Iggy Pop (45 page)

Teacher’s pet.
‘I remember Mrs Powrie’s English class, where she expressed enthusiasm for Jim’s use of idiom,’ recalls Mike Andrews. ‘He had written a short story, mentioned “the men of the cloth”, and he had used the phrase correctly. She expressed her pleasure very publicly . . . I think he might have been her pet.’

Jim seemed excessively ashamed of his background.
‘Jim had a real inferiority complex,’ says Bob Hallock. ‘He did make comments that he was embarrassed that he lived in a trailer. He never talked favourably about his parents and he never invited us to his home.’ Many classmates, like John Baird, knew other people who lived in trailer parks: ‘Artsy crafty people, some were professors, educators, it didn’t seem too odd.’

‘I had a couple of friends lived in another trailer park on Packard [Street],’ says John Mann, ‘so I don’t remember being shocked.’

Even fairly casual acquaintances would hear Jim griping about his trailer home. ‘It was an issue he had more than we had,’ says Denny Olmsted, whose dad, an engineer, earned the same or less than Jim’s high-school-teacher father.

An impressive figure who was undeniably part of the classy set.
Bill Kurtz, like many, considered Jim ‘a notch above me on the economic scale. He was certainly with the in-crowd, a clean-cut kid in a seersucker sports coat.’

‘I particularly remember his sweater with baby alligators!’ laughs Francie King.

No longer seemed so painfully reliant on the approval of his peers.
The dividing line between childhood confidence and arrogance is a tough one to define, but Jim teetered very close to it. Nancy McArtor sat next to Jim in Humanities, and spent much time chatting with him, enjoying his funny, quirky take on life. Nancy was on the student council, a homecoming queen, one of the most popular girls in the class. Sometimes they would have long, lively phone conversations in the evenings. And then ‘abruptly, with absolutely no niceties or wind-down, he would say, “Okay, goodbye.” Either he didn’t like where the conversation was headed or he’d gotten bored - probably the latter. And he was gone.’

CHAPTER 2: NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

The main sources are author interviews with JO, JMcL, Don Swickerath, Nick Kolokithas, Brad Jones, Lynn Klavitter, Michael Erlewine, Dan Erlewine, Bob Sheff (‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny), Ron Asheton (RA), Kathy Asheton (KA), Pete Andrews, Cub Koda (CK), Jeep Holland, Lynn Goldsmith, Scott Richardson, John Sinclair (JS), Vivian Shevitz, Barbara Kramer, Charlotte Wolter, Joan Boyle, Lauri Ingber, Bill Kirchen (BK), Dale Withers, Janet Withers, Dave Leone, Sam Lay, Al Blixt.

The opening Bob Koester story is based on accounts by Koester, Ron and Scott Asheton, and Scott Richardson, all of which are consistent. Jim Osterberg today says, ‘I wasn’t [horrible to Koester] but they were, particularly Scott Richardson. They weren’t nice to Bob and I didn’t stop them . . . there is an element of gang-ism to all rock bands . . . and, er, sometimes I dropped my hands and laissez-faired . . .’

[The Iguanas] booked into United sound recorders in Detroit.
The Iguanas’ recordings have now been released by Norton Records as
Jumpin’ With The Iguanas
, and feature demos of most of their set, recorded at Jim McLaughlin’s house, plus the ‘Mona’ single.

The spectre of military service in the Vietnam war.
Jeep Holland’s account of Iggy’s appearance at the draft board differs from that in
I Need More
, where Iggy claims he paraded with a hard-on. I’ve used Jeep’s account because it’s less well known and more convincing. Iggy’s version, like many stories in
I Need More
, is at odds with the facts in that it contains a fictitious account of the death of the Rationals’ drummer, Bill Figg, in Vietnam. To add insult to injury, Iggy blames Bill for his ‘death’ by claiming he was too afraid of the disapproval of others to evade the draft.

Iggy and Big Walter Horton.
The ‘Look old man, give me a break’ quote is from a Weasel interview with Iggy Pop: WHFS, Bethesda, MD, 1980.

‘It was like a horrible nightmare.’
Today, Koester says he was not gay and had no sexual designs on Iggy. ‘But even if I had been gay, why would that be an excuse for those guys behaving like they did?’

CHAPTER 3: THE DUM DUM BOYS

Sources: author interviews with JO, JMcL, RA, KA, Scott Asheton (SA), Bill Cheatham (BC), Jeep Holland, Ron Richardson, Jimmy Silver (JS), Wayne Kramer (WK), BK, JS and Russ Gibb. The Jeep Holland interview was conducted in 1996. The 20 January 1968 date for the Stooges’ professional debut comes from a newspaper cutting kindly supplied by Ben Edmonds; other useful Grande dates were listed at
www.motorci-tymusicarchives.com
. Ben also uncovered the genesis of the Byrds’ inspiration of the Stooges’ ‘1969’, via a
MOJO
interview with Ron Asheton about his first acid trip. Scott Morgan first pointed out to me the resemblance between ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ and Yusuf Lateef’s ‘Eastern Market’. The opening description of the Stooges in July 1969 is based on an account by Cub Koda.

The [Stooges’] professional debut was on 20 January 1968.
The Stooges invariably cite Blood Sweat & Tears (3 March 1968) as their first show. However, they played with SRC and Apple Pie Motherhood Band on Saturday 20 January, and were reviewed by Steve Silverman in an article called ‘The Grande: Fun, Phantasmagoria’ the following week.

The band were supporting the James Gang, on a bill that had originally featured Cream [21 April 1968].
Jim Osterberg distinctly remembers his disastrous birthday performance as the Stooges’ support slot to Cream. In fact, Cream didn’t play that evening - their gig was postponed to mid-June and the event was instead headlined by the James Gang. The fact Jim didn’t notice Cream hadn’t played is perhaps explained by the two hits of Owsley Orange Sunshine.

‘The Pharaohs never wore a shirt’.
Jim’s Osterberg’s description of how his stage garb was inspired by the Ancient Egyptians comes from his interview with Terry Gross, ‘All Things Considered’,
NPR
, July 2004.

Iggy’s arrest in Romeo, Michigan.
The story of this infamous performance is based mainly on the detailed account sent to me by Luke Engel - for whom the show represented the end of a promising career as a promoter.

White Panther Party’s claimed exploits.
The White Panther Party claimed to have blown up a CIA building. However, research has shown the damage was limited to one broken window.

CHAPTER 4: OH MY, BOO HOO

Sources are as for previous chapter plus Danny Fields (DF), Jac Holzman (JH), John Cale, Richard Bosworth, Lewis Merenstein, Joel Brodsky, Ben Edmonds (BE), Steve Harris (SH), Natalie Schlossman (NS) and Hiawatha Bailey (HB). In addition, I should note that Per Nilsen’s research on the dates of Stooges’ gigs was invaluable for the following Stooges chapters, particularly in 1971. Together with other paperwork, including the
Popped
newsletter and items from Jeff Gold’s collection, I believe this has allowed me to present all the Stooges’ triumphs and disasters in the correct sequence for the first time.

22 September 1968.
Fields says he saw the band at the University of Michigan’s union ballroom in Ann Arbor on the afternoon of Sunday 22 September - the band also played at the Grande that evening. This is consistent with dates at
motorcity.com
. Per Nilsen and Loren Dobson believe Fields actually saw the Stooges at a show on Monday 23rd; the Stooges did play the Union on that date.

Elektra’s deal with the band was concluded on 4 October 1968.
John Sinclair wrote in
5th Estate
that Elektra signed both the MC5 and the Stooges on 26 September 1968. Surviving Elektra paperwork owned by Jeff Gold reveals the Stooges actually signed on 4 October; it’s likely the MC5 signed on this date, too, and that, as Jimmy Silver agrees, Sinclair ‘jumped the gun’. There are no records of when Holzman and Harvey saw the Stooges at the Fifth Dimension, but given that it was a Saturday night, the only plausible date is 28 September.

Jimmy Silver wrote updates to Danny Fields, delaying the album sessions until [Iggy] returned to health.
Details of Jim’s bouts of asthma are taken from Jimmy Silver’s letters to Danny Fields, now in the collection of Jeff Gold: ‘He’s much healthier than when I left him but still very flippy from being so sick and it’s going to be a while before he’s in top shape. He says he can put out a good performance [at the sessions] next week, though, and I have faith in him.’

The Fun House.
Exact details of what posters were on the wall of the Fun House come from Natalie Schlossman’s Stooges newsletter,
Popped
. Details of the house’s internal geography come from Jimmy Silver and Bill Cheatham.

Fields was investigating a producer for the Stooges’ first album.
Jim Peterman has been cited as a suggested producer for
Fun House
; Jimmy Silver maintains he was actually suggested for the first album. This makes sense; Peterman also worked in promotion for Elektra, and the review copy of the album he gave to
Rolling Stone
magazine’s Ed Ward was ‘defaced’, says Ward, ‘because [Peterman] hated the record so much.’ It’s doubtful he would have entertained producing
Fun House
when Peterman had by now apparently decided he hated the Stooges.

Danny Fields introduced [the Stooges] to the city’s cornucopia of delights.
It was Per Nilsen who first discovered the Stooges visited New York in mid-November 1968; and in fact this is the only plausible sequence of events, as Nico filmed the ‘Frozen Warnings’ promo in Ann Arbor in the winter of 1968.

The gossip was that [the song ‘Ann’] was inspired by Anne Opie Wehrer.
Anne Wehrer was the wife of the University of Michigan’s Joe Wehrer and was the subject of a memorable Once group performance, which was simply entitled
Anne Opie Wehrer
and featured multimedia re-enactments of various aspects of her fascinating life, according to Bob Sheff.

Silver and Bomser went to see Holzman [to renegotiate the Stooges’ contract].
This story totally contradicts Iggy Pop’s accounts, including a 1982 interview with Scott Isler, in which he claimed, ‘I charmed Holzman into giving us $25,000 by making a list . . . he saw the logic.’ Iggy’s meeting might have softened Holzman up; however, I have discounted his version, which is consistent with much of Iggy’s megalomania in that period; at a time when his life was out of control, he clung to the illusion that he was
always
in control.

The recording session started on April Fool’s Day.
Most Stooges stories date the recording sessions as having happened in June 1969, but Natalie Schlossman’s contemporaneous
Popped
newsletter dates the sessions as starting on 1 April. The original booking was at the Record Plant, 17-21 March, from 1pm to 7pm, and was probably cancelled either because of Jim’s ill health or because of the contract renegotiations.

The band returned to the Chelsea Hotel and wrote ‘Little Doll’, ‘Not Right’ and ‘Real Cool Time’.
Ron Asheton: ‘We went with “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, “1969”, “No Fun”, so I’m going, oh yeah, we got songs. That was the magic Stooge time, when I could just sit down and come up with the shit. So we went there and we did what we had, along with “We Will Fall” which was Dave’s chant. At the Chelsea I sat down for one hour and came up with “Little Doll”, “Real Cool Time” and “Not Right”, it had to be simple, and Iggy came down [and said], “Okay, yeah,” and we rehearsed it one time and did it the next day, one take for each tune.’

Iggy would claim, ‘John Cale had little or nothing to do with the sound. He shouldn’t have been there.’
Iggy’s rivalry with Cale has been mapped by his pronouncements: ‘[He was] someone more adult, more worldly, from a band I respected . . . Someone with weight and sensitivity that would tolerate us! And therefore it helped give me confidence.’ (To the author, 1992.) Or, ‘ John Cale had little or nothing to do with the sound. He shouldn’t have been there!’ (To Scott Isler, 1982.) But he has always maintained he performed the remix with Jac Holzman, an account that must surely be confused by the fog of war - or hashish, in this instance. To be fair, Jac Holzman remembers few details of the Stooges’ time on Elektra, so his lack of memory of a remix is not conclusive. But as Lewis Merenstein points out, ‘Cale’s version is correct. I don’t know why [it should hurt Iggy to admit that], he was an amazing performer and led the band throughout. ’ And when Fields described Iggy’s dismissal of Cale as ‘unworthy’ he goes on to point out, ‘Look, mister, in the fall of 1968 who on earth would have touched you? Much less one of the most distinguished avant-garde and far-seeing people in the musical universe!’

‘[Wendy] was a virgin. I just had to have her.’
This quote is from
I Need More
. I’ve trusted Jim’s account of meeting Wendy in
I Need More
, although as elsewhere his recollections are suspect. For instance, he suggests she fell in love with him because she’d been impressed by hearing his debut album, despite the fact they married a month before it was released. He also claims Wendy turned him on to the Velvet Underground, when he’d actually seen the band back in 1966. Louis Weisberg biographical details taken from Louis’s 2004 obituary in
Cleveland Jewish News
. Iggy writes in
I Need More
that he left Wendy for Betsy Mickelsen; in fact, he embarked on a brief affair with Kathy Asheton before he got together with Betsy.