Ron Asheton R.I.P.

This is a video of Iggy Pop and the Stooges from just last year performing their perrenial favorite, Now I Wanna Be Your Dog. The original Stooges record with this piece was released in 1968. The Stooges were never a commercially successful music group. They were a product of the anarchy of the late 60's Detroit Music scene and represented something beyond music. Iggy was and still is the ultimate performance artist. He could walk off of the edge of stage with confidence that he could keep walking and dancing across a sea of hands. I saw it happen more than once.

They created primitive, savage riffs and Iggy improvised vocally and physically. They provoked riots, but the Stooges were too much even for the insane times they existed in. The band self destructed in the early 70's. The bass player died, the drummer, Scott Asheton, the guitarist, his brother Ron and Iggy dissolved into incoherent drug use. In Iggy's autobiography, I Need More, he tells of how Scotty gradually traded away his drum set for heroin, until one night, he had just a bass drum and a snare.
At that point, Elektra Records began to wonder what the heck they had done.
Still, the records they produced and the performances they gave were the gasoline that started fires for decades after.

Iggy kept making records and performing after a period of dissapearing, collaborating with and influencing David Bowie and many other artists. No matter what anyone might think of Mister Pop, he has always been a pinnacle of musical integrity, never betraying his impulses and is a true artist. He never made a lot of money, but he is still at work.

The Asheton Brothers moved back to Ann Arbor, Michigan and founded the band, Destroy All Monsters with the singer and painter, Niagra. Ron found occasional work in B Movies. Scott became a housing contractor.
In 2003, the bassist Mike Watt succeeded in bringing them back together again for the record, Skull Ring. It worked and they began recording and touring until just last year and probably would have kept on, except, earlier today, Ron Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor home of natural causes. He was 60.

So in this video, the singer, Iggy is 62 and the Asheton Brothers (the drummer and guitarist) are 58 AND 59.
I chose this video because it gives you a chance to hear Ron's hysterical guitar solo...ROCK ON AND ON AND ON.........