A thousand lights look at you

I’ve always been a bit iffy about the Stooges, in that I think they never made a fully successful album (never heard The Weirdness nor Ready to Die, admittedly), though you’d have a great best-of made from the highlights of the first three albums. On re-listening to Fun House this evening, I may have to revise that somewhat. I have it on CD but I listened to it a ripped-from-vinyl form tonight, a rip of the new Rhino High Fidelity repress obtained from my usual hush-hush sources… and while I’m still not perhaps 100% convinced, it worked a lot better for me in this form than it ever has before. There’s a coherence and consistency and direction to it I don’t think I’ve entirely appreciated before. I also played it at somewhat higher volume than I normally do, which possibly made a difference. Maybe that’s what I should’ve done all along.

Whatever, it is awfully pleasant to revisit something you’ve known for years and find you like it more than you did before, though I do still think “TV Eye” should’ve been the opening track. The band wanted “Loose” to be the opener, and I understand that, but the record label preferred “Down on the Street”. And with all due respect, both parties were wrong; Iggy shouting “LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!” the way he does would’ve been a hell of a way to kick off proceedings, kind of like if the Beatles had ended Abbey Road with “I Want You”…