Gimme Danger Page #9

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we were popular enough

that we could have gone out

and earned most of our bacon.

They wouldn't let us play.

The situation brought out

our old weaknesses

and we were told

that we were gonna go live in Hollywood

in this firm Main Man house there.

And it was oil and water

James Williamson behaved badly

Iggy Pop behaved badly

Scott Asheton just looked at the floor

and let it roll

and Ron Asheton was embittered

and powerless and threw up his hands

and the group drifted into drugs.

Again, this embarrassed these people.

Defries came through town

one day in a limo.

I think he was gonna talk to me

about something

they could do with me

that didn't involve these guys

that would

put a positive spin

on his investment with me.

And he got me into his limo

and he said, "James..

"...I want to tell you

what we're going to do.

"We're going to take you to New York

"to Broadway

and you're going to be

Peter Pan."

If I'm pleased with myself

I have every good reason to be

And I, with deep sincerity

an-and I mean this.

I said, "No, no, no, Tony.

"I've gotta be Manson.

We've gotta make a movie."

He dropped me off and it was

just a couple days after that

that the rest of us

got thrown out of the house.

(Williamson) The brothers

moved back to Detroit.

Later on, Iggy and I

decided we would

give it another whirl.

And so we, uh, we created

what later became "Kill City."

We lucked out,

we-we had a friend, Jimmy Webb

he had a studio in his house.

It was funny, I mean,

you know, you'd have guys like

Art Garfunkel come in to the session

he'd listen to play backs

and then they would just leave,

you know?

And without anybody,

any takers for the album

we-we, we just called it quits.

Jim went off with Bowie to Europe...

...and I went to work

for a recording studio

but I, um, quickly realized

that there's only one thing

worse than playing in a band

you don't like

and that's recording

five or ten bands every day

that you can't stand.

So, I-I really wasn't

very cut out for that

but I did learn a lot,

and it stimulated, uh

an interest in electronics,

and at that time

it was the very, very beginning

of the personal computer

and so I went off and I learned

how to do all that stuff.

I'll tell ya, uh, when I was

uh, studying engineering

to go from "The Stooges" to calculus

was a huge existential gap.

[man screaming]

So I went and moved

to the Silicon Valley

and started working

in the electronics industry

so, and I've been there ever

since, I mean, that's been

uh, 27 year career.

[rock music]

(Iggy)

After "The Stooges" collapsed

Ron first joined "New Order"

and then he did "Destroy

All Monsters" with Niagara.

[indistinct singing]

[rock music]

(Scott) I played five years in

the "Sonic Rendezvous Band"

with Fred Smith, and, um..

He married Patty Smith.

And once he did that was

the end of the band.

Went on another five years

playing with Scott Morgan without Fred

making $30, $40 a night.

Three sets a night.

I'd have day jobs.

Warehousing

landscaping

for two years I drove a taxi cab.

Just crummy jobs.

(Danny)

I think that "The Stooges"

reinvented music as we know it.

If I say that "The Stooges"

music is-is point zero

The "Ramones,"

who were a great love of mine

after that

knew each other not because

they liked each other

because they were the only four people

at their school

who liked "The Stooges."

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

[rock music]

[indistinct singing]

(Dinah) Do you feel you've

influenced anybody in the..

I think I helped wipe out the sixties

[crowd laughing]

You'll get one number

and one number only

because I'm a lazy bastard.

This is "No Fun."

[rock music]

No fun my babe

No fun

No fun my babe

No fun

...want to be alone

I'm out here by myself

I don't want to be alone

In love

Nobody else

It's-it's Dionysiac.

If you know the difference

between Dionysiac

and Appolonian art.

[rock music]

[indistinct singing]

Now I want to be your dog

Now I want to be your dog

Come on

[instrumental music]

Yeah I do mean you

She got TV eye on me

(Mike Watt) There was

a movie "Velvet Goldmine"

in which one of the dudes

is a composite of

Ig and they wanted like some kind of

music coming from somebody

called "The Rats."

They put Steve Shelley out

because he's from Midland, Michigan

to go with Ronny and he'd write songs

and he comes to New York

and we get to record with him, yeah.

And here I got to sit across

and Thrust, too, you know.

There's the guy doing the "TV Eye"

we could see his hands and play along.

It was a trip.

Uh, I got sick

when I was, uh, 42

and it almost killed me, this infection.

They had to put tubes in me

and I couldn't work bass,

so it was the first time

I stopped since I was thirteen

and when I came back

I was all atrophied and really lame.

I thought you were not supposed

to lose that kinda stuff.

So I panicked and then started doing

Stooges songs to get strong

and I put together some bands

just to do this.

There's not chord changes

but it's a lot about the feel.

So, "Little Doll," "Little Doll"

"Little Doll," "Little Doll."

On the West Coast I did one

with Perk and Peter

from "Porno for Pyros," and on the East

I did it with J and Murph from Dinosaur.

Well J gets his solo album

and he asks me to tour.

He says, "Man, it's hard for me

to sing every song every night

"so why don't you do some Stooges

like we did with those gigs."

And when we come through

Ann Arbor, he says

"You know Ronny" because of the..

Now I got his, uh, phone number.

I call him and he comes to the Blind Pig

and he jams Stooges with us.

So J says, "Come on tour!

"First two thirds will be mine, and then

the last third

we'll do Stooges."

Then 2002 comes and, uh..

Thurston is curating

a All Tomorrow Party

at UCLA and he says

"Why don't we get Scotty?"

You know.

He was living in his truck.

And so rent him a drum set and he comes

so me and J are playing

with both Asheton brothers

and we do some gigs in Europe...

...and that's where I think

Ig heard about it.

It was time for me to record again

and, um..

I'd run out of things to say.

And my record label had, um...

...run out of patience with, uh

my middling sales

on the last couple of albums.

To pre-empt, uh, being produced

which was, is,

was the kiss of death to me

I offered to do a-a guest..

A guest star album.

I started listing everything

everybody I thought of who was cool

and then I realized

none of them are any as cool

as "The Stooges."

[rock music]

Sometimes just a,

a hop or two in front of me

playing with J. Masci

from Dinosaur Jr.

I got a phone call oneday

from Ron Asheton...

...and he was saying,

"Well, we're playing

this thing with J. Mascis."

J. Mascis

pulled the whole thing together.

J. Mascis.

[rock music]

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