Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton dies at 60

The Stooges were a far more influential band than most people realize. They predated both punk and AC/DC, and a big element in their sound was Ron Asheton’s strong lead guitar work. I first heard the Stooges Fun House a few years after it came out in the 1970s, and it was a real eye opener. The guitar was very raw, but also very clean, and well organized. Asheton, unlike most 1970s guitarists, wasn’t pretending to be Eric Clapton or Carlos Santana. His work was very solid, driving guitar, real lead/rhythm work, and it hit like a wall of sound. He wasn’t “cute” or “technical”, he was functional, and I think overall that as a no bull style, he and the Stooges are probably the best example of how to put a rock band into attack mode through the guitar. If you were trying to teach someone how to do that, you’d teach them the Stooges approach, very strong pieces from each member, very well integrated. The Stooges were way ahead of the punks that emerged in the mid 70s. Actually the punks would have sounded a lot better and got themselves a lot more focused if they’d found the Stooges earlier. Siouxie and the Banshees were the only real punk band to definitely get the Stooges message, with The Jam as relatives. I Wanna Be Your Dog is probably the best known Stooges song, courtesy of AC/DC, but by Stooges standards it’s a sort of representative average level. The massive, raw, very edgy big songs like Raw Power, Head On, and Gimme Danger are closer to the songwriting talents of the Stooges, and no songwriter in his right mind would mind taking credit for them. Other people, however, have picked up on Iggy as the influence, and as the world knows, Iggy doesn’t seem to feel any need to go too far from his Stooges roots. So Ron Asheton’s influence is still sitting there in the amps when Iggy plays. Asheton also worked with New Order, New Race, Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival. New Order were at one stage deities of the New Wave movement of the 80s. Very different from the Stooges, but even so, they came with a vibe that was new for the guys trying to escape their hairstyles and play music. He was only 60, but his work will give centuries of pleasure to music lovers.