Stooges Return: Raw Fucking Power, Baby!

Iggy reunites with his Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson for next incarnation of the Stooges.

By Fred Mills

Reports have been streaming in today (such as this one at RollingStone.com and this one at Pitchfork) about the imminent reunion of Iggy Pop and James Williamson for the post-Ron Asheton incarnation of the Stooges. Some time after Asheton's untimely death this year (read our tribute to Asheton, "Making the Marshall Stack Swear," here), Iggy apparently rang up his old Raw Power-era guitarist and asked him if he wanted to perform again.

Williamson told RS, "I was about to take an early retirement from my job in Silicon Valley, so I figured ‘What the hell, let's do it.' " He subsequently has been rehearsing in Los Angeles with Stooges bassist Mike Watt, drummer Scott Asheton and saxman Steve Mackay. This will mark the first time Williamson has played since the breakup of the Stooges in 1974.

Of the rehearsals, Williamson noted, "I wrote a lot of those songs and it's my style of guitar playing," he says. "It kind of naturally came back to me. We're rehearsing songs from Raw Power, The Stooges, Fun House and Kill City."

While the RS article indicated that the first reconstituted Stooges gig will be at All Tomorrow's Parties in London on May 2 and 3 of next year, Pitchfork clarified that, saying that the band will actually be part of ATP's Don't Look Back series (bands recreating classic albums in concert).

[Photo Credit: Robert Matheu]