Gimme Danger Page #8

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I went down there and met this

th-this manager, Tony Defries.

I met David, who was... cool.

They were going back to England,

I went back to Detroit

and there an, there was an understanding

that at a later date

um, they would arrange,

uh, for me to go to London

and make some sort of a recording.

[bells chiming]

They had somehow and someway

signed me to something

and, uh, using that in turn, uh

uh, s-signed a deal

whereby they got some money

from Columbia for my services.

Like that chick Pebbles

that signed up TLC

or, uh, Lou Pearlman

with the boy band "NSYNC."

It was one of those contracts.

It was in-insane work demands

uh, ridiculous splits

of money. Uh..

I didn't really understand...

...who owned what, with who I,

with whom I was signed.

I was in the big bad world now,

I was not..

I-I-I was not the, uh, uh..

I wasn-I wasn't

a teenage communist anymore.

This fella, Tony Defries, what I thought

was gonna be an effective,

and was an effective flamboyant

theatrical management style

based on Colonel Tom Parker

with the big cigar

big Afro hair,

and a great big mink coat.

But in the interim I decided

I wanted to re-retain

my Detroit identity

and, uh, told them in advance

"You gotta bring

James Williamson with me."

[rock music]

Alright

Whoo

(James) I guess he was trying

to capture the attitude

that I had, which I did

have quite a bit of attitude

when I first started, uh, out.

You know, I didn't really

have any framework for anything

I was, what? You know,

not even twenty years old yet.

And I, um, I didn't have any skills.

And so, all I could do

was play the guitar.

I went from living

on my sisters couch

literally, to getting

a phone call from Ig and saying

"You know, tomorrow,

we have a plane ticket for you

and you're going to London."

Right?

And so I-I just, I-I

I got my guitar and I left

and my sister didn't

even know where I was.

You know, I mean, my girlfriend

called and-and she goes

"Well, I don't know where

he is" and-and the girl goes

"Well, is his guitar there?"

And she said, "No" And she goes

"Alright, he's gone."

(Iggy) So James and I got to

Heathrow, and, uh, you know

and the cops took

one look at us and thought..

"Undesirable, no money.

What are you doing?

"What do you mean, you think

you're not going anywhere.

You're-you're going

into this holding tank."

And, uh, it took us a while

to contact Defries

on the phone and he came down

and signed for us.

I don't think he ever really wanted us.

I think David Bowie was interested

in working with American artists

who he admired at the time.

I also think there was a bit of

an American invasion planned.

Ultimately, they were hoping

to probably have us produced

by David Bowie who had

a parallel career in production

and he was producing Lou Reed's

album around the same time.

It wasn't what I wanted to do.

I would've been polite

about the, uh, backup musicians

but the-the names

bandied about were people

who had already been

in the "Pink Fairies."

[rock music]

When I investigated the "Pink Fairies"

it sorta looked to me like an amalgam

of the ideas that had

already been thrashed out

by the "MC5" and Alice Cooper.

It wasn't right for us, I thought.

I talked them into, uh, bringing

two more Stooges

over from America.

[rock music]

I'm hungry

I'm hungry

We had a vision

and we started rehearsing in earnest

in a filthy basement,

and, uh, started getting tight.

The song-writing

wasn't really there yet

but the... the grooves

the, um, the force was.

Some of the songs we had already written

and brought in at that time

were "I Got A Right"

"Gimme Some Skin"

"Tight Pants."

Which later showed up as

"Shake Appeal on Raw Power."

We did some demo sessions

w-a, at a little eight track

called R.G. Jones in Wimbledon

and those were good demo sessions.

[rock music]

[indistinct singing]

Then later...

...we did, uh, we did a little

little more formal session in

Olympic Studios with Keith Harwood

who was The Stones engineer at that time

and that's the recording

of "I Got A Right"

that's become so popular, since it's

fast as lightning and kicks like a mule.

[rock music]

Anytime I want I got a right to move

No matter what they say

Anytime I want I got a right to move

No matter what they say

I got a right I got a right to move

Anywhere I want anywhere

It was our best effort, uh, to, to..

To make hit records, basically.

We wanted-we wanted

to make a good record

um, but the, the thing about us is that

w-we're so delusional about

what is popular, you know

because all we really care about

is what we like.

Sometime, I don't know

if it was late fall

somebody knows.

We, uh..

We had-we had written

the second batch of material

that was gonna be "Raw Power."

And eventually, they just

all got busy with Bowie

and left us in the studio

cause we owed a record to CBS

and that's where "Raw Power"

came out of and

and we really, you know,

I-I've said this before

we were just left

without any adult supervision

I mean, we just did our thing.

[rock music]

I'm a street walking cheetah

With a heart full of napalm

I'm a runaway son

of the nuclear A-bomb

I am a world's forgotten boy

The one who searches and destroys

(Iggy) As a guitarist,

James fills the space

as if somebody's just let

a drug dog into your house

and it's big.

And he-he finds every corner...

...of a musical premise

and of a piece of space and time

and fills it up with detail.

It's a very detailed approach

and it's really hard to find

a space to say something

that he hasn't thought of or occupied.

[music continues]

Somebody gotta save my soul

Baby penetrates my mind

And I'm the world's forgotten boy

The one who's searchin'

searchin' to destroy oh

(Iggy) And so Ron plays a

sort of a nimble bass style

and it really-really helps

lift James, my vocals

I had to go way up high

I'm-I'm an octave above

Fun House to find a space

that James isn't occupying.

Uh, Scott solved the problem

by-by just beating

the living sh*t out of his drums.

[music continues]

Look out honey 'cause

I'm using technology

(James) The bass player

and the drummer are

the most important thing in

the band, other than the songs.

You know, when those guys were together

they were just like

this unit and, you know

and it just was rock solid.

It was so good,

it was really, really good.

And that's what, uh,

unfortunately on Raw Power

you don't actually hear the bass

that much

but it was there, it was good.

[music continues]

[crowd cheering]

(Iggy)

The band from late 1971

when we were signed with Main Man

to early '72 or whenever

we went to London and began

working with them, to early '73

when they publically dropped us

but privately told me

that I was suspended

for moral turpitude

and embarrassing their company

they consistently refused

to allow us to play a gig.

And we were...

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