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An in-depth look at the legendary punk band, The Stooges.
Iggy Pop (aka Jim Osterberg), Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Dave Alexander. They were the original The Stooges, a grungy punk band that changed the future of rock music in the late 1960s – early 1970s with its raw, uncompromising approach and nihilistic attitude. In 1973, they were dirt – now they are legends. In the words of a young Iggy himself, “It isn’t too easy being The Stooges sometimes.”
Jim Jarmusch’s doc, narrated by Iggy, traces it all, from Iggy’s childhood and the band’s formation, through the rise-and-fall of their career, to their 2003 Coachella reunion and 2010 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Music highlights and some primitively animated interludes are peppered in-between. Pretty standard stuff. Gimme more danger, Jarmusch.
Interviewed in front of a laundromat, perhaps as a nod to the good old days of stuffing fresh marijuana into a tumble drier, the 69-year-old Iggy is witty, animated, a little spacey, very leathery and surprisingly clear-minded. There’s obvious rapport between him and Jarmusch, which is crucial to the one aspect the doc really has going for it: candidness, leading to some truly fascinating tidbits.
Did you know, for example, that the spontaneity of 1950s comedian Soupy Sales’ act was a major influence on Iggy’s career? Or that the band’s name came from a tripping-on-LSD Ron: “Let’s just call it The Stooges, ‘cos we don’t do anything wrong, but everyone is picking on us.” I bet you had no idea that Iggy happened to be neighbors with Andy Warhol, who suggested Iggy “sings the newspapers,” or that he declined the offer to be Peter Pan (!) on Broadway, suggesting he play Charles Manson instead.
Iggy refers to Bob Dylan as “blah blah blah blah” and remembers how he “smoked a big joint one day by the [Chicago] river and realized [he] was not black.” He reminisces about the radical 1960s Ann Arbor days, smoking weed and dropping acid. Yes, most memories include drugs, lots and lots of drugs, from LSD to cocaine to the big H. “We started looking dirtier and skinnier and more and more used,” Iggy recollects. “Upsetting people because of me wherever we went.”
Live archive footage of Iggy working the crowd provide some of “Gimme Danger”’s most exhilarating moments. The band barely moves, just jamming out, while Iggy crowd-surfs, curses and gives his mic fellatio – and then gets back up on stage and resumes singing, and the band’s right there with him. Their unique brand of giddy energy, “don’t give a fuck” attitude and pure rawness paved the road to The Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Damned, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The White Stripes and even Bowie himself, whom we see do a “Black Dog” cover in a fascinating – and too short – bit of archival footage.
While I appreciate the intimate, laid-back approach – which I believe Jarmusch chose purposefully, to defy people’s expectations of the rebellious, backward-bending, naked Iggy – it renders the doc a little tame, considering it’s, you know, about the freakin’ Stooges, made by THE ultimate cinematic rebel. Jarmusch’s idle “Paterson,” still out in theaters, has more tension than this doc. Though insightful and bound to satisfy hardcore Iggy fans, “Gimme Danger”’s titular request may as well be aimed at itself.
Available On DVD & Digital HD Tuesday, January 31st
