San Francisco Blog

I first saw the Psychedelic Stooges at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in the summer of '68. I'd heard that the singer did strange effects to achieve his vocals, like bringing up a toilet bowl on stage and singing into it. This was well before their first album. They would jam along a steady riff for however long their set was. I didn't know they had "songs" until the first album came out. On this particular night, Iggy lured a cute girl to the front of the stage. Y'know everyone loves the lead singer. While she basked in his attention, he spat on her. Another show, one of the Stooges opened up a cut on his hand and smeared his blood on the white body of his Fender guitar. The thing I liked about the Stooges was they didn't go for any stage effect. They didn't have "rock n' roll clothes". They just came out in their blue jeans and t-shirts and laid out the most uncompromising sound they were capable of. Thanks Ron for making it all possible.