The past year has been a bonanza for Stooges fans. In October 2009, four concerts of the 1971 line up were released by the UK label Easy Action as a box set titled You Want My Action. This is the band that featured both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on dueling lead guitars and the earth shattering rumble of Jimmy Recca on bass alongside Iggy and drummer Scott Asheton. In May 2010, Sony put out the deluxe Raw Power box set that came with a previously unheard concert of the Iggy & The Stooges version of the band in Atlanta from 1973. But now we have what we’ve all been waiting for – the Funhouse-era Stooges captured in all of their maximum 1970 insanity on a limited edition CD from Rhino Handmade entitled Have Some Fun: Live At Ungano’s.
For decades, survivors have been talking about the incredible run of shows the band played at a New York City club called Ungano’s around the release of the Funhouse album in the summer of ‘70. Now we have the audio evidence and it confirms the legend - The Stooges were an ferociously kick ass live band. Sound quality is a bit rough since it’s an audience recording but this is all that we have so I’m not complaining. The show was taped by Danny Fields, who signed them and the MC5 to Elektra Records. At the start of the disc there’s some very entertaining banter between Danny and a few others on the way to the show, including (rumor has it) Patti Smith.
The hilarious discussion sets up the main event perfectly. The club owner tries to introduce the band but Iggy screams “TAKE IT” and the band crashes into “Loose.” The tempo’s way up, faster than the studio version but the band is extremely tight and in control while being out of control at the same time. First thing you notice is how hard Scotty hits the drums. Jeezus, that cat can groove. Ron’s guitar playing is razor sharp and former roadie/new bassist Zeke Zettner replicates Dave Alexander’s parts just fine. Iggy’s voice is great and he lets out lots of howls and screams. Every song from Funhouse is played and it’s a real treat to finally hear an unedited live version of “TV Eye.” Unfortunately, the song “Funhouse” is truncated but there’s a killer jam that evolves out of “L.A. Blues” that’s titled “Have Some Fun/My Dream Is Dead.” These songs might have been improvised on the spot or could possibly be an unrecorded song called “Way Down In Egypt.” Whatever the case, the band really cuts loose, especially sax maestro Steve MacKay. Steve’s playing has always been an excellent mix of Junior Walker R&B and Archie Shepp free jazz.
Packaging on this disc is good but not great. There are some cool shots of Iggy flipping off the crowd (who are sitting on the floor!) but not much of the rest of the band. There’s a reproduction of an advertisement for the show. It’s interesting to note that the week before The Stooges played was the debut of Tony Williams’ band Lifetime featuring Jack Bruce, John McLaughlin and Larry Young. Iggy and Ron have always claimed that they did a bunch of coke with Miles Davis at one of the Ungano’s shows, but others say that although Miles was there he basically had his fingers in his ears. Johnny Winter is also rumored to have been at one of the shows, too.
Buy here: Have Some Fun: Live At Ungano's
For the real hardcore collector, Easy Action has released Popped: The Fan Club Package with reproductions of newsletters that were put out by Natalie Schlossman from 1969 to 1971. The Stooges were an extremely unpopular band and it’s amazing that someone went out of their way to document what they were doing with so much care and attention. The newsletters are fascinating to read but the real shake appeal here is a CD containing more 1970 live recordings titled A Thousand Lights. The mint deluxe packaging also comes with some great photos, a t-shirt and a booklet with a great interview with Jimmy Recca about his time in the band.
There are versions of “Dirt” and “1970” recorded in NYC but it’s not clear if they are the August 1970 shows or from a prior engagement. Either way, they’re great performances. A show from Chicago in July 1970 has been floating around on bootlegs for years and the audio has been cleaned up a bit for this CD. The sound is pretty rough but the unhinged versions of “Funhouse” and “L.A. Blues” make up for it. There’s even 1 song from the infamous Goose Lake festival where bassist Dave Alexander supposedly got so drunk and forgot all the songs. To wrap it up, there are the audio fragments of the 2 songs and that got aired on the Midsummer Night's Dream television special from a festival in Cincinnati that also featured Traffic, Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper and Mountain. Chances are you’ve seen the famous photos of Iggy walking on the crowd and flinging peanut butter around from this show.
There aren’t a lot of these box sets, so get one while you can.
Buy from Easy Action
Despite all of this, Kill City is a pretty decent album but now it’s much improved that James Williamson did a complete remix of it. The guitar is much more potent and upfront in the mix. The title track is still one of Iggy’s best and “Consolation Prizes” contains some excellent sleazy slide guitar work from James. “I Got Nothin” and “Johanna” were performed on the last Stooges tour and they were redone here with some occasionally overbearing saxophone. Iggy and James were obviously going for a Rolling Stones-type of sound here and are moderately successful at it. If they had done some of these songs with Ron and Scott Asheton along with some of the other great lost Stooges songs, it would have made a great 4th album for the band. Since that never happened, this is all that’s left and is a worthy addition to any Iggy-phile’s collection.
--Woody
Buy from Bomp (green vinyl)
“Kill City” promo clip