The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
released under his real name, Scott Engel, combined to ensure that it was barely promoted. Its failure to chart, though, still represented a shocking fall from grace. Walker had embarked on a path of his own, one that continues to baffle and confound to this day.
The Stooges
The Stooges
Debut from Michigan misfits, regarded by most as the world’s punk pioneers.
Record label: Elektra
Produced: John Cale
Recorded: Jerry Ragavoy’s R&B Studio (later the Record Plant), New York; June 19–21, 1969
Released: August 5, 1969 (US) September 1969 (UK)
Chart peaks: None (UK) 106 (US)
Personnel: Iggy Pop (v); Ron Asheton (g); Scott Asheton (d); Dave Alexander (b)
Track listing: 1969; I Wanna Be Your Dog (S); We Will Fall; No Fun; Real Cool Time; Ann; Not Right; Little Doll
Running time: 34.33
Current CD: Rhino 8122731762 is a 2-disc expanded edition with the original mixes of the album plus John Cale’s mixes plus full versions and alternate vocals on others to complete the package
Further listening: Fun House (1970) takes the basic blueprint one step further.
Further reading: Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed The Biography (Paul Trynka, 2007); www.iggypop.com
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
Rock music distilled down to its barest essentials, The Stooges still sounds fresher and more contemporary than most of the punk, alternative, glam and thrash metal material it allegedly spawned in the ensuing decades. Fittingly, its recording was a perfect combination of planning and serendipity. Signed by Elektra as a kind of adjunct to leading Detroit band The MC5, The Stooges hit New York intent on capturing their live set, which comprised around four songs: ‘We had I Wanna Be Your Dog, 1969 and No Fun, along with We Will Fall,’ says guitarist Ron Asheton. ‘[Label boss Jac] Holzman goes, “You got any more songs?” and we said, “Oh yeah.” So we sat down in the Chelsea Hotel, came up with Little Doll, Real Cool Time and Not Right, we rehearsed it one time and did it all the next day, one take for each tune.’
The Stooges’ simplistic, gonzoid sound did not derive from mere stupidity; the minimal lyrics, mostly taken from Stooge in-house slang, were meant to echo the stripped-down couplets of the bluesmen Iggy had heard in Chicago. The slow pace at which the band attack the songs adds a monumental, menacing undertone: ‘The tempos were a little slow because we were all constantly on pot,’ says Iggy. ‘When there was an audience the tempos would come up because we were shitting our collective little pants. But without the audience the dope took over!’
The day after their writing stint, The Stooges stacked up their Marshalls in the Hit Factory: ‘We stick our Marshalls on 10 and start doing our thing, and Cale’s shouting “No no no, you can’t play this loud!”’ says Asheton. ‘This was the only way we knew how to play, because the sound of the instruments, the power, was the catalyst to drive us on. So we went on strike. They couldn’t believe it, we went into the sound booth, sat down and started smoking hash.’ Producer John Cale engineered a compromise, the band turned down one notch to nine and the songs were recorded with minimal decorum. Iggy claims that Cale’s ‘bizarre art mix’ of the album was dumped after the singer staged a tantrum in Jac Holzman’s office; Iggy supervised the mix heard on the final version. Released to widespread indifference outside the band’s Detroit stronghold, The Stooges scraped into the lower reaches of the American charts, and was deleted just a couple of years before every aspiring British punk guitarist started learning the iconic riffs to No Fun, 1969, and I Wanna Be Your Dog.
Van Morrison
Astral Weeks
Van’s first official solo album went beyond blues rock to a magical place many have tried to revisit since.
Record label: Warner Brothers
Produced: Lewis Merenstein
Recorded: Century Sound Studios, New York City; September 25-October 15, 1968
Released: September 1969 (UK) November 1969 (US)
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Van Morrison (v, g); Jay Berliner (ag); Richard Davis (b); Connie Kay (d); John Payne (flute, soprano s); Warren Smith Jr (pc, vibraphone); Larry Fallon (ar); Brooks Arthur (e)
Track listing: Astral Weeks; Beside You; Sweet Thing; Cyprus Avenue; Young Lovers Do; Madame George; Ballerina; Slim Slow Slider
Running time: 47.14
Current CD: Warners 7599271762
Further listening: Tupelo Honey (1971); St Dominic’s Preview (1972); Veedon Fleece (1974)
Further reading: Van Morrison: Too Late To Stop Now (Steve Turner, 1993); Celtic Crossroads: The Art Of Van Morrison (Alan Clayson and Brian Hinton, 1997); Van Morrison: No Surrender (Johnny Rogan, 2006); www.vanmorrison.co.uk
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
Released from his contract with Bert Berns’s Bang Records, Van was free at last to explore his musical vision. With a handful of songs he went into Century Sound Studios in Manhattan and created a recording of such breathtaking originality that it sounded like a career pinnacle rather than a beginning.
He’d told his new managers Lewis Merenstein and Robert Schwaid that he was aiming for a ‘jazz feel’. So jazz buff Schwaid recruited a quartet of crack New York sessionmen that included his bassist friend Richard Davis and drummer Connie Kay from The Modern Jazz Quartet. Shortly after Van’s twenty-third birthday, on the September 25 session, from 7–11pm they recorded Cyprus Avenue, Madame George, Beside You and Astral Weeks. Three weeks later the same musicians returned to record Sweet Thing, Ballerina, Young Lovers Do and Slim Slow Slider. String overdubs and the harpsichord on Cyprus Avenue were added by arranger Larry Fallon during mixing sessions, adding an unexpected texture to the basic tracks’ jazz lilt, heightening the album’s eerie, nostalgic mood.
Guitarist Jay Berliner hadn’t heard of Van Morrison before the September 25 session and wasn’t to hear the album until the late ’70s when younger friends pointed out to him that he had contributed to a classic. ‘In those days I was so busy that I had no idea what I was playing on,’ recalls Berliner. ‘I played classical guitar [which] was very unusual in that context. We were used to playing to charts, but Van just played us the songs on his guitar and then told us to go ahead and play exactly what we felt.’ Although the finished tracks were essentially live takes, both Schwaid and John Payne remember the material being much longer during recording. ‘About five minutes of improvisational sax playing was cut from Slim Slow Slider,’ says Payne. ‘I was just jamming. It made me sick that they cut it out.’ (Tapes of the jams were given to Warner Brothers by Schwaid in the ’70s but have never featured on any reissues.)
Although production was credited to Lewis Merenstein, Robert Schwaid and engineer Brooks Arthur (who owned Century Sound Studios), all played an important part in the sound. ‘In all fairness to Van, he was the one who was directing the taping,’ admits Schwaid. ‘Lew and I were in the control room but Van was the real producer.’ No one involved in the sessions can boast that they knew they were making a masterpiece. ‘I thought it was a great record at the time,’ says Schwaid, ‘but initially it was a failure. I don’t think we did 20,000 copies. It wasn’t until years later that people started to come up to me and tell me that their