Dayodead
Junior Member
@dayodead
Posts: 1,172
Likes: 378
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Post by Dayodead on Jan 5, 2020 9:55:27 GMT
"Psychedelic" ??
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Post by petrolino on Jan 5, 2020 18:04:29 GMT
No wonder this selfie board's half-dead. Good, let it stay that way.
'The band's 1967 debut was at their communal State Street house on Halloween night, followed by their next live gig, January 1968. During this early period, the Stooges were originally billed as the "Psychedelic Stooges" at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, and other venues, where they played with the band MC5 and others. At one of their early Grande Ballroom performances, Asheton's guitar neck separated from the body forcing the band to stop playing during the opening song, "I Wanna Be Your Dog".
The group's early sound differed from their later music; critic Edwin Pouncey writes: The Stooges' early musical experiments were more avant garde than punk rock, with Pop incorporating such household objects as a vacuum cleaner and a blender into an intense wall of feedback that one observer described as sounding like "an airplane was landing in the room." Homemade instruments were also incorporated to flesh out the overall sound. The 'Jim-a-phone' involved pushing feedback through a funnel device which was raised and lowered to achieve the best effect. There was also a cheap Hawaiian guitar which Pop and guitarist Ron Asheton would take turns in plucking to produce a simulated sitar drone, while drummer Scott Asheton pounded away at a set of oil drums with a ball hammer.'
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Post by darknessfish on Jan 6, 2020 9:50:44 GMT
It's a fair question though, whatever Dayo is referring to. Regardless of the early experiments, name, or live gigs, there's no way that The Stooges debut is actually psychedelic, is there? I mean, it's kind of the epitome of stripped-back rock, isn't it? From recollection, "We Will Fall" is the closest thing to a psyche track, and that's really just through repetition.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 7, 2020 18:14:18 GMT
It's a fair question though, whatever Dayo is referring to. Regardless of the early experiments, name, or live gigs, there's no way that The Stooges debut is actually psychedelic, is there? I mean, it's kind of the epitome of stripped-back rock, isn't it? From recollection, "We Will Fall" is the closest thing to a psyche track, and that's really just through repetition. Hopefully you can provide the correct answer for said poster. Thank you very much.
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Dayodead
Junior Member
@dayodead
Posts: 1,172
Likes: 378
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Post by Dayodead on Jan 7, 2020 18:15:49 GMT
Wow..
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Post by darknessfish on Jan 8, 2020 9:10:49 GMT
Ooh, I've wandered into the passive-aggressive board by mistake.
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Post by cypher on Jan 8, 2020 15:44:32 GMT
The Stooges' debut album is a psychedelic masterpiece, but not in the 'traditional' sense.
The opening track, '1969', illustrates this immediately.
Asheton starts the song on his own with a wah-wah, then the drums come in with a steady 4/4 beat, Iggy chimes in, and then the song kicks it up a notch, but it's the lyrics that act as a counterbalance to the psyche instrumentation. It's rooted in the here and now, it's 1969, we're young, and there's nothing to do.
It's a slap to the face. Psychedelic lyrics usually hark back to childhood, more innocent times, or take on a surrealistic aspect. '1969' is a reflection of the zeitgeist. It's not 1967, the height of psychedelia, anymore, it's '69, and The Stooges have realized that they are in the grip of some kind of '60's hangover. They're young, and there's really nothing exciting to be had.
The next song, 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', is not psychedelic, except for the outro, which is as 'misplaced' as the lyrics. The nihilism scarily shines through. It's all very confusing.
The last song of the side is probably the most traditionally psychedelic song on the album, starting off with some drone and chanting, but again the lyrics are not conducive, inflicting a very unsettling experience on the listener, combined with Cale's mournful viola outro.
*flip* 'now what are we in for?'
'No Fun' pretty much repeats the formula of side one, reinforcing the zeitgeist feeling, but this time taking the 'psychedelic' out. Yes, there's a kind of 'psychedelic' solo, but Iggy 'ruins' it with his Jagger-esque mugging, and screaming. It's about now that the listener begins to realize that even though the Stooge's are employing psychedelic tropes this is far from your usual psychedelic album.
Hang on, this is more like it, 'Real Cool Time' is almost the epitome of psychedelic music, but with ambiguous lyrics that could be taken as a party anthem, but also could be interpreted as being very dark indeed.
Oh Jesus, this is one of the most excruciating love songs of the '60's, very funereal, not psychedelic at all, until, again the outro, where the guitar is dragging you down into hell.
Relief is needed, but it's 'Not Right', one of the most incisive songs about a relationship, ever. This is real shit, folks, this ain't Kansas no more... Again Asheton employs a traditional psych solo as an outro. As with most of his psych solos it's a throwaway, not front and center.
It's the last song of the album, and, 'what do we get?', more of the same... Another cleverly juxtaposed confliction of a song. On paper the lyrics could be just another hippy-dippy love song, but it's not, there is a sort of cool detachment in the delivery, which is juxtaposed with the palpable yearning in, again, Asheton's 'psych' outro.
This is a psychedelic masterpiece that is completely of it's time, an album of complete subversion, that, in part, embraced what had come before, but heralded what was yet to come...
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Post by petrolino on Jan 8, 2020 18:12:23 GMT
The Stooges' debut album is a psychedelic masterpiece, but not in the 'traditional' sense. The opening track, '1969', illustrates this immediately. Asheton starts the song on his own with a wah-wah, then the drums come in with a steady 4/4 beat, Iggy chimes in, and then the song kicks it up a notch, but it's the lyrics that act as a counterbalance to the psyche instrumentation. It's rooted in the here and now, it's 1969, we're young, and there's nothing to do. It's a slap to the face. Psychedelic lyrics usually hark back to childhood, more innocent times, or take on a surrealistic aspect. '1969' is a reflection of the zeitgeist. It's not 1967, the height of psychedelia, anymore, it's '69, and The Stooges have realized that they are in the grip of some kind of '60's hangover. They're young, and there's really nothing exciting to be had. The next song, 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', is not psychedelic, except for the outro, which is as 'misplaced' as the lyrics. The nihilism scarily shines through. It's all very confusing. The last song of the side is probably the most traditionally psychedelic song on the album, starting off with some drone and chanting, but again the lyrics are not conducive, inflicting a very unsettling experience on the listener, combined with Cale's mournful viola outro. *flip* 'now what are we in for?' 'No Fun' pretty much repeats the formula of side one, reinforcing the zeitgeist feeling, but this time taking the 'psychedelic' out. Yes, there's a kind of 'psychedelic' solo, but Iggy 'ruins' it with his Jagger-esque mugging, and screaming. It's about now that the listener begins to realize that even though the Stooge's are employing psychedelic tropes this is far from your usual psychedelic album. Hang on, this is more like it, 'Real Cool Time' is almost the epitome of psychedelic music, but with ambiguous lyrics that could be taken as a party anthem, but also could be interpreted as being very dark indeed. Oh Jesus, this is one of the most excruciating love songs of the '60's, very funereal, not psychedelic at all, until, again the outro, where the guitar is dragging you down into hell. Relief is needed, but it's 'Not Right', one of the most incisive songs about a relationship, ever. This is real shit, folks, this ain't Kansas no more... Again Asheton employs a traditional psych solo as an outro. As with most of his psych solos it's a throwaway, not front and center. It's the last song of the album, and, 'what do we get?', more of the same... Another cleverly juxtaposed confliction of a song. On paper the lyrics could be just another hippy-dippy love song, but it's not, there is a sort of cool detachment in the delivery, which is juxtaposed with the palpable yearning in, again, Asheton's 'psych' outro. This is a psychedelic masterpiece that is completely of it's time, an album of complete subversion, that, in part, embraced what had come before, but heralded what was yet to come...
Thanks. I wouldn't have known any of that. To me, psychedelia's just a thing in my head. I never paid much attention to genre classification in the arts. In France, cinema fantastique can combine elements of science-fiction, fantasy and horror, but 'Alien' (1979) fans in the U K will argue for hours about genre classification - some state it's horror, others say it's sci-fi, some say it's action and action only ... I honestly have no idea so I prefer to let others to specify these things. All I do know is I enjoy the 'Alien' series of movies, wherever they fall.
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Post by cypher on Jan 8, 2020 21:03:17 GMT
Thanks. I wouldn't have known any of that. To me, psychedelia's just a thing in my head. I never paid much attention to genre classification in the arts. In France, cinema fantastique can combine elements of science-fiction, fantasy and horror, but 'Alien' (1979) fans in the U K will argue for hours about genre classification - some state it's horror, others say it's sci-fi, some say it's action and action only ... I honestly have no idea so I prefer to let others to specify these things. All I do know is I enjoy the 'Alien' series of movies, wherever they fall.
There's nothing to know. It's just my interpretation. To be honest, I'm not that au fait with The Stooges' albums, I'm basing this off the 2019 remasters. I wouldn't be surprised if someone attacks me by saying I'm talking absolute nonsense, and that if you go back to the original mixes, or the 2005 mix, or whatever, it's clearly not psychedelic at all. Having said that, I absolutely love 60's/ 70's psychedelic music, especially garage psych, of which 'The Stooges' album is a leading proponent. Garage psych is the forebearer of punk, another genre I really enjoy. 'Classic' punk rather than hardcore. I have been thinking of starting a 'psychedelic' thread, but I don't think there'd be other posters who would contribute, with me solely adding to it every now and again, like the other threads that I have done, where it may seem that I'm randomly, and annoyingly, bumping every so often...
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Post by petrolino on Jan 9, 2020 18:07:26 GMT
Thanks. I wouldn't have known any of that. To me, psychedelia's just a thing in my head. I never paid much attention to genre classification in the arts. In France, cinema fantastique can combine elements of science-fiction, fantasy and horror, but 'Alien' (1979) fans in the U K will argue for hours about genre classification - some state it's horror, others say it's sci-fi, some say it's action and action only ... I honestly have no idea so I prefer to let others to specify these things. All I do know is I enjoy the 'Alien' series of movies, wherever they fall.
There's nothing to know. It's just my interpretation. To be honest, I'm not that au fait with The Stooges' albums, I'm basing this off the 2019 remasters. I wouldn't be surprised if someone attacks me by saying I'm talking absolute nonsense, and that if you go back to the original mixes, or the 2005 mix, or whatever, it's clearly not psychedelic at all. Having said that, I absolutely love 60's/ 70's psychedelic music, especially garage psych, of which 'The Stooges' album is a leading proponent. Garage psych is the forebearer of punk, another genre I really enjoy. 'Classic' punk rather than hardcore. I have been thinking of starting a 'psychedelic' thread, but I don't think there'd be other posters who would contribute, with me solely adding to it every now and again, like the other threads that I have done, where it may seem that I'm randomly, and annoyingly, bumping every so often...
I was going to highlight at least a hundred bands who may or not be psychedelic, but suddenly expected to just be attacked by those saying I was full of crap. I don't know what to say about contributions. The old imdb Music board could be cliquey and most comments were dismissive.
It's be nice to have a psych thread if we can add a bit of writing as well as musical selections. If we can, I'm ready to contribute, as my two favourite music labels are psychedelia and punk. But psych is largely absent from this board and a global phenomenon, influencing some of the best bands today. And for those of us who aren't purists, just about every great '60s band worth their salt tried going psychedelic at some point in the 1960s. But, some people might say that's nonsense, you don't have a clue what psychedelia is, even though the band were dressing in kaftans under kaleidoscopic lights.
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