“I’ve been spat on, I’ve been beaten, I’ve had rotten eggs thrown at my face. They have thrown paperclips, money, cameras, braziers, underwear, old rags, expensive clothes, belts, and everything else at me. I’ve even been hit with a slingshot! You get used to the strangest things after a while.”
Iggy Pop can look back at a career filled with extraordinary stage antics. He has certainly never been boring on stage, and the shows he did during the first part of his career as the frontman of The Stooges is particularly the stuff of legend. Outrageous and with an incredible stage presence, he would do whatever it took to engage the audience and get a reaction from them. If nothing else worked that could involve insulting them, which explains the initial quote about so many things being thrown at him. In his early days with The Stooges his attitude would even occasionally spark riots.
As a frontman, he always pushed boundaries and was very innovative. Iggy is credited with being the first performer to do a stage-dive. He would climb anything, manically dance about with spastic movements, go from lying down on the floor to a high jump in less than a second, and display a level of energy few could match. Some of his more descriptive exploits included rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd, and vomiting on stage.
By 1974, declining popularity and overall wear and tear led The Stooges to decide to call it a day. They agreed to do a short farewell tour before figuring out their next moves individually. At that point the band consisted of Iggy, Ron Asheton (bass guitar), Scott Asheton (drums), and James Williamson (guitar), with touring member Scott Thurston on piano.
It was a chaotic tour. The band had spiralled out of control, and those last few weeks were filled with controversy, drug use, and just plain trouble wherever they went. Not that this was a new thing for The Stooges, but everything seemed worse than before. And it got dangerous after a particular show in Warren, Michigan.
First of all, it is important to remember that in 1974, Iggy Pop was not at all the rock icon he is today. He may have been loved in places like the New York underground scene, but the day to day reality was that he and the band were ploughing their way through the dirt and drudgery of America’s heartland, touring the toilet circuit.
Warren was relatively speaking a small working class town. When the band rolled in to perform in a small club, the crowd hated them instantly. The room mostly consisted of a biker gang calling themselves The Scorpions. They were not there to listen to The Stooges, but to induct a new member into their violent gang. Rather than make the new gang member engage with other members of the gang, they instead turned their attentions towards the shirtless singer on stage with an attitude.
The gang began to hurl heinous insults at the band, continuously shouting slurs and remarks, making requests and even throwing literal eggs at Iggy. It was an ambience which did not go down well with Iggy and the band, but they did not back down.
The well-known music journalist Lester Bangs happened to be there that night. He later described what went down as, “The audience, which consisted largely of bikers, was unusually hostile. Iggy, as usual, fed on that hostility, soaked it up and gave it back and absorbed it all over again in an eerie, frightening symbiosis.”
After returning the harsh words, the group decided to hit back at the bikers with their music. A biker had yelled out “play Louie, Louie!” Iggy grinned and said “All right, you wanna hear Louie, Louie? We’ll give you Louie, Louie!” The band launched into the song, playing the riff over and over again, obnoxiously dragging the song out for over 45 minutes. This left a lot of room for ad-libbing and Iggy added a lot of very explicit slurs aimed at the bikers. He also continued to yell and verbally assault the gang throughout the song, as the riff kept grinding and grinding, over and over, infuriating the crowd further.
The tensions grew until Iggy finally decided he’d had enough. It is very possible to lull yourself into a feeling of invincibility on stage, and that may be why Iggy decided to jump into the crowd to fight one of the bikers who had been particularly abusive. I know what you’re thinking – surely there’s no way that Iggy Pop could defeat a biker gang all by himself? And you’d be right. He couldn’t.
Iggy was levelled quickly and effectively by the entire gang before he returned to the stage just about long enough to fulfil his contract and get paid. Apparently, the club owner was not happy. “I walked into the dressing room after the show,” Lester Bangs said, “where I encountered the manager of the club offering to punch out anybody in the band who would take him on.”
On the very next day – 9 February 1974 – The Stooges were due to perform at Detroit’s Michigan Palace. This was the band’s last show together before they broke up for three decades. Earlier in the day Iggy appeared on the local radio station to plug the show. Still feeling angry about the previous night, he gave a very memorable interview. He called the gang all sorts of names for unevenly ganging up on him instead of having the balls to let him take on the biker one-on-one, and challenged them to show up at the show that evening, to show everybody what they were all about “if they had the guts.”
Several people involved with the tour cringed and hoped that the gang wouldn’t hear this interview, but there was no way. One of the bikers even called in to threaten the band from going ahead with the show, promising to kill Iggy and the Stooges if they played. This did not deter the band, and the gang responded by attending the show in force. They came loaded with a wildly diverse assortment of items to throw at the stage, including ice cubes, handfuls of jelly beans, eggs, broken glass, beer jugs filled with urine, and shovels (!). You’ve got to wonder where security were hiding. Despite the apparent danger and hostility, the band launched into their set with determination and energy.
Part of the reason this show has gone down in legend is that it was recorded on reel-to-reel tape by Michael Tipton and eventually released as a live album called Metallic K.O. The tapes were put aside until they were later obtained by Stooges guitarist James Williamson. With Iggy’s endorsement the album was initially released on the Skydog label in 1976, largely considered a semi-official bootleg due to the nature of the recordings.
The sound is far from perfect, and as you can imagine the show is a hot mess, but what an interesting recording to listen to. It captures the chaos of the evening well – and you can frequently hear that sound of something hitting the stage and/or the band members. Iggy is in fine form, serving up a barrage of excellent stage banter along the way. Lester Bangs later described it as ‘the only rock album where you can hear beer bottles breaking against guitar strings.’
After tearing through numbers like Heavy Liquid and I Got Nothin’ Iggy was especially keen to taunt the bikers who might have been there the night before. “What do you wanna hear?” he asked the crowd. “You say you wanna hear Louie, Louie?” The recording clearly captures loud boos and audible “nooo!” at that suggestion. “You sure you don’t wanna hear Louie, Louie?” Iggy says, mocking disbelief. It all has exactly the effect he is going for, and the crowd is definitely getting lively.
Iggy acknowledges a couple of loud biker ladies before introducing a later song. “Our next selection tonight’s for all the Hebrew ladies in the audience. It’s titled Rich Bitch” – title said with emphasis while pointing at them. The band launches into the song, just as another barrage of ice cubes fly towards the stage. Iggy’s immediately there, screaming back “Hey, I don’t care if you throw all the ice in the world at me, you’re paying five bucks and I’m making ten thousand, baby! So screw ya!”
During the 12-minute track, the band seem to lose track of where exactly they are in the song and go out of time with each other. Iggy has to lead them back into the song – “Gimme just the drums! It’s the only way you’re ever gonna get it right, take it down to the drums!” He then counts the other players back into the beat and the song continues. It does go on for nearly 12 minutes, including several sections with loose playing by the band while Iggy rants in response to yet more pelting, such as “You pricks can throw every goddamn thing in the world… and your girlfriend will still love me. You jealous cocksuckers!”
Eventually it is time to introduce the next song. Iggy dutifully asks yet again if they have changed their mind about hearing Louie, Louie. He gets exactly the reaction he wants, and puts on a mock polite voice for the next introduction. ”Well, well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your kind indulgence. And for this evening’s next selection, I would be proud to present a song that I wrote with my mother. It’s called I’ve Got A Cock In My Pocket. One, two… fuck you pricks!”
As the show draws near its end, Iggy takes a moment to let the audience know he can’t wait to get out of there. “Ahh, this will all be over soon,” he loudly moans, before addressing a booing woman with “I won’t fuck you while I’m working.” Returning his attention to the general audience, he adds “Anyone with any more ice cubes, jelly beans, grenades, or eggs that they wanna throw at the stage? Come on! You paid your money, so you take your choice, you know!”
Iggy goes on to introduce the members of the band, after which he says “…and let’s not forget your favourite well-mannered boy – the singer! Let’s hear it for the singer! I am the greatest! Thanks for the egg, thank you for the egg. Do we have any more eggs? More eggs? Who wants this genuine cock bail, you want that honey? What am I bid for a dozen eggs? Oh, you missed. Come on, try it again, come on! Listen, I’ve been egged by better people than you, come on now. Is it time for a riot, girls? Riooooot! Let’s get a towel for the egg yolk. I don’t want to be caught with yolk on my face. [Makes kissing sounds to the audience.] Oh, light bulbs too? Paper cups? [Audible bang] Oh, my, we’re getting violent! Oh, there’s two guys left the stage. Well, we’ll all have to leave. See you later.”
Amazingly, in one of the least expected moves in rock’n’roll history, the band actually comes back for an encore after a short break. There was a purpose to it, though – they wanted to give the bikers Louie, Louie one last time.
“What do you want to hear?” Iggy says to an amazed audience as they come back out. After a round of jeers and boos, he continues “The only good song for you would be a 55 minute Louie, Louie. Let’s give ‘em an extra treat, Louie, Louie… hey, would you rather we just ran through our program set and look real slick, or would you rather we just relax and did Louie, Louie?”
They don’t even wait for the response. The band launches into the song, with Iggy bemusedly yelling out over the intros “Louie, Louie! I never thought it’d come to this, baby!” It sounds like he’s not sure he believes it himself. The bikers in the audience knows that the song is nothing less than a big middle finger directed at them, and Iggy delivers yet another vulgar rendition of the song.
Despite the warning about 55-minute versions, they are done with the song after just three and a half minutes. With their message well and duly delivered, Iggy sings “Let’s go!” and they end the song. “Ladies and Gentlemen, with Louie, Louie and…” Iggy begins to say as a goodbye, but pauses abruptly before continuing: “Thank you very much to the person who threw this glass bottle at my head. You nearly killed me, but you missed again. Keep trying next week.” Meanwhile, one can hear the ominous sound of yet more glass breaking in the background.
With that, the band left the stage for good. There would be no next week. The Stooges were no more – at least until their reunion some 30 years later. When they returned to the area they all got a hero’s welcome. Louie, Louie was not on the set list.
The Metallic K.O. album was released some two years later and became an instant underground hit. The timing was perfect for it, with punk rock’s first era hitting it big just at the same time. The Stooges were (quite rightly) hailed as protopunks and godfathers of the genre, and for a while the album was quite sought after. Metallic K.O. even ended up outselling The Stooges’ major label official releases, shifting over 100,000 copies in America as an import in its first year alone.
The album has since been re-released in expanded form. A 1988 double release (dubbed Metallic 2X K.O.) added a second show from 6 October 1973. The original album only contained the last half of the 9 February 1974 show, opening with the first half of an earlier show (from 6 October 1973) at the same venue.
Later releases included the full shows from both dates, starting with a (still double) 1998 re-release which corrected the track order and expanded on the track lengths. The recordings were further cleaned up and restored for inclusion on the Stooges box set From K.O. To Chaos in 2020.
As a postscript: Iggy finally recorded a full-fledged and proper studio version of Louie, Louie on his American Caesar album in 1993, giving it an arrangement very much like a classic Stooges song.
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