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17. Enter the Stooges On March 3, 1968, a new group calling themselves the Psychedelic Stooges made their debut at the Grande Ballroom. Lead singer Jim Osterberg fronted the loud, raw, almost primitive-sounding rock band. The other members included Ron Asheton on guitar, his brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. For their ‹rst show at the Grande, Osterberg, who was also known as “Iggy,” arrived wearing an old ›oor-length white nightshirt . His face was painted white like a mime, and he was wearing an Afro wig made from twisted aluminum foil.1 As the band droned on in a crude monotonous rhythm behind him, Iggy danced around the stage like a strangely tormented man. According to lead guitarist Ron Asheton, the band brought along some nontraditional instruments for that ‹rst show, including a water-‹lled blender into which they stuck a microphone. They played it through the PA system for ‹fteen minutes before coming onstage. They also brought along a vacuum cleaner and a washboard with contact mikes so Iggy could put on golf shoes and shuf›e back and forth.2 John Sinclair was in the audience that night and thought this new band was “unbelievable,” likening their songs to “demented grooves or trances.”3 Whatever it was, the Psychedelic Stooges made their mark. According to drummer Scott Asheton, they had accomplished what they set out to do, “knock down the walls and blow people’s shit away.” Although they didn’t make believers of everyone, the ones they did win over, said Asheton, “started showing up at every gig.”4 Jim Osterberg was born in Muskegon, Michigan, on April 21, 1947, the son of a schoolteacher and an executive secretary. The family lived in a trailer park called the Coachville Garden Mobile Home Court on Carpenter Road in Ypsilanti, a working-class community just a few miles southeast of Ann Arbor.5 In school, despite 158 being an honor student and member of the debating team, Jim described himself as being a “very unhappy person” before getting into bands, “very self-conscious and very schizoid.”6 At the age of ‹ve, he began beating out rhythms with his Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. By 1962, Osterberg was playing drums in an Ann Arbor frat band called the Iguanas, who competed for gigs with the Rationals when that band was starting out. By 1965 the Iguanas had recorded a single, “Mona,” backed with “I Don’t Know Why” on Forte Records. They also landed their ‹rst awayfrom -home gig, playing at a northern Michigan club called the Ponytail, located in Harbor Springs.7 At the start of 1966, Osterberg accepted an offer to replace the original drummer in the already established Ann Arbor–based blues band Prime Movers. Dan Erlewine, who sang and played lead guitar with the band (which also included his brother Michael and Robert Shefe), recalled that at the time, Jim was a “nice, well-mannered guy, even quite bashful around girls.”8 The members of the Prime Movers referred to Osterberg as “Iguana,” after his old band, and eventually shortened the nickname to “Iggy.”9 At the time Wayne Kramer, who along with Fred Smith had seen the Prime Movers perform, believed that Iggy was “certainly the best drummer in Ann Arbor” and described his playing as “unbeatable.”10 It was during his time with the Prime Movers that Iggy developed a real appreciation for blues artists such as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf. One night at the Living End, a Detroit jazz and blues club, Iggy had the opportunity to meet Mike Bloom‹eld, the guitarist in the Paul Butter‹eld Blues Band. Bloom‹eld advised him: “If you really want to play [the blues], you’ve got to come to Chicago.”11 So with nineteen cents in his pocket and dreams of meeting his drumming idol Sam Lay, Iggy left for the Windy City. As a child, Ron Asheton had lived for a time in Washington, D.C., and was inspired by his great-aunt and uncle, who had been vaudevillian performers. Ron took up the accordion and soon began performing recitals. After moving to Iowa with his family, he lost interest in the instrument.12 But then the Beatles and Rolling Enter the Stooges 159 Stones hit, and his desire to play music returned. By eleventh grade, several years after moving back to Michigan, he dropped out of school and, with friend and fellow...

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