Iggy Pop’s Guitarist, Ron Asheton of Stooges, Found Dead at 60

[Gregorian]

Source: bloomberg.com



Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The body of guitarist Ron Asheton, a founder of the Stooges, was discovered today by police at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, his record company Virgin Music said. He was 60. No cause of death was given.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=alWn.Hd4Wp48&refer=muse

---

Massive loss. One hell of a long running group. There is nothing to say. Just that I didn't want it to end.

[Radical Activist]

1. Sad. He's vastly underrated.

I don't know why he doesn't get more credit for being an innovative guitar player. People focus on Iggy but Iggy without Asheton's guitar was rarely impressive.

[Gregorian]

2. I was thinking the same thing.

I've thought about just what it is that makes music turn in to something that transcends the normal. The Stooges came to mind immediately. I remember just staring out a window, and then suddenly a tune grabbed me by the neck and yanked me to attention. It was that combination of Iggy and Ron. They had "it".

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Without Ron Asheton, there wouldn't have been a Steve Jones in the Sex Pistols...

...and there's more than ample evidence of that on "Instinct," one of Iggy's strongest solo albums, featuring the same Mr. Jones in the Ron Asheton guitar chair:

[Howardx]

3. damn

damn damn damn

[bigworld]

4. If Ron lived as hard as Iggy

I'm surprised he made it this long, frankly.

RIP

[mitchum]

13. I know an old bandmate of his and he said that Ron stayed away from the hard drugs

I believe that there is a history of heart disease in his family

[EnviroBat]

5. Oh no... He was a great guitarist.

This is a huge loss to the music world...

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Hopefully Iggy will put on a shirt for the funeral

[mitchum]

10. I'm saddened by Ron's death, but THAT was hilarious

in fact, that's the funniest comment that I have ever read on this board.
Well done :)

[Gregorian]

12. I was thinking "no pants", but I just couldn't post it.

Damnit. Damnit! This is a great loss.

And Freddie Hubbard gone too.

It's like the two of my favorite musicians, gone. I'm ready whenever they want me.

But it's good to laugh. There is no wrong time.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

15. I was part of an audience that got mooned by Iggy in 1998

He was opening for Pearl Jam and some dumb frat boy in the front kept looking at his watch through Iggy's set, so he went over dropped his pants and stuck his ass in the guy's face.

The jumbotrons captured it in all its 50+year-old glory

[frylock]

8. these guys were "grunge" long before the 80s pacnorwest music scene blew up..

too bad.

[slackmaster]

9. Crap.

Just crap.

[mitchum]

11. Rest in peace, brother

your work was loved by so many

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

14. and the Stooges STILL aren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

They've been passed over for years now, while non-rock stars like Madonna get picked instead

[Gregorian]

18. For those who really love music, that's not important.

When I was a young child, I remember taking a trip to Los Angeles. My sister and I sat in the back seat with a radio, hoping with great optimism that LA would have some great stations to listen to. I don't remember, but I think we found something.

Today I have a friend who is a dj at the only independent radio station in LA. There is only one non-commercial station there, believe it or not.

I used to play trumpet in jazz bands. I would get dragged off to an occassional Greatful Dead concert, and just hated them. And still do. Count Basey. Now there's a band to see. I'll never forget that night. Not to mention James Brown. I can't remember that night! But it was awesome. Oh, anyways, I decided I wanted to hear good music. It took quite a long time before I discovered that it was being played on college radio stations. Not all of them. Just a very few. And I happened to live near two. I was hooked. Totally. So much so that I feared it wouldn't last. One year, on April 1st, my favorite station played classical music all day. I was destroyed. The next day it donned on me what had happened. I was dying to leave the stinking San Francisco bay area. Buy the late 80's that place just had too many cars. When I went to buy my first piece of land, it had to have radio reception. I traveled with my radio, and when I finally went to buy a place, I turned it on, and it got it. And I bought that place. Then came the internet. And the music world opened up to me. It has been just great.

Oh, I lost track. My point was that I see so many people listening to shit. Shit music on shit stations with shit commercials in between. And repetition. Most people don't know that what they're doing, or listening to is total crap. It's a big beef I have with especially Americans. We eat shit. Listen to it. Watch it. And drop it on the rest of the world. I remember seeing a survey for radio listeners. The best station out of the entire list was a few listeners. The total commercial crap was just this huge group. And why, I wondered? Why would people just buy up the garbage? I can't turn that crap on for two seconds. It's poisonous.

And that's why I could care less about the Hall of Fame.

Iggy rules. And there are so many bands that are awesome that are under the radar. Spacemen Three.

Argh, sorry about all the words. I just find great music to be one of the rare pleasures in life.

[mitchum]

20. I think that pop consumption, rather than an appreciation of pop artistry...

may be what is wrong with the mass audience.
It seems that they take the approach that "music is something that celebrities do...y'know like acting and designing sportswear and doing commercials and stuff"
I think that deep down on some level they do sense the insincerity and "getting while the getting's good" of so many performers. And they in turn, develop a shallow and transient "passion" for the output of those "artists"
Or maybe they really do just have rotten taste?


However, there are still some people with exquisite taste...
"And there are so many bands that are awesome that are under the radar. Spacemen Three."
They were indeed awesome :)

[Gregorian]

26. It's almost like politics.

I've noticed that most people pick a genre, and that's "them". I'm country. I'm jazz.

For starters, a lot of music is crap. And it is so because it's not music, but a way to make a living.

This is what I love about college radio. Juxtaposition of one genre against the other. And not just to be different, but to experience how amazing good music is.

I am still reeling from the loss of Freddie Hubbard.

There were so many weird and unheard of bands in just the punk scene. Where did it start, some ask.

Good music is like someone bearing their soul. The most awesome thing a human can do.

And so, like politics, I think people listen to music with a fearful ear. Only country, because it's safe for my politics, and my sense of decency. Then along come the Dixie Chicks. Oh no! Or most "country" fans probably don't even know about Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Now that is country music. Or blues. Most blues is bullshit. But the old stuff that nobody has ever heard, which gets played on KFJC on Monday nights, is utterly amazing. Some old guy with three strings, and suddenly a power chord comes flying out at you from 1924. Holy shit! That's Blues.

I don't even know what I'm saying. It's just that some things are awesome. And it's cool.

Check this out-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADAoLp_VxfM

[stlsaxman]

16. "... what's Rock doin'? aw he's livin' with his mother"

"Dum Dum Boys"

"What happened to Zeke?
He's dead on Jones, man...
What about Dave?
O'D'ed on alcohol..."

"Oh, what's Rock doin'?
aw, he's livin' with his mother...
What about James?
He's gone straight..."

Things have been tough
Without the dum dum boys
I can't seem to speak
The language
I remember how they
Used to stare at the ground
They looked as if they
Put the whole world
Looked as if they put
the whole world down


The first time I saw
the dum dum boys
I was fascinated
They just stood in front
Of the old drug store
I was most impressed
No one else was impressed
Not at all
And we'd sing
da-da-da-da-da-da
dum dum day
Where are you now my
dum dum boys are you
Alive or dead
Have you left me the last
Of the dum dum daze
Then the sun goes down
And the boys broke down


People said we were negative
They said we'd take but
we would never give
But we'd sing da-da-da
Da-da-da dum dum day
Da-da-da-da-da dum
And hope it would pay
Da-da-da-da it's been
A dumdumdum day
A dum dum day


Now I'm looking for
The dum dum boys
Where are you now
When I need your noise


Now I'm looking for
The dum dum boys
The walls close in and
I need some noise

Rest In Peace, Rock Action.

[mitchum]

19. Rock Action is Scotty, not Ron...

Iggy deliberately left Ron out of that intro (he even mentions Zeke, for god's sake) just as he never mentions Ron by name in his memoir "I Need More"
Iggy's deliberate snubbing and/or put downs of Ron was a vert hurtful thing for a long time. However, it is good that they did heal that rift in the past few years.

[stlsaxman]

25. oh fuck- that's right! Scott was "Rock Action".... ooops!

and you're right- it IS sweet that they made nice 2 years ago or so... Ron was a sweet guy...

as seen on TV-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxH-P3T

IGGY PoP AND THE STOOGES ON JONATHaN ROSS PART one

RIP Ron

[Norrin Radd]

17. Peace to Ron.

[NWHarkness]

21. A sad day. I knew Ron back in the day

After the Stooges broke up, when he was in Destroy All Monsters.

Hell of a nice guy. As someone mentioned earlier, he was not a hard livin' druggie, but a dedicated musician who took his craft seriously. I remember going to a party at the DAM house in Ann Arbor in the late 70s. Everyone else was getting wild and shitfaced, while Ron was curled up in a corner, reading a book.

RIP, Ron. Your pretty face is going to Rock and Roll Heaven.

[BeatleBoot]

24. Niagra!

One of my first singles I bought was Destroy All Monsters.

I think one of the songs was called, "November 22nd"

I saw them play about 10 or 15 years ago in Ferndale, MI.

Yeah, she's still hot.

On edit: Now that I think of it, she played fronting her new band I think - It wasn't DAM. Or was it? All I remember was she was dressed in this silver outfit and rode a motorcycle from the back of the theatre to the stage.

[Gregorian]

27. Thanks! I didn't know this.

Even after decades of listening and trying to learn, I still know nothing.

The interwoven music and personalities. It's great. But it's only temporary.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhuARaQyTc

[devilgrrl]

22. My brother got to hang out with him a few times - said he was a great man. :-(

RIP Ron.

Glad I got to see you play Coachella in '03. O8)

[BeatleBoot]

23. Growing Up in Detroit

Growing up in Detroit and still living here, I am at a loss.

This is a whole in the heart of musicians everywhere.

I teethed myself on the Stooges and saw Iggy so many times in concert it's hard to remember.

I even saw Ron Asheton in Dark Carnival a couple of times.

His guitar is embedded in the soul of Ann Arbor and Hamtramck and Detroit and its environs.

Ron played with Marshall amps stacked 2 x 2.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28523517/?GT1=43001

<snip>

Asheton’s powerful, distorted guitar on songs like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “T.V. Eye” was a hallmark of the group’s sound. His “technically adept but also beautifully raw” style was heavily influenced by free jazz and created “beauty out of noise,” said Brian Cogan, a punk-music historian at Molloy College on New York’s Long Island.

“He invents the template for punk-rock guitar,” Cogan said. “He’s the one who allows Johnny Ramone and the guys in the Dictators to play the way they do.”

When he was named the 29th greatest guitarist of all time in 2003 by Rolling Stone, the magazine described Asheton as “the Detroit punk who made the Stooges’ music reek like a puddle of week-old biker sweat.”

<snip>

[michreject]

28. I saw them more times than I can count

I was a fixture at the Grande and Easttown.