Head On 1974 - Iggy & The Stooges (Easy Action)
Yes. It's the Stooges. Live, rude, raw and crackly, murky and full of the crowd. Of course it's an essential purchase - and this one is special for a host of reasons.
So, full disclosure, I am a Stooges fan so I'm probably not able to be impartial here. (ED: What’s up with that?) However, if you're not sure who or what I'm talking about, google "Iggy and the Stooges", have a listen. Read a bit on Wikipedia. And come back before you read on.
Let's assume you've either investigated or don't need to. Easy Action have form. Big Stooges form. They've tidied and released a lot of original, primary-sourced Stooges material, from unreleased studio recordings to live material, much of which was not thought to exist. What's more, they righteously pay royalties. Quite a few of their limited run items sold out long ago, including the famous six-disc "Heavy Liquid" box set. That one included three-and-a-half discs of studio and rehearsal material.
A few of these live gems remain available: "Stooges Electric Circus 1971"; "You Don't Want My Name, You Want My Action!" (a four-disc box of 1971 gigs), and "A Thousand Lights" (live in 1970).
So, here we have another dusty, half-forgotten, lost Iggy & The Stooges live recording. There are innumerable books chronicling this band, and one question which many old farts (of which I am one) might well ask is: why issue yet another one?
Well, the thirst for more Stooges recordings is not slaked (certainly not for me). And, over the years since the band split in 1974, as more and more material gradually emerged from attics, recording studio cupboards (presumably shelved along with the floor cleaner), shoeboxes and manky suitcases under the bed in the haunted second bedroom, demand for the band increased, and certainly expanded. And today, characters like me are always keen and curious to hear how the band developed. And - in this case - how it came to die.
The first disc, live on 25 January 1974 at Victory Burlesque, Toronto, is the one you're probably going to open your musty old wallet for. This is an audience recording (on reel-to-reel) which has been professionally baked and "spent a long time in the studio making it as good as possible". It helps that the original recording was remarkably clear.
Now look, if you're not familiar with recordings like this, and can't cope with anything less than immaculate sound - you should exit proceedings here (with your head covered in a blanket in case someone recognises you and publishes your details on the socials). I've encountered folk moaning about the sound quality of releases like this before (doesn't matter who the band is) and my response is quite simple: if you don't understand the rough and ready nature of rock'n'roll, off you trot, buy Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles or download armfuls of any or all of the identikit K-Pop, J-Pop, R-Pop non-entities. I'm sure these musicians are all lovely people.
But none of them will ever write a song of such sublime genius as "Wet My Bed", "Gimme Danger", "I Got Nothing" or "Cock in My Pocket".
What's the Toronto disc like? "Raw Power" is the standard opener for this period Stooges, and it's a hammering, tight-as-fuck behemoth, Scott Thurston's jarring speed-stride piano remarkably audible. James Williamson's solo is concise and brutal. You don't want to keep this sort of recording at a medium volume. Crank it, kids.
And the crowd is vivid, loud, and a bunch of fucking hoolies out on the town. It's fucking great: the crowd is the sixth member of the band. "Rich Bitch" is similarly tight and savage, Williamson's guitar lines cutting through the runaway train of the Ashetons' rhythm section.
There follows some raucous, foul-mouthed banter between our hero and the audience. I won't give anything away but it's worth the price of admission as Iggy royally loses it. Eventually the band slide into a powerful, tender version of "Gimme Danger", which turns on a dime from a whisper to a bludgeon, and back again. It's beautiful, and Thurston's piano adds another wonderful dimension, as does Williamson's solo meshing with Ron Asheton's.
After more baying and wolf-whistles from the crowd, "Cock in My Pocket" pounds out - you all but expect Jerry Lee Lewis to be bellowing out the refrain. I'm sure you know the song; the band slam the thing down, the heavy rhythms slapping into each other, Williamson and Thurston in competition.
"I Got Nothing" is where the Stooges offering up their frontman as a sacrifice, each and every time. The crowd - mostly men, it seems - want to abuse this guy so bad it's positively homoerotic. The harmonies are bang-on, as are the shifts in pace and drama. What Iggy was doing on stage we can only imagine. As a huge metaphor for tragedy and comedy bundled up in pitch, lit and booted down the hill to catcalls and abuse, the Stooges at this point are like nothing else on earth. And all we have is the audio.
"Search and Destroy" is the last song on the original tape and it's a stonking, yammering version. Blistering, even; so it's a real disappointment as the reel to reel fades out... but that's life, especially in the real world of live tapes recorded by an enthusiast.
The Toronto gig is followed by an interview with Iggy by Marco Livingstone, recorded after the gig, which appeared in "Sounds" on 16 February - his review of the gig itself appeared the previous week: both are reproduced in the booklet.
By way of further icing on the cake, Easy Action end the first disc with the remastered (read: improved sound) four tracks recorded at Bimbos 365 Club in San Francisco on either 11 or 12 January 1974 (and originally released by the Bomp! label and then by Easy Action back in 2005).
If you've not heard this recording, it is superb versions of "Head On" and "Open Up and Bleed" - while Ron Asheton and Scott Thurston can be heard pacing each other with the patience of wild dogs beyond the firelight, Thurston's piano shines, and Asheton's bass positively burns. And of course, there's "Wet My Bed" and "I Got Nothing".
All in all, "Head On - 1974" is a splendid package - with a superb 24-page booklet with notes by Michael S. Begnal. Begnal is also responsible for two detailed books: "The Music and Noise of The Stooges, 1967-1971, Lost in the Future", and "Death Trip. Iggy and The Stooges, 1972-1974" - go find them.
To make it easier on you, Easy Action are also offering their previous four-disc live Stooges box, "Theatre of Cruelty: Live at the Whisky Au-Go-Go 1973", together with "Head On - 1974" box a ridiculous price..
This latter box is, in my opinion, worth the price of admission for the two lengthy workouts of the rarely-heard "She Creatures of the Hollywood Hills", but it's also worth noting that this box also features Bob Sheff on piano. The recordings are speed-corrected and in the correct running order, untampered with except for soem cleaning and mastering. Its 24-page booklet is also desirable in anyone's language.
The second disc of "Head On - 1974" begins with "Search and Destroy", the only song remaining from their set at the Toledo Sports Arena on 19 January 1974, and then, released for the first time ever, comes a complete recording of the band's last gig, 9 February 1974 at the Michigan Palace, Detroit. The source of this recording is not the same as the better-known Skydog album "Metallic K.O." It's the full set in correct order, with audience interaction included.
From Begnal's notes:
While "Metallic K.O." gave us a good sense of what the event entailed, that was a line recording (made by Michael Tipton) - meaning we could mostly only hear Iggy's side of things and a couple of bottles smashing on the stage, i.e., what the onstage microphones picked up. This "new" tape of the complete set, originally recorded on cassette by Rob Ritter (later a member of The Gun Club) and soon after dubbed onto another cassette by Stephen Tennent (who roadied for the band on the night), is an audience tape and gives us the full extent of the chaos. The original "Metallic K.O." album (1976) had just three songs from this set ... while the expanded "Metallic 2 x K.O." (1988) included most but not all of the set, with the opening song missing (and a couple of segments out of order). Now we finally have the whole thing, including the opener "Wet My Bed", with the songs and Pop's banter in their proper sequence.
As Easy Action says, this recording is "rough as a bear's arse". This comment is then qualified: "It's amazing to hear this legendary concert in real time for the very first time in over 50 years. I was surprised at how different it is to what I’ve been brought up on by way of "Metallic KO".
So much so that they've actually listed the seventh track as: "Chaos".
Begnal explains that this recording "puts the listener in the audience where we can hear the kind of stuff that was being shouted at Iggy, not just his reaction". The sound is rough but I would urge the listener not to give up.
Too often people dismiss important Stooges material (eg, the 1971 material of Easy Action's "You Want My Action" box set from 2009) because they think they can't deal with the sound. This only serves to deprive oneself of the experience of great art, however mediated by the circumstances of its documentation. In my experience, it is eminently possible to acclimate to the less-than-optimum sound quality, to allow the ears the opportunity to adapt, thus to be able to perceive greater detail on the other side of the murk, and finally to enjoy the music and the broader atmosphere of the show itself.
Further, there's an element of truth to the "bad" sound anyway - as was typical of the Stooges, this show was extremely loud, an intense wall of sound, and once the band's sonic waves flooded the cavernous theater, there would not have been much room for subtlety. This is, at least to some degree, what it actually felt like from the audience's perspective on the night of February 9, 1974."
You don't really need to know any more. Just order it, and when it arrives, crank it the way it should be cranked.
This is a two CD set limited to 500 copies - and one disc will not be available digitally. To be released in November 2026, and pre-sales are open via the link below.
