Review by D.R.Peak

The Stooges

1970: The Complete Funhouse Sessions

Listening to the complete studio sessions of nearly any band seems like a waste of time. Who wants to sit through countless hours of retakes, false starts, flubbed intros, and studio dialogue? The only thing worse than being with a band watching them record would be to listen to the raw results.

Okay, maybe listening to outtakes of the Beatles during their Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper sessions would be interesting; or Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds demos; perhaps even the Who's aborted Lifehouse project -- but the Stooges Funhouse?

You bet.

When I first heard about this rare gem I checked it out on the Rhino Handmade Records website. My eyes bulged, my heart rate doubled, I found myself only able to take quick, shallow breaths. Seven CDs. Detailed notes. A foldout poster. A limited run of 3,000 copies.

But the price: $120.00.

Plus shipping and handling.

The pupils in my eyes shrunk to pinpoints, my heart stopped cold, I couldn't catch my breath.

$120.00!!!!!!!!!!!

But: Seven (7!!!!!!) CDs. (Over eight hours of music!!!!) Detailed notes. (By Ben Edmonds!!!??!!??! ) A foldout poster. (From the original album art!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) A limited run of 3,000 copies. (Instant collector item!!!!!!!!!!)

"Put it on the credit card," said my oh-so-wise, beautiful, intelligent, charming, gorgeous, understanding, and much loved wife.

"But its $120.00!!!!!!!" I exclaimed. (While thinking: Seven CDs, detailed notes... )

"If you want it, put it on the credit card," she stressed.

Have I mentioned how beautiful, intelligent, and (most of all) understanding my wife is?

So it arrived in the mail (Rather quickly, too; Rhino ain't no slouchers when it comes to shipping to their customers...) and I opened it up.

Six CDs of the studio session from when they recorded their second album, Funhouse, and one CD of the two song single released by the record company. All digitally mastered. The studio tracks are in order as the band recorded them, so you get to hear how the songs progressed as the band tried out differing arrangements and Iggy let loose with newer lyrics; improving some songs, not so-improving others.

On the first disc the band was still trying out songs for the benefit of the studio engineers -- you can hear the faders being adjusted on the fly in spots, the equalization being sharpened as they go. They had set up the band in a large room as if they were on stage. Marshall amps up to the max. Drums close miked. Steve Mackay on sax, in a corner. Iggy was given a handheld microphone so he could prowl around the room and emote himself at will and abandon. Recorded as if they were at a club. The only audience the studio engineer and their producer. And they smoked. On song after song, take after take. A riot caught on tape. What enraged animals would do to any foolish enough to enter their cage.

Some of the best takes are, surprisingly, not the ones picked by the record company to be released on the Funhouse album back in 1970. Blistering versions of "Down On the Street," "1970," and the title track. The record company chose the last version recorded by the band, thinking, perhaps, that last meant best. (Except for "T.V. Eye" -- that one, they picked the next to last...) In this set you get everydamnthing put on tape during those few days in May of 1970 -- in order as they done it. Over one-hundred tracks. Thirty different blistering versions of "Loose." Fifteen of "T.V. Eye." Twelve takes of the acid-blues of "Dirt." A near eighteen-minute noise and feedback screamfest called "Freak" -- the precursor to the album's later titled "L.A. Blues." Five versions of the forgotten song "Lost In the Future." Bits of a sliding blues. The snippets of remaining between song dialogue by the band, engineer and producer.

Originally recorded on one-inch wide eight-track cloth tape (And the fact that occasionally only five or six of these tracks were utilized strikes me as incredulous and magical when nowadays everyone uses forty or more tracks per song...) and now digitally mastered, this archive sounds phenomenal. Thick, to-the-bone-thumping bass; crisp, loudloudloud guitar; true squealing sax, Iggy's vocals are right up front: you can hear every snarl and whisper as if he's there in the room with you; the drums are real, tight, and dangerous.

Thank you Rhino Handmade for letting it happen.

Now, think you can get a hold of the Raw Power sessions and do the same thing?