‘The Stooges’ at 50: The Influence of Iggy Pop and The Stooges & Their Debut LP on Punk

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island's music outlet, takes a brief look at the legacy of The Stooges' and their influential debut album

Iggy Pop, October 25, 1977 at the State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN.
Taken by Michael Markos. Found on Wikimedia.

The Stooges’ self-titled debut album turned 50 on Monday (August 5). Noted as one of the very first “punk” albums, the band’s sound, as well as their on stage performances from the era, would prove influential in creating the sound and style that would become an integral part of the subculture.

When most people think of “punk,” they think of the mid-1970s, New York CBGBs scene or its counterpart happening in the UK a couple of years later, not a band out of Ann Arbor, MI. But with songs like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “No Fun,” The Stooges had grasped that iconic, attitude-filled sound years before the Ramones or the Sex Pistols came on the scene. Iggy Pop’s speak-sung delivery on “I Wanna Be Your Dog” backed with Ron Asheton’s loud, distorted guitar was something completely new. “No Fun” mixed this grainy textured sound with the popular psychedelic and garage-rock elements of the time.

It wasn’t just the music that intrigued people. The band’s irreverent live shows featuring a perpetually shirtless and erratically body contorting Iggy Pop as its main spectacle captured the attention of audiences looking for something different. Their shows were unpredictable, as Pop would often cut his chest and bleed on his fans, an occurrence that seems to have started after the release of their debut album and continued on.

Of course Iggy and The Stooges had their own influences, taking inspiration from fellow Michigan rockers the MC5 and pre-punk legends The Velvet Underground (whose John Cale helped produce, not to mention played on, their debut). But they did just as much influencing themselves. The Sex Pistols infamously covered “No Fun” as their final song during their on stage break-up in California in 1978. Many a punk and hardcore band took on the kind of atonal, speak-sung vocal delivery that Pop started on that first album. Fast and loud became defining sounds of the genre. There were even a number of musicians, like Sid Vicious, Henry Rollins, GG Allin and Courtney Love, that incorporated Iggy Pop’s kind of destructive on-stage behavior.

The Stooges helped set the stage for the punk rock revolution to come with their 1969 self-titled debut album. With sound that ended up predicting what was to come several years later, it can be said with confidence that the album was influential on even the main players of the punk scene. There have been many bands since the heyday of first wave punk that have kept the aesthetic alive decades later.  

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