the stooges - ready to die

A couple of years have passed since the Stooges' last album was issued and I revisited it the other day after ignoring it for some time.

 

The Ron Asheton version of the Stooges died with Ron’s passing a few years ago, but James Williamson took early retirement from his role as a VP at Sony and began to shred once again. Two hard years of touring with the reformed Iggy and the Stooges led to this – Ready To Die, the follow up to Raw Power, 40 years on. 

 

Is it as good as Raw Power. No, of course it isn’t. What could be?

 

But it’s not the mess that The Weirdness was, the 2006 reunion record with Ron and Scott Asheton. It’s a fine, solid, and occasionally spectacular record. The production is excellent, sharp and clear, unlike the muddy thump of The Weirdness. Clocking in at an economical 34 minutes, with two distinct ‘sides’ just like in the ol’ days, we have seven fiery songs plus a couple of ballads and a lament written in honour of Ron. Aside from the slowies, which contain much world weariness, and Iggy’s deeply sonorous voice crawling up from the grave, the upbeat numbers genuinely don’t sound like they were written and played by guys in their sixties. 

 

Iggy clearly spent some time on the lyrics (unlike the Iggy by numbers of The Weirdness) and although a couple of tracks betray a rather juvenile leaning (“DDs” is, of course, about a large female chest) on the whole the lyrics match the blistering pace of the songs. It’s not pretty, it’s not terribly poetic, but it fits the music – for example the chorus of “Job” runs simply ‘I got a job, but it don’t pay shit’.

 

Jams Williamson spits out nasty riffs just like he did 40 years ago, Steve Mackay is still on board to blast some saxophone, and Mike Watt is demonstrably one of the world’s finest bass players. On the drums Scott Asheton is assisted by the Stooges semi-permanent touring drummer Larry Mullins. Scott had been ill for some time and was unable to play as much he wanted on the record, but Larry filled in well. 

 

So, if you want a rocking, angry, furious album of short snappy riffs and snarly vocals, Ready To Die is the one for you. The final track, now called “The Departed”, was originally debuted at Ron’s memorial concert a few years ago. It’s as close as the Stooges have ever come to a truly tender song, and the poignant quotes from “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (James mournfully plucks out the notes at a couple of points) mean that the album ends on a surprisingly emotional note.

 

The title track is one of the best – despite Iggy's advancing years, despite the deaths of some of his compatriots, despite his pronounced limp due to hip problems, Iggy Pop clearly isn't Ready To Die just yet. You know how they say that cockroaches could survive a nuclear war, well I suspect that Iggy, with his indestructible leathery skin, would be standing right next to them, shirt off, punching imaginary foes, leaping and whirling like an insane dervish. Iggy seems to be able to survive anything.