Legendary punk guitarist Ron Asheton: Dead at 60.

[Ronnie Roach]

1/6/2009
Legendary Punk guitarist Ron Asheton: dead at 60.

Yet, another punk pioneer dies. This time it’s Ron Asheton, the guitarist for legendary band from Ann Arbor: The Stooges. What could be said about him, if it weren’t for his guitar style, The Ramones may not have existed? Back in 1968, when the Boomers were grooving to the sounds of the Beatles, Donovan and Simon & Garfunkel, in Detroit, Teen-age juvenile delinquents, bikers, Vietnam vets, drug addicts and working men were banging their collective heads to the white noise of The Stooges. Asheton didn’t use the guitar effect fuzz tone properly, instead of playing notes (Which he did) he played cords, which gave the buzz saw sound to a song, thus, the beginning of the punk sound. The Stooges were loud and angry. Iggy, the singer of the band improvised on the lyrics. He never even wrote it down on paper! Asheton imitated the sounds of the industrial factories he heard in Detroit then recreated that sound on his guitar. He played on the first 2 alums then was moved to bass on the 3rd album.
The Stooges re-united last year to record a new CD. Asheton sounds just as he did in 1968. Thank God they did!
If you were a Stooges fan in school, you were considered a weirdo, at least I was. I was into Captain Beefheart, MC5, Yoko Ono, Blue Cheer, and Wild man Fisher and of course the Stooges. I get into arguments with fans of Jethro Tull who claim that Tull was musically superior to the Stooges. They claimed that the Stooges were just noise. That’s the whole point! I use to yell at them! You want music, and then go listen to Classical or Jazz!
Asheton had a heart attack in his home in Ann Arbor! Nobody knows how long he lying on the floor. Me, I lift up my can of Bud and toast to the great Ron Asheton!

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

[mackerel]

1. I think The Stooges were a forerunner to punk and alternative

By the time I arrived on the music scene The Clash and The Ramones were headliners.

Innovative musician...bless him.

[MTmix86]

2. wowww

i had no idea...

[Onceuponalife]

3. RIP

The Stooges were the shit.