The Stooges

The Stooges formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967 around Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) and brothers Ron and Scott Asheton, with Dave Alexander on bass — a group of Midwestern teenagers with almost no technical ability who arrived, somehow, at something entirely new. Signed to Elektra alongside their Michigan peers the MC5, they made a debut so primitive and confrontational that it barely registered as rock music by the standards of 1969; it registers, in retrospect, as the moment punk was invented years before anyone needed the word.

Fun House (1970) pushed further into repetition and noise, adding saxophonist Steve Mackay for something closer to free jazz collapsing into garage rock, while Iggy's live performances — stage-diving, self-mutilation, peanut butter — became as central to the band's legend as the records. Commercial indifference and drug problems broke the band apart; Raw Power (1973), recorded with guitarist James Williamson and mixed by David Bowie, is a different, more overtly violent record that punk bands would treat as scripture. The Stooges sold almost nothing while they existed and shaped nearly everything that came after.