Holy shit! If these classic shots of Iggy and the Stooges performing at Farmington High School in Oakland County, MI on December 5, 1970 don’t send a special thrill up your leg, there is nothing I can do for you, pal.

These shots were posted by Jim Edwards, lead singer of Michigan legends, The Rockets, on his Facebook page. Here’s what he wrote:

“I got these slides from a guy at work. He walks up to me and says, ‘You’re a musician, right? I got these old slides from a show at my high school, Wanna see ‘em?’ I held the first one up to the light and nearly shit myself!”

He must’ve used Kodachrome because these haven’t faded a bit. Also on the bill that night were headliners Mitch Ryder’s Detroit and a band called The Coming. This was James Williamson’s very first gig with The Stooges, at this point a quintet.
 

 

 
Iggy with split pants! If something like that happened today, he’d be in jail.
 

 
Above, a young James Williamson plays his first live gig with the Stooges.
 

 
Short-term Stooge Zeke Zettner on bass, Iggy and drummer Scott Asheton.
 

 
Above: What were these kids thinking?
 

 
A great shot of Ron Asheton.
 
Many more (and larger) photos at Jim Edwards’ Facebook page.

Click here for a lot more Iggy Pop and the Stooges items on Dangerous Minds
 

 
Above, the Stooges at the Cincinnati Pop and Rock Festival earlier that year.

Thank you very kindly, Syd Garon!

 
James Williamson of the Stooges discusses the newly remixed, remastered version of 1977’s Kill City, a little-known album in the Iggy canon, but one that is ripe for rediscovery 34-years after it was first released. James also talks about what it was like to stand on-stage with people throwing beer bottles at the band the night that Metallic K.O. was recorded, his career as a rocker turned SONY executive turned rocker again and the current Stooges tour.

Read Beyond the Law: Brilliant reissue of 1977 Iggy Pop & James Williamson album ‘Kill City’
 

 
I think this is kind of cool, but I question the wisdom of choosing to immortalize the Iggster at 64-years of age rather than 24? 

This I can pass on, though had they gone with a Raw Power-era Iggy in his silver pants, I’d have bought it without hesitation…

Pre-order your Iggy Pop action figure from Toys R Us, it’ll ship in early June.

Below, Iggy smears himself in peannut butter at the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival of 1970. Scroll in about two minutes for the Stooges mayhem to start:
 

 
Thank you Chris Musgrave!

 
The late great Stooge Larry Fine meets the late great Stooge Ron Asheton as photographed by either Michael Tipton or Jimmy Recca at the MGM country retirement home in Calabasas,California circa early 70’s. That’s Larry’s granddaughter in the photo also. The story of this unlikely, but poetically perfect friendship is documented in the excellent book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (An Evergreen book).
 
Collection of Rich Dorris, much thanks to Heather Harris and Kim Retro Kimmer Maki !

 
As is (tragically) the case with the Velvet Underground, there is precious little sync-sound footage of Iggy Pop and the Stooges in their heyday, although there was a fair amount of silent Super-8 film that was shot. (A guy I know purchased an old film projector at a flea market that came with silent footage of Iggy onstage circa 1973, believe it or not. He later sold it to Vh1).

This incredible footage of the Stooges comes from the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival of 1970 (AKA Midsummer Rock Festival). Appearing on a bill with Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Mountain and Traffic, the group performs “T.V. Eye” and “1970” as Iggy leaps into the crowd—probably inventing crowd-surfing in the process—smearing peanut butter all over his chest. It’s one of the most primal and primitive rock and roll moments of all time and resulted in the iconic photograph above. Thank the gods that this footage exists, too. [For the Stooges section, go directly to 6 minutes in on the clip].

Note the square announcer’s reaction: “That’s… peanut butter!” Years later Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys took credit for bringing the tub of peanut butter from his home in Dayton, OH and putting it into the Iggster’s hands.

Here’s a link to a vintage Creem magazine article about the Stooges from Lester Bangs and a more recent article about the festival from the Cincinnati CityBeat.
 

 
It’s hard to believe, but the then-controversial, Iggy-tweaked version of Raw Power that set the original David Bowie mix to 11 was released over thirteen years ago.  These days, that’s a long time for anything to go un-reissued, so Legacy‘s come out with an expanded edition that pairs a remastered version of the Bowie mix with a ‘73 live set from Atlanta (but not, as Pitchfork notes, the more logical choice: a remastered version of the Iggy mix).

However you slice it—or mix it—Raw Power still packs a wallop.  I’ll always prefer the primitive thump of Funhouse, but, as the below short attests (featuring, among others, Henry Rollins, James Williamson and Chrissie Hynde), there’s no denying Raw Power was more the shape of things to come.

 
The Official Iggy and the Stooges site