There are greybeards around the Milwaukee music scene who speak in hushed tones of witnessing the Stooges performance at The People’s Fair Festival near Iola, Wisconsin in June of 1970. Imagine tripping on psychedelics and seeing the Stooges perform at sunrise. In August of 1970, The Stooges played another festival near Jackson, Michigan and Live at Goose Lake is the document released by Third Man Records 50 years after the fact.
The soundboard recording is the final performance of bassist Dave Alexander who would be asked to leave the band after the show by singer Iggy Pop. Alexander would die in 1975 at the age of 27 from complications due to alcoholism.
Be warned, was not the last gasp of Woodstock or West Coast Flower Power. Time has shown the wiser. The Stooges, their Detroit brethren the MC5 and NYC’s Velvet Underground were pioneers in a feral, visceral sound, and the music holds up without apology.
Playing material from their album Funhouse, Pop’s snarl, Scott Asheton’s furious drum rolls, his brother Ron’s shards of punk/blues guitar remains ground zero elements of high-energy music later to be called punk rock. Led by Alexander’s slinky bass, “Dirt” features Ron’s guitar left to wail out skeletons of solos.
Enter saxophonist Steve MacKay who plays on the final three tunes: “1970,” Funhouse” and “L. A. Blues.” His free-jazz energy pointed to the sound of the future. Albeit a future bassist Dave Alexander would not live to see, and a future the brothers Asheton would witness as a reconstituted band; they would be asked to rejoin Iggy and guitarist James Williamson for the David Bowie-shepherded 1973 album Raw Power.
Still, Live at Goose Lake may serve as a new Rosetta Stone. “1970,” like “Loose,” is a prototype for a thousand raging punk rock songs yet none of them will hold a candle to this. “LA Blues” sounds like a template for anything from John and Yoko’s best primal scream experiments to Neil Young’s séance “Tonight’s the Night.” Highbrows might characterize it as deconstructionism. And there are days when “TV Eye” might be the best rock song ever. This is one of those days.
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Liner Notes by Creem magazine’s Jaan Uhelszki tell great behind the scenes stories. Of the five Stooges, Iggy is the only surviving member. What are the odds?
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