The Stooges, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers
Iggy Pop Live at Max's Kansas City (credit: Dustin Pittman)
On March 15, The Stooges are finally going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s been a long time coming and Max’s Kansas City is very excited that this important and influential band is getting its due. Max’s played a vital role in The Stooges’ career — band was in a bit of limbo around 1971 or so and it was then that Iggy Pop went to New York and met David Bowie at Max’s Kansas City. With Bowie’s help, Iggy reunited The Stooges and created the band’s third album Raw Power in 1973.
On July 30, 1973, The Stooges, with Scott Thurston on piano, played Max’s Kansas City. The recording on The Stooges Max’s Kansas City rehearsals, as well as their Max’s performance is on Disc 4 of Heavy Liquid (the six-CD limited edition boxed set that chronicles the rehearsals and sessions for Raw Power.)
Dustin Pittman, who we interviewed a few months back, has some pretty amazing shots of Iggy performing at Max’s in the ‘70s, which you can check out below:
Iggy Pop Live at Max's Kansas City 1969 (credit: Dustin Pittman)
Iggy Pop Live at Max's Kansas City (credit: Dustin Pittman)
Last year, on his Pop Archives blog, Pittman wrote the following:
“…I have known and photographed Iggy since 1969. He changed the way I thought about Rock & Roll. He changed Rock & Roll. Iggy and The Stooges are nominated for the 8th time to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Let’s hope that someone is smart enough to finally give The Stooges their turn to shine. It wasn’t always that way with the Stooges. In 1969, when the 1st Stooges record hit the airwaves, it bombed. This was the time of not so great “arena rock”. You know what I mean. The general public just didn’t get it. But small crowds of true Rock fans got it. It changed their world. Now, 40 years later, Iggy is still at it…”
RollingStone talked with Iggy in December about his reaction to the Hall of Fame induction–read all about it here.
Check out this portion of our chat with Pittman:
DUSTIN PITTMAN: Danny Fields who was a very good friend of mine was Iggy’s manager. Iggy used to come to New York, and he had an incredible reputation for smashing photographers’ cameras. No way could a photographer shoot Iggy in concert. He would smash the camera in two seconds. But Iggy and I were friends. He used to stay over at Danny’s place over on 20th or 21st street, a couple of blocks from Max’s. I used to go to Danny’s all the time, and we used to do our thing and hang out. And Iggy and I always had a pact. That I would be able to photograph him the way I wanted to photograph him, in concert, and he wouldn’t smash my camera. It was fantastic. And I got incredible, incredible pictures. Everyone was always totally frightened to death to get close to him.
MAX’S KANSAS CITY: How is Iggy in person? All the images you see of him are so strong, is he that intense?
DP: Incredibly intense. Iggy then is a different Iggy from now. He’s an incredible guy of course a great personality. But he’s an incredible together businessperson. You know, Iggy’s a show.
MKC: Right …
DP: And that’s what’s amazing about it. Now, he’ll go out and give it his all, but it’s a show. I’m not trying to demean it, but it’s like Iggy and the Stooges’ regular style. Whereas before, Iggy was rock n’ roll, it was raw. And I mean raw. At that time when Iggy first came around, he was hated by the press. They couldn’t stand him. They couldn’t stand what him and The Stooges were all about, they thought it was all noise. Like anything else in new directions. But the thing is it was really crazy because he was able to come around with this personality and it was fantastic, nothing was like that. At this time you had this boring, monotonous, arena rock. It was disgusting. This huge pomp, and it was all props and show biz. And when Iggy came, it was this kid in torn jeans and bare-chested with his dog collar on his neck, cutting himself with glass, and doing all this stuff for the audience. The people, their mouths were wide open just gasping for breath.
MKC: Wow ….
DP: Yeah I mean that’s what it was. It wasn’t anything that had come around like that. Those times were incredible. I mean to witness that, especially those few early ones. When he was just getting his feet wet. It was amazing, man. Truly amazing. It turned my life around.
Posted on February 12, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Ahhh the NY Mets. Good info here. Horrible they flopped last year.
I really liked your blog! great
Hi,
I love Dustin Pittman and he is a wonderful photographer, and, if I could reach him, I’d remind him that the pictures above are certainly his, and remarkable, and historical, but they were taken NOT at Max’s, but at Ungano’s. The Stooges FIRST Manhattan show, probably ‘69.
If yr interested, whoever you are, I took a bunch of pix of the Stooges actually AT Max’s (you can tell because they’re hanging out in the backroom after their show); they can be seen in lots of places.
Best,
Danny Fields