Obit: Ron Ashton-Guitarist-The Stooges

Subject: Obit: Ron Ashton-Guitarist-The Stooges
From: Wesley S
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 02:49 PM

From MSNBC:

Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton found dead
Ann Arbor, Mich., police find no signs of foul play after being called to home


ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Punk guitarist Ron Asheton of The Stooges has been found dead in his Ann Arbor home. He was 60.

City police Sgt. Brad Hill says there were no signs of foul play, and the death appeared to be of natural causes.

Hill says officers discovered Asheton early Tuesday after they were called to his home around midnight by an associate who hadn't heard from him in several days.

Asheton was an original member of The Stooges, the influential protopunk band founded in Ann Arbor in 1967. Asheton's brother, Scott, was the band's drummer.

Known for a violent and primitive style that featured stage-diving and outrageous antics by Pop, The Stooges were part of a late 1960s Detroit-area rock scene that also included the MC5.

The Stooges broke up in 1974 after three albums, limited commercial success and mounting drug problems for Pop.

But backed by Asheton's guitar riffs on songs such as "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "TV Eye," the band's music has been credited as a powerful influence on a wide range of punk and alternative bands including The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The White Stripes.

After The Stooges broke up, Asheton acted in a series of low-budget horror films in the 1980s and 1990s.

Asheton, ranked as the 29th greatest rock guitarist by Rolling Stone, rejoined The Stooges when the band reunited in 2003 and for the 2007 comeback album, "The Weirdness."

The band has been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ron Ashton-Guitarist-The Stooges
From: M.Ted
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:38 PM

Thanks for posting this, Wesley--The Stooges have a special place in my heart. Being a Michigan guitar wannabe of a certain age, they were like older brothers--doing what we wanted to be doing, and getting all the gigs, girls, and trouble that we wished we could have.

I knew the guys slightly, Jim (Iggy) a little bit more than Ron, but when it actually got down to playing music, Ron's guitar playing was the model--it was simple, straightforward, wild, and raw. Everything a kid could want.

Ron once said something like, "The difference between us and other bands is that they try to control what they sound like."

That was what they did, probably better than anybody.

It wasn't blues, which we loved, but it used blues techniques, and it was definitely not "heavy metal", though a metal crowd would listen--it was something identifiably different--the rock equivalent of the perfect storm.

At the time, people didn't realize how new it was, and no one had any idea how influential the style would be over time. Lucky, perhaps, because that would have spoiled the fun--to us, it was just garage band music, too loud, too wild, and to undisciplined for the rock middle of the road, and just right for us--

Subject: RE: Obit: Ron Ashton-Guitarist-The Stooges
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 04:24 AM

Nice post M.Ted. Sums up what was great about the Stooges perfectly.