FUN HOUSE
Fun House is the second studio album by American rock band The Stooges. It was released on July 7, 1970 by Elektra Records. Though initially commercially unsuccessful, Fun House developed a strong cult following and, like its successor (1973’s Raw Power), is generally considered integral in the development of punk rock. (More from Wikipedia)
Iggy Pop began working with the Stooges again on his 2003 album, Skull Ring that also featured several younger artists: Green Day, the Trolls, Sum 41, and Peaches. The Stooges toured extensively between 2003 and 2008 with founding members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), and Scott Asheton (drums), along with (at Ron Asheton’s suggestion) new bandmember Mike Watt (bass guitar), formerly of Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and guest musician Steve Mackay (saxophone), who had performed on the Fun House album. During these tours, the Stooges released an album of all new material, The Weirdness (2007). Also, Elektra Records reissued the band’s first two albums, The Stooges and Fun House in deluxe 2-CD packages in 2005.
(March 2017)
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If all you ever buy are major-label record albums or CD’s, then you’re stuck. You have the choice of those three Stooges albums – The Stooges, Fun House, and Raw Power – and that’s it. And those albums are not always in print, and used copies are a tough find as well. As an example, for the third album, Raw Power, there was a 1989 CD release on Columbia Records – 16 years after the original vinyl edition in 1973. (The other two Stooges albums came out on Elektra Records).
(September 2017)
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Still, Kill City – and the other albums in The Iguana Chronicles for that matter – has comparatively low marks from some critics. While the previous two albums by the Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power, as well as the first two solo albums by Iggy Pop, The Idiot and Lust for Life all have 5-star ratings by Allmusic, Kill City is at 3½ stars. Robert Christgau of Village Voice gave the album a B.
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The Iguana Chronicles are by no means the only albums by the Stooges that have been released outside of the five major-label albums: The Stooges (1969), Fun House (1970), Raw Power (1973), The Weirdness (2007), and Ready to Die (2013). Because the music was supplied by a Stooges bandmember, James Williamson with the blessing of frontman Iggy Pop, I would view the albums in The Iguana Chronicles as legitimate releases.
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Rough Power also includes the complete broadcast in early 1973 by WABX radio of Ann Arbor, MI (including commentary by DJ’s Mark Parento and Dennis Frawley) after they were furnished with some very early recordings of some of the Raw Power songs that had apparently been smuggled out of the recording studio.
To call these recordings “mixes” of any kind is probably a compliment that they do not deserve; much of the music is almost unintelligible, and in more than one case, I could not recognize the song at all even though I had the song listing to go by. However, they are a fascinating glimpse into the earliest versions of these amazing songs; and at least for the people in Ann Arbor – the hometown of the Stooges – getting to hear any new Stooges material three years since the previous album, Fun House came out would be considered a blessing.
(December 2017)
