Tag: Stooges

As I was listening to Robert Earl Keen…CB sent me a link to the Stooges. A change of pace to put it lightly. I went on a binge of Stooges songs. You know what’s great about this song? Hard-driving music that doesn’t let up. This was punk before there was punk. For an added bonus I’m posting Iggy’s friend right after this post.

In 1969 this was about as hard and loud as you could get on a record. And yes…when you listen to this song… you will hear Christmas sleigh bells in the background. So, it’s a holly jolly tune about sexual submission. Now that is punk!

The song would not have worked with the masses because of the sexually explicit lyrics. Guitarist Ron Ashton came up with the driving riff. They were all sitting around and just throwing out words. They came up with the word God but didn’t want to include that in this song so they turned the letters around backward.

This song is on their self-titled album was released in 1969. This was released as a single the same year. John Cale of The Velvet Underground produced the album. The song was written by The Stooges… Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Iggy Pop.

Iggy Pop: “I was in a band called The Stooges in a little town in Michigan called Ann Arbor, we weren’t a very empowered group of people. We were basically a kind of far-fetched group of dreamers, and our dream was to have a little rock band. A lot of people used to laugh at us.”

“We used to get pretty stoked on hash and grass, and one thing that we’d do on this hash and grass, we’d sit around and we’d imagine these kind of savage tribes, like ‘How are the Mongols when they just came in and killed everybody?’ Think of how it must have been when these little guys with these fierce faces on their little ponies going ‘Wooooo!’ Just killing and riding over all opposition in their path, and that was the kind of thing we were talking about.”

Iggy Pop: “I used to do ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ and people just stared in horror,” he recalled. “And then I would do ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ and people would just drink their beer and watch, kind of musing. And it got to the point where I did it and people were grooving. When I go out and do it now go out, they know all the words in the verses. So, that’s a beautiful thing.”

I Wanna Be Your Dog

So messed up, I want you here
In my room, I want you here
Now we’re gonna be face-to-face
And I’ll lay right down in my favorite place

And now I wanna be your dog
And now I wanna be your dog
And now I wanna be your dog

Well, come on

And now I’m ready to close my eyes
And now I’m ready to close my mind
And now I’m ready to feel your hand
And lose my heart on the burning sands

And now I wanna be your dog
And now I wanna be your dog
And now I wanna be your dog

Well, come on

Woo
Uh
Uh

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