a much stronger band this time out; Ron Asheton's blazing minimalist guitar gained little in the way of technique since The Stooges, but his confidence had grown by a quantum leap as he summoned forth the sounds that would make him the hero of proto-punk guitarists everywhere, and the brutal pound of drummer Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander had grown to heavyweight champion status. And Fun House is where Iggy Pop's mad genius first reached its full flower; what was a sneer on the band's debut had grown into the roar of a caged animal desperate for release, and his rants were far more passionate and compelling than what he had served up before. The Stooges may have had more "hits," but Fun House has stronger songs, including the garage raver to end all garage ravers in "Loose," the primal scream of "1970," and the apocalyptic anarchy of "L.A. Blues." Fun House is the ideal document of the Stooges at their raw, sweaty, howling peak”.
To round things off, there is a review from Classic Rock Review that I felt I needed to include. Fun House is one of those albums beyond fault. No matter what your tastes, one has to bow to its majesty and genius:
“The influence of some of the more intense numbers by The Doors can be felt in the opening “Down on the Street”, with a strong interlocked bass and guitar riff holding the backing track for Iggy Pop’s reverberated vocals and chants. Although this song feels raw at first listen, it is more refined than anything that follows and may be the most traditionally produced track on Fun House, even to the point of having Ron Asheton guitar overdubbed during the lead section. “Loose” follows with an interesting drum intro by Scott Asheton as he finds the upbeat groove which, overall, leans more toward the yet-to-be-developed punk genre with a starkly honest lyric.
“T.V. Eye” features a bluesy riff while the vocals are still energetic, wailing and (occasionally) screaming. This very repetitive song builds a tension which never really breaks but does reach a bit of a crescendo late in the song, just before an abrupt stop and restart. Iggy Pop has said he was channeling blues legend Howlin’ Wolf while recording “T.V. Eye”. “Dirt” has a long drum intro by Scott Asheton as Alexander’s bass and Ron Asheton’s guitar slowly join in to this overall soulful rocker. Here, Iggy Pop sounds similar to Eric Burdon of The Animals on this one while it is an overall showcase for Ron Asheton, especially during the multi-textured, wah-wah fused guitar lead.
It is quite obvious that the second side of an album derives from a singular jam which now includes saxophonist Steve Mackay, and Gallucci laid this out in side-long linear fashion. On “1970”, the rhythmic drums and bass provide backdrop for a pseudo-blues bark on a jam that does provide differing chord structures for the chorus and post-chorus. Late in the song Mackay makes his debut, adding a distinct and original element to the overall sound and vibe. On “Fun House” Mackay is more of an integral part of the sound while Scott Asheton’s drumming is a fine adhesive for the overall jam and Iggy Pop’s vocals are more strained and desperate than ever, as he technically makes his lyrical finale on the album. “L.A. Blues” wraps things up with, effectively, five minutes of noise, screams and off-beat chops as all five members desperately search for a common ending before settling on a sustained feedback loop by Ron Asheton.
Although Fun House has sold under 100,000 copies to date, it has influenced numerous other artists, with many specifically citing as this as their favorite album. The Stooges and their individual members, soon entered a tumultuous period and it would be nearly three years before they followed up Fun House (with the critically acclaimed Raw Power) but that album was sandwiched in between a pair of band breakups”.
Go and get Fun House on vinyl if you have not done so already. It is a little pricey, though I think it is worth the investment. As I said, I hope that there is another release soon enough. Although 2013’s Ready to Die was the fifth album from The Stooges, I think their best albums were the first three: The Stooges (1969), Fun House (1970) and Raw Power (1973). Make sure that you own…
A masterpiece from The Stooges.