The Stooges' Ron Asheton found dead

[(ken_j)]

I saw this on the local tv news last night.

The Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton has been found dead at his Michigan home at the age of 60.

The rocker's personal assistant contacted police on Monday night after failing to reach the star for days, according to Detective Bill Stanford.

Officers were sent to Asheton's house in Ann Arbor to investigate and discovered his body on a couch in the living room at around midnight on Tuesday. Cops believe the star suffered a heart attack a few days previously, although the official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Foul play has been ruled out, and autopsy and toxicology reports are expected soon.

Asheton was a co-songwriter and founding member of The Stooges, along with his brother, drummer Scott, bassist Dave Alexander, and frontman Iggy Pop in 1967.

He left the group in the 1970s after the flop of their third album Raw Power, and went on to form other bands, including supergroup The Wylde Rattz, comprising of Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Mudhoney's Mark Arm.

The Stooges reunited in 2003 and released an album of new material in 2007, their first in 34 years, titled The Weirdness.

Copyright World Entertainment News Network

Link: http://www.wxyz.com/entertainment/story/The-Stooges-Asheton-found-dead/BEuec5sEJU2q6hQpqJMZZA.cspx

[(whojamfan)]

SSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here was a kid that after seeing Hendrix live went and got a Strat and Fuzzface and made one hell of a noise. Ron, you will be missed!!!!!!!

[(kiramdear)]

Long live the Stooges! RIP Ron

[(rictified)]

Ron was also a great bass player, in fact some would argue that he was better on bass than he was on guitar. He played bass on Raw Power. When they did their reunion I wondered why they didn't get James Williamson to play guitar again with Ron on bass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_Power

For some reason i couldn't put any Youtube clips in.

[(beatlefreak)]

Another who will be missed.

[(wayang)]

A beautiful cat...and he made it to 60! Talk about beatin' the odds...

[(whojamfan)]

Ron was also a great bass player, in fact some would argue that he was better on bass than he was on guitar. He played bass on Raw Power. When they did their reunion I wondered why they didn't get James Williamson to play guitar again with Ron on bass.

For the time in between the "Stooges" and "Iggy and the Stooges", the band was broken up. Iggy went to London for a bit, where he wrote "Search and Destroy", as well as other cuts that did and didn't make it on the album "Raw Power". Iggy hooked up with guitarist James Williamson(not in London), and hooked back up with his old band mates. Ron was shocked, and upset, that he had been replaced, but took the gig of bassplayer anyways, beside his brother Scott on drums. Scott and Ron didn't like James, and were mortified when the record was released that the band was now called "Iggy and the Stooges".

The album was a sonic disaster in almost any respect, which makes it one of my favorites. The guitar blasts out from places like napalm and shrapnel. If you are ever in an emergency situation at home, don't bother with 911, just throw "Your pretty face is going to hell" on your stereo and crank it up. Cops will be there in no time.

The mix was really bad, very little levels of bass and drums, loud guitar rhythm, blasting loud guitar solos so piercing with treble, your cat will hide under the bed. This further infuriated the brothers, as they really felt slapped in the face. Supposedly, David Bowie had something to do with the mix. Bomp records even put out a version of this album with a "Bowie free" sticker on it. I've never heard/read anybody confirm or deny this as he(Bowie)was around at the time doing his own stuff and helping them out. I believe the real problem was everybody was doing massive amounts of hard drugs, and no one really remembers.

Iggy remixed the album in the late 90s, put the drums and bass back in as best he could, and threw in a bunch of liner notes from what he remembered. At this time, I think the healing process between the "original" Stooges was starting. A little while later, they reformed the band, and later cut a record. It was cool that Ron got to see that people did indeed like the music, and to get some proper touring and a signature model guitar.

As far as James Williamson goes, both brothers didn't like him, and the reunion of the Stooges was that of the original band. Iggy and James also have some issues, but don't really know enough about that to share it. James did do a few solo albums with Iggy, but none came close to "Raw Power".

[(rictified)]

Ron was also a great bass player, in fact some would argue that he was better on bass than he was on guitar. He played bass on Raw Power. When they did their reunion I wondered why they didn't get James Williamson to play guitar again with Ron on bass.

For the time in between the "Stooges" and "Iggy and the Stooges", the band was broken up. Iggy went to London for a bit, where he wrote "Search and Destroy", as well as other cuts that did and didn't make it on the album "Raw Power". Iggy hooked up with guitarist James Williamson(not in London), and hooked back up with his old band mates. Ron was shocked, and upset, that he had been replaced, but took the gig of bassplayer anyways, beside his brother Scott on drums. Scott and Ron didn't like James, and were mortified when the record was released that the band was now called "Iggy and the Stooges".

The album was a sonic disaster in almost any respect, which makes it one of my favorites. The guitar blasts out from places like napalm and shrapnel. If you are ever in an emergency situation at home, don't bother with 911, just throw "Your pretty face is going to hell" on your stereo and crank it up. Cops will be there in no time.

The mix was really bad, very little levels of bass and drums, loud guitar rhythm, blasting loud guitar solos so piercing with treble, your cat will hide under the bed. This further infuriated the brothers, as they really felt slapped in the face. Supposedly, David Bowie had something to do with the mix. Bomp records even put out a version of this album with a "Bowie free" sticker on it. I've never heard/read anybody confirm or deny this as he(Bowie)was around at the time doing his own stuff and helping them out. I believe the real problem was everybody was doing massive amounts of hard drugs, and no one really remembers.

Iggy remixed the album in the late 90s, put the drums and bass back in as best he could, and threw in a bunch of liner notes from what he remembered. At this time, I think the healing process between the "original" Stooges was starting. A little while later, they reformed the band, and later cut a record. It was cool that Ron got to see that people did indeed like the music, and to get some proper touring and a signature model guitar.

As far as James Williamson goes, both brothers didn't like him, and the reunion of the Stooges was that of the original band. Iggy and James also have some issues, but don't really know enough about that to share it. James did do a few solo albums with Iggy, but none came close to "Raw Power".

Iggy and Williamson wrote all the later songs together, Iggy wrote the lyrics and Williamson wrote the music and yes their one later collaboration was very uneven and had none of the balls the Raw Power band had although it had some great songs on it, it's called Kill City. What made them great also killed them in the end. I have three different mixes of Raw Power and actually Iggy's new mix has the least bass and drums and the most guitar, the Bowie mix which I have on LP sounds very good and has a lot of bottom. Iggy's new mix is the one that has the cats running under the bed, haha! I believe the brothers especially Ron didn't like James because he completely outclassed Ron on guitar and stole the spotlight from them. Ron had his cool Hendrix psychedelic thing going but was not a very good lead player at all, (I saw the original band in 1969) James wrote the book on punk lead guitar. I don't think The Stooges would have had anywhere near the notoriety they have now if the Raw Power album had not been made. It is the classic album that really put them on the map. I have almost all the Bomp stuff which includes what would have been their fourth LP. America lost a great band because they were so far ahead of their time after Williamson joined them that very few people could appreciate them for what they were.

[(pocaloc)]

I always thought that Ron Asheton was the genius behind the Stooges. His guitar is what inspired the punks. James Williamson is to technically good on the guitar to be the punk inspiration. I love his guitar work, but IMO it is Asheton who is the genius. Iggy was more a genius at picking collaborators like Williamson, Asheton, Bowie. I think Iggy's re-mix of Raw Power sucks. Can't even listen to it. I'm not saying that Iggy's not important to their sound. The energy that they all put out together has a lot to do with the magic. I just don't think he's some musical genius like he wants people to believe from the liner notes on Raw Power. He suggest the songs "he wrote." He must be thinking of the lyrics, and failing to mention the musical input. Ron Asheton is one of my all time guitar heroes. He is who I aspire to sound like. Maybe that's just because deep down I know I'll never be able to play like Williamson.