Legendary punk guitarist Ron Asheton: Dead at 60.
Gun nuts
Legendary Punk guitarist Ron Asheton: dead at 60.
Yet, another punk pioneer dies. This time it’s Ron Asheton, the
guitarist for legendary band from Ann Arbor: The Stooges. What could
be said about him, if it weren’t for his guitar style, The Ramones may
not have existed? Back in 1968, when the Boomers were grooving to the
sounds of the Beatles, Donovan and Simon & Garfunkel, in Detroit, Teen-
age juvenile delinquents, bikers, Vietnam vets, drug addicts and
working men were banging their collective heads to the white noise of
The Stooges. Asheton didn’t use the guitar effect fuzz tone properly,
instead of playing notes (Which he did) he played cords, which gave
the buzz saw sound to a song, thus, the beginning of the punk sound.
The Stooges were loud and angry. Iggy, the singer of the band
improvised on the lyrics. He never even wrote it down on paper!
Asheton imitated the sounds of the industrial factories he heard in
Detroit then recreated that sound on his guitar. He played on the
first 2 alums then was moved to bass on the 3rd album.
The Stooges re-united last year to record a new CD. Asheton sounds
just as he did in 1968. Thank God they did!
If you were a Stooges fan in school, you were considered a weirdo, at
least I was. I was into Captain Beefheart, MC5, Yoko Ono, Blue Cheer,
and Wild man Fisher and of course the Stooges. I get into arguments
with fans of Jethro Tull who claim that Tull was musically superior to
the Stooges. They claimed that the Stooges were just noise. That’s the
whole point! I use to yell at them! You want music, and then go listen
to Classical or Jazz!
Asheton had a heart attack in his home in Ann Arbor! Nobody knows how
long he lying on the floor. Me, I lift up my can of Bud and toast to
the great Ron Asheton!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBHbrnGxjMI