#knowyourroots

49 years ago

Patti Smith and Iggy Pop and James Williamson of The Stooges in November 1974 backstage at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California.

Credit: Michael Ochs Archives

#punk #punks #punkrock #protopunk #iggypop #pattismith #history #punkrockhistory

“Louie Louie” by Iggy & The Stooges.  This is the song Iggy would sing when he’d had enough.  He’d improvise a profanity- and insult-strewn version of “Louie Louie” that might last thirty or forty minutes, just to punish the crowd.  Only this time, the crowd struck back.

Metallic K.O. is quite possibly the most notorious bootleg in the history of Punk.  What you’re hearing is a four-track recording of Iggy & The Stooges performing their very last concert (at least until a new version of the band started touring a few years ago).  If Iggy Pop sounds particularly hostile tonight, there’s a good reason for it: During their previous Stooges show, some asshole kept throwing eggs at Iggy, who got fed up and called him out—only to find that the culprit was the biggest, meanest biker he’d ever seen.

So, Iggy got the shit beat out of him.

The band later found out that this was the biker’s initiation into a gang called The Scorpions; basically, his friends had put him up to it.  So Iggy went on the radio and challenged The Scorpions to a showdown at the next Stooges concert at the Michigan Palace.  Then Iggy got some biker friends of his own to hide backstage with boxes full of eggs and bottles and rotten vegetables, to fight back with.  Which sounds like a great idea, until you realize that the band, including Iggy himself, would be caught in the crossfire. 

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Name one other record where you can hear beer bottles breaking against the guitar strings.  Go ahead.  Name one other record that ends with the lead singer knocked out cold and taken to a mental hospital.  Name even one.

So this is Metallic K.O., our record of the last-ever Stooges concert.

Iggy Pop & James Williamson photographed by Suzan Carson for the Kill City Sessions, 1975. 

All photos are my screencaps from the Kill City reissue mini documentary, please do not repost without credit.

The Stooges: James Williamson in 1973 (via). 

Iggy and the Stooges

Michigan Palace, Detroit, MI (Metallic KO) (1974 02 09)

Iggy Pop and James Williamson

1974 /Cleveland

The Stooges: Iggy Pop live at The Victory Burlesque Theatre, Toronto. January 25th 1974. Photo by John Catto.

Iggy and The Stooges, Academy of Music, 1974.

Photo by Eulogio Villanueva

1974 tingz.

The Stooges: Iggy Pop photographed by Tom Copi, 1970. 

Iggy & The Stooges: Iggy Pop and James Williamson live at the Academy of Music, 1973. 

Iggy & The Stooges

Iggy Pop and the Stooges/1/25/74-The Victory Burlesque Theater,Toronto.

photos-April 74 issue/Beetle Magazine