1970: THE COMPLETE FUN HOUSE SESSIONS
1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions is a seven-CD limited edition boxed set that commemorates and chronicles the entire session for Fun House, the second studio album by American protopunk band The Stooges. (More from Wikipedia)
As a measure of the popularity of the Stooges album Fun House, as reported in Wikipedia: “In 1999, Rhino Records released a limited edition box set, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions, featuring every take of every song from every day of the recording sessions, plus the single versions of ‘Down on the Street’ and ‘1970’. On August 16, 2005, the album was reissued by Elektra [Records] and Rhino as a two-CD set featuring a newly remastered version of the album on disc one and a variety of outtakes (essentially highlights from The Complete Fun House Sessions box set) on disc two.”
(December 2016)
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The redo of the 1977 Siamese Records 45, “I Got a Right” b/w “Gimme Some Skin” – and the only one of the Iguana Chronicles albums and EP’s that I don’t have at all, as best I can tell – is like a miniature version of the box set on Rhino Records, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions that I have mentioned before. Like the songs on the 1977 EP I’m Sick of You, “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin” are early demo recordings by the Stooges dating from June 1972 that were rejected by MainMan Management for the Raw Power album.
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I am not near through with describing The Iguana Chronicles, but it is not hard to tell that this is a mountain of music – much more even than in the six-CD box set by the Stooges, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions. While there is some repetition on these albums that is probably unavoidable, as I have played my way through the records, I have gotten to know these songs pretty intimately in a variety of contexts.
And what keeps coming back to me is that the new songs on Open Up and Bleed! (and on other Iguana Chronicles albums; this CD does not have all of them) sound better to me than the songs from the Raw Power era – both the official album and the rejected demos alike. We will never know for sure whether the Stooges would have released an album with all or most of these songs had sales of their first three albums gone better, but there is no question that this is the closest thing to what could have been the fourth Stooges album.
(December 2017)
