The Stooges

RHINO

Fun House 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Indispensible over seven tracks, not so essential over 159.

A half-century on and we’re still riding the ripples of The Stooges’ second album. It’s a beautiful thing, a seven-track study in the feral and unhinged. Essentially, but for its rock-friendly elements (guitar, bass, drums, vocals, attitude), it’s a record that’s got far more in common with the free interpretations of contemporary jazz than with the uniform strictures of the punk scene that it apparently sired. Against the brute minimalism of the rock-solid yet instinctively fluid Stooges, Iggy Pop’s voice extemporises, blurts, explores and punctuates like Miles’s trumpet, framing the future by defying convention. In its original incarnation, it’s perfect. So how better to celebrate its golden anniversary than by bulking it out with all the stuff you were never meant to hear? Of course, it’s all been out before on CD, but with the rebirth of vinyl comes a marketing opportunity that’s simply too good to miss.

So what exactly do the 1,970 punters who manage to corral this set get for their 325 quid? Fifteen 180g slabs of vinyl (the original album over two 45 rpm 12-inch discs, the second of which is etched, the complete sessions across a dozen more discs, two replica seven-inch singles, a 28-page book, two posters, two prints, a slip-mat and a 45-adaptor). Also included (as disc 15) is the audience-recorded Have Some Fun: Live At Ungano’s, an NYC show from August 1970 which, in comparison to the glorious chaos of Metallic KO, is most notable for its relative orthodoxy. ■■■■■■■■■■