Disco de The Stooges: “Fun House [Limited]”

I could repeat the words of dozens of reviewers and talk about how raw and visceral the performance here sounds. What amazes me about this record, by contrast, is how -good- it sounds.

To talk down the musicianship of the Stooges as a point of punk orthodoxy seems beside the point when you listen to this record. The Stooges actually sound good here! The twin lead guitars that dominate the first half of the album do not sound sludgy at all, despite the heavy reliance on fuzztone and good old fashioned psychedelic wah-wah. They bubble and sizzle like a brain on drugs in a skillet; the wah-wah flares and trebles the sound at just the right moment. The rhythm section too is solid, and without it, this record would go nowhere fast.

Iggy, likewise, knows exactly what he's doing. Though he seems at one point to be yelping like a mad dog, and at the next groaning like a psychedelic Frankenstein, his delivery is always well timed and right with the band.

Given what everyone -says- about the Stooges, I have to wonder whether or not Mr. Gallucci deserves much of the credit here. This is one of the better engineered records of its time, with a sound that cuts like lasers. It is a remarkable performance regardless of who should get the credit.

This Fun House, like the carnival attractions it's named after, is fun but also scary and creepy and not all that wholesome. Back when I first got ahold of this album, on a French import label (late '70's, when all of the Stooges' stuff was out of print in the USA), I tended to spend most of my time on Side 1 (the first four songs, ending with Dirt.) Side 2 (1970 through LA Blues) were just *so* brutal, but when that certain mood hit, I didn't know of any other music that matched it so well. I've become more accustomed to dissonance since then, I guess. What we have here is an amazingly sharp, dense, harsh and muscular sonic attack that really doesn't sound like music from 30+ years ago, at least not to my ears. I don't listen to a lot of new hard rock but I'd like to hear someone outdo these tracks for sheer power in the same amount of time. The songs never drag, actually the whole album is remarkably well-paced. Down on the Street kicks things off with a menacing prowl, Loose kicks things into high gear, TV Eye hints at the craziness still to come, with Dirt providing a slow-burn, catch-your-breath centerpiece to the album, before the out'n'out cacaphony starts with 1970. Once the sax kicks in toward the latter half of that song, it's like the afterburners have been lit and there's no turning back for the rest of the disc. Words don't do it justice. Lyrically, there is some mystery about what exactly Iggy is trying to say but the message comes through in the various grunts, squeals and howls that he cuts loose, adding another cataclysmic instrument to the potent combo that alas only held together long enough to make two immortal albums (the previous Stooges debut and this one. Raw Power, also a classic, featured a different guitarist and a much different sound, despite the impact it made in solidifying Iggy's legend.) Essential...

The Funhouse Album. Can it get much better than this? Apparently it can. I'm not one to buy reissues, remasters, and such. I have found that sometimes a remaster can be worse than the original! This is one remaster you're going to want to get, though.

The opening track of the Stooges' Funhouse album is "Down on the Street". Henry Rollins once described the driving rhythm that begins this album as a sound that makes a person want to either f[...] or fight, but you know something's going to happen. This album scares people. It is violent. It is sexy. It is everything that makes rock and roll worth listening to. An incredible mix of rock, protopunk, and even some free jazz to top it off.

So, why get the remaster? Honestly, my ears are not in tune enough to be able to tell a difference between this version of the album, and my old beat-up version. That being said, you need to buy this album for the incredible Second CD that it comes with. This album was recorded over several days in Los Angeles. Each day the band would focus on recording one new song live in the studio (something that was not very common then, with emerging advances in studio technology). Every song had several takes and many different versions throughout the day it was recorded.

The second disc consists of several of the alternate takes of the songs on the Funhouse album, and they are incredible. The new and unique interpretations of some of these songs are something any Stooges fan will want to hear. You might even end up liking the alternate versions more than the ones you are familiar with!

On top of the alternate takes, there are two new tracks, "Lost In The Future" and "Slide (Slidin' The Blues)". These are both great songs recorded in the same session, and they come out sounding incredibly clear (most stooges collectors know, tracks like that are hard to come by). If you are a long time Stooges fan, you need to pick up the remaster. If you don't own any version of this recording, what are you waiting for?

Never mind the Mars probe: one listen to Fun House provides all the evidence you need to know that life exists elsewhere in the universe and that it visits the Earth from time to time. This album was so far ahead of its time and so at odds with virtually everything else being done by The Stooges' contemporaries - at least in rock music - that the only possible conclusion is that it was produced by aliens. The reason this album, together with its belated (1973) successor Raw Power, were so influential (and so magnificent) is that they quite simply redefined the limits of rock and roll. No band since has even looked like taking the music beyond this point, established in 1970. That's also why, after hearing this album, most bands today sound old and clichéd and The Stooges sound brand new. I really hope Iggy and the band finally get the credit they deserve as true greats.

Stating the facts, jack, I don't think it would be too bombastic to hail this as the greatest album of all time. This is what rock'n'roll is all about: a howl from the gutter, one big slab of raging noise. Originally released in 1970 to utter indifference (it hit the cut-out bins faster than lightning), this is now held in high enough esteem by the r'n'r cognescenti to have its own 7-CD(! ) retrospective box-set thrust upon the public, and rightly so! Working like a musical suite, Funhouse is a perfect musical combination where every single song - every single note - segways brilliantly into the next. From "Down on the Street" to the wailing morass of "LA Blues", it's a statement of utter loathing, yet, 30 years after its release, with its criminally belated status of a r'n'r classic - of ultimate liberation, too. There is no other album on earth that captures such a feeling of sweaty SEXY rebellion as this; it gyrates and moves like its barely in control, then brings itself back in line to deliver the punch. My god, just get the thing...