The Stooges: Fun House (2LP, 180g, 45rpm) [MOBILE FIDELITY]

Why you'll love it

Mobile Fidelity spreads Fun House over four sides at 45 RPM on 180g vinyl, mastered from the original analog tape, and numbers every copy. It's the raw, roaring heart of proto-punk, the bridge between the Stooges' debut and Raw Power.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• 45 RPM
• Numbered
• Gatefold jacket
• Mastered from the original analog master tape
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Producer Don Gallucci, the former Kingsmen keyboardist, saw the Stooges live and told Elektra he wasn't sure anyone could get that feeling on tape. So they took the studio apart. After a first day of polite baffles and boom-stand microphones, band and producer stripped Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles of its soundproofing, set up as if for a gig and let Iggy Pop sing through a handheld mic in May 1970.

They cut roughly a track a day, in album order, rarely more than four takes. "Down on the Street" opens with a riff that sounds like it's been leaning on a wall all night, "Loose" and "T.V. Eye" are pure detonation, and "Dirt" slows to a menacing crawl. Then Steve Mackay's saxophone barrels in on "1970" and "Fun House," and "L.A. Blues" ends things in glorious chaos. Ron Asheton's guitar and Scott Asheton's drums never let up, and Iggy said Howlin' Wolf was his guiding light.

Critics have since called it a "punk jazz opus," and Christgau heard genuinely avant-garde rock in its repetition. With no baffles in the room, the bass amp rattles the snare on several songs, which is what happens when you ask the furniture to join the band.

Also at Kops: more The Stooges on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab / Elektra (cat# MFSL 2-606), a reissue of the 1970 album.