Legendary punk guitarist Ron Asheton: Dead at 60.
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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
luvharley
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM and STEVE BYRNE • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • January
7, 2009
The world didn't always give Ron Asheton his proper dues. But the
Stooges guitarist certainly paid his dues to the world, helping
transform the sound of rock music.
Fans and fellow musicians are mourning the death of Asheton, who was
found dead early Tuesday at his home in Ann Arbor. The death remains
under investigation, though foul play is not suspected, said Ann Arbor
Police Sgt. Brad Hill.
Asheton was 60.
"I am in shock," said Stooges singer Iggy Pop. "He was my best
friend."
Ann Arbor police had taken a call from a friend of Asheton, who said
he had not heard from the guitarist in a few days. Police entered
Asheton's home and found his body.
As a musician, Asheton was no technical virtuoso, and his career never
brought him a glittery celebrity life. But his electric guitar work,
which was the starting point for most of the Stooges' songwriting, was
widely influential within hard rock and punk music.
With his brother Scott Asheton on drums and local wild kid Iggy Pop on
vocals, Asheton cofounded the Stooges in his parents' Ann Arbor
basement in 1967. The raucous group went on to become an area
sensation, making its name at venues such as Detroit's Grande
Ballroom.
The Stooges, who reunited earlier this decade, are widely recognized
as one of the most important rock acts to have emerged from the
Detroit scene. The group found little commercial or critical success
during its initial run with Elektra Records. But by the time the
Stooges disintegrated in the early '70s amid infighting and drugs, its
primal sound -- with Asheton's droning, guttural riffs at the core --
had helped etch the template for punk rock. The band's body of work
later proved hugely influential during the alternative-rock revolution
of the 1990s.
Early Stooges classics such as "I Wanna Be Your Dog" were cited by
guitarists as varied as Kurt Cobain, Thurston Moore and fellow
Michigan rocker Jack White -- who once called the Stooges' 1969 album
"Fun House" the greatest rock album ever. In 2003, Rolling Stone
magazine named Asheton the 29th greatest rock guitarist of all time.
He made the "Stooges' music reek like a puddle of week-old biker
sweat," the magazine wrote. "He favored black leather and German iron
crosses onstage, and he never let not really knowing how to play get
in the way of a big, ugly feedback solo."
Asheton's post-Stooges career in the 1970s included stints with the
bands the New Order and Destroy All Monsters, where he played with
members of the MC5. His real comeback came in 2003, when the Stooges
reunited for a series of shows and wound up as a regular touring act.
In 2007 the group released "The Weirdness," its first new album in
three decades.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the surviving Stooges paid homage to a
"great friend, brother, musician, trooper."
"For all that knew him behind the facade of Mr. Cool & Quirky, he was
a kindhearted, genuine, warm person who always believed that people
meant well even if they did not," read the statement.
The Stooges' future is now unclear, though a single word in the band's
tribute statement -- "irreplaceable" -- provides a possible hint.
Von Bondies guitarist Jason Stollsteimer, 30, is among a younger
generation of rock musicians who soaked up Asheton's influence.
"To me, he was the epitome of raw punk," said Stollsteimer. "He wasn't
flashy or over the top. It was raw. The riffs he wrote stood the test
of time."
Stollsteimer's band opened for the Stooges at a 2003 homecoming show
at DTE Energy Music Theatre. It was a triumphant reunion that brought
the Stooges a level of attention and respect they hadn't previously
enjoyed.
"He was like a kid in a candy store, just so excited," Stollsteimer
recalled of that night. "He wasn't afraid to show it. Some people are
too cool, but he was obviously very happy and proud."
The Stooges have been regular nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame the past decade, but have yet to triumph in the final round of
voting. Amid a growing outcry about the band's rejection, many music
insiders expect this to be the band's year. The 2009 inductees list
will likely be released later this month.
In a 2003 interview with the Free Press, Asheton said he got great
satisfaction from the recognition the Stooges had begun to receive --
even if it was a long time coming.
"When I was a young guy coming up, going to the Grande Ballroom every
weekend, I got to see my heroes play. Jeff Beck, the Who, everyone. I
didn't want to be a fanboy, but I'd stand there and wait -- 'I just
want to say hi, this was great.' I saw them walk by me with blank
stares like they were zombies. I said to myself, you know, if I ever
make it, I've got at least one minute for everybody who wants to say
something. So I talk to people, and that's what's exciting now."