Gimme Danger Page #4

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and it'll just go..

[imitates a tone]

And it even goes down octaves

until you get..

[imitating a horn]

Dave, he operated

some of these instruments.

One of the first things

I used to love to do

with a mic, I would inhale..

[inhales]

And you listen

to "Asthma Attack."

[rock music]

That's good free-form music.

One night, we'd been up

all night on LSD.

We were all in Ron's room

and I-I said

"What about a name

for our band?"

Ron just said, "Well, let's

just call it "The Stooges"

"'cause we don't do anything wrong

"but everybody's picking on us.

But we'll be

"The Psychedelic Stooges.""

[instrumental music]

(James) Here's a bunch of

guys that couldn't even play.

And they're playing the Grande Ballroom.

And the audience is just mesmerized.

You know, Iggy's in white face

playing his vacuum cleaner.

(Iggy)

I wore white face

and I had an aluminum Afro wig.

I was wearing a maternity smock

and then events would happen.

Like we would throw things

and make a noise.

I would throw a pie.

I actually tired to get the group...

...to work out a cover song.

What's simple enough

for the group to play

simple enough for me to sing,

and has a good beat?

And I-I-I,

this was a terrible experiment

but we tried "She Cried"

by "Jay and the Americans."

[instrumental music]

[humming]

And when I told her

I didn't love her anymore

She cried

That was as far as we could ever get.

It sounded great.

I would, I'd do it right now.

(Iggy) There was a particular rehearsal

where I just handed

Ron a guitar and I just said

"You do it, I'm not that good

at the music part."

And Dave moved over on bass.

Our manager came home

and I improvised an angry song

and began again.

I-I had no way to express

my anger to this guy

who I never liked so much.

I just started jumping up and down

like, kinda the way chimps or baboons do

before they're gonna fight.

Like that, and as soon

as I started doing that

poof, up went the Asheton's.

All night

Till I blow

Away

I feel alright

I feel alright

That was the first time

I ever saw those two guys...

...powerfully motivated by something

that wasn't an imitation

of somebody else.

Something that was their own.

In the Asheton's I found primitive man.

So

Wooh!

So

[audience applauding]

(Rob Tyner) Brothers and sisters,

it's time to get down with it.

Brothers, it's time to testify,

I want to know

are you ready to testify?

Are you ready?

I give you a testimonial!

The "MC5."

[instrumental music]

Hey love is like a Ramblin' Rose

(Iggy) Fred Smith was

dating Kathy Asheton.

Scott and I and Ron went with Kathy

to see "MC5" when they were

still a cover band.

Lot of attitude, they had the look down

they were doing

British influenced R and B

rock and soul.

I remember a night when the three of us

drove into Detroit

to see if we could talk

about getting some opening slots.

And they had a practice space

with a big thick door

and Scott and Ron and I stood

there in the freezing cold

listening through the door

to "Kick Out The Jams"

coming through like..

[imitating guitar music]

It was simple and then,

uh-wow, so powerful.

We should get some of that.

[rock music]

And we would play with them

for nothing in church basements

youth centers, and we would

open some of their shows

at the Ballroom.

We joined their circus in many ways.

[music continues]

The Five were bigger time

commies than we were.

The big poohbah of the area

was John Sinclair.

(John) Total assault on the

culture by any means necessary

including rock and roll, dope,

and f***ing in the streets.

We believe that the... general,

uh, social structure...

...of the Western world is crumbling.

And, uh, that, that now is

the time to increase

the assault on this culture, and, uh..

(Iggy) Under Sinclair's

cloud of mega-organization

began to branch into, first,

there was the "MC5" commune

and then there was

Trans-love Energies.

And then they were

becoming more political

and they wanted to be

like Black Panthers

and they started this

W-White Panther party

which was, which was honestly,

it was just ridiculous.

We tried to avoid that.

We tried to avoid everything.

I guess that was why you,

you kept hearing

the word "Nihilist" about us.

But finally, at one point,

John put his foot down.

And he wanted us to accompany

the Five to play

at the democratic convention

in Chicago in '68 that culminated

in bloody rioting.

[instrumental music]

Well I'm sittin' all alone..

And I didn't want to.

There was a, you're either

with us or against us, moment

there and I-I wasn't

going for it.

I still didn't say anything.

I started somersaulting around the room.

[chuckles]

That was my reaction.

I-I couldn't think of any..

I don't know, I don't know.

Oh, well, you know, I don't know why.

But I just, I couldn't say no.

And I wasn't gonna say yes.

So finally he just left the room.

I-I remember that moment.

That wasn't who we were,

and that would have come out.

[rock music]

Not long after that, we were playing in

the student union in Michigan

when a record scout

was coming to see them.

He was, it was recommended

by Wayne Kramer

"You should check out

our little brother band."

(Danny) This was Wayne Kramer,

I'll never forget this.

He said, "You know, you'll like

us, but I think if you like us

"there's, we have a little brother band

you will really like them."

Well, he was prescient in his..

I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, who?"

It was "Iggy And The Stooges."

They were, I said,

"Well, when can I see them?"

He said, "They're playing

this afternoon.

On the campus

at the University of Michigan."

I went across the street,

and up the stairs

and heard this incredible music

just booming in the hallways.

I said, "Ah, this is so great."

And I was, I was pulled by the music.

People ask me,

"When did you first see Iggy?"

But I didn't.

I heard them before I saw them.

[rock music]

Then I saw Iggy, he was the front man.

I thought,

"This is just perfection."

We used to get those big amps crankin

and this room just rang.

It was like

the-the sound just bounced

you can hear it from this.

Just imagine Marshall stacks at ten.

This is, uh, where we were

discovered by Danny Fields.

We got done playing,

this is the same stage.

Place was packed,

you know, imagine the late

this was late sixties.

Like 1968.

He was a PR for Elektra Records.

So we get off stage and he goes, uh

"How would you guys

like to be, uh, stars?"

"Oh, yeah. Right, sure.

Throw this guy out."

And he was serious.

(Danny) I'm just gonna

call the president

of Elektra Records, and I said

"I just saw two great bands.

"The one band

is really popular around here

"they have a following

"they play to two,

three thousand people.

And the other band is a little

early stages of development."

Jac just said, "See if the big

band will take twenty thousand

and the little band

will take five."

Both bands signed on that day

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