Ron Asheton

Man it's been nature calling full on the last little while ! Mitch Mitchell, Eartha Kitt, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Carl Black and now Ron Asheton. It reminds us that life is precious and not to mention short. The Stooges are arguably one of the most important rock groups ever if only because they defined the element of putting the aggro and snarl into the rock. I remember hearing them for the first time back in the early 70's and thought they were really wicked. Sadly I think I only heard them after reading about them in Circus magazine and being at that time in '74 on a steady diet of Mountain, Kiss and the New York Dolls among others the appeal of checking out the Stooges based on a bare chested, long haired blood soaked lead singer was not lost on me. I still own and play frequently a white label Elektra promo copy of "Funhouse" and it still boots my ass every time. Afterall, I am the perpetual rebellious teenager at the age of 48!!! Seeing as how I don't need to review or tell ya how awesome the first 3 Stooges are cuz it's been done to death I will say that Ron Asheton and his six stringed implement of destruction will live on in infamy and will continue to influence many future string-smiths for years to come, bank on it! I remember after my band the Curbs fell apart in '79 and we evolved into the first real punk band in Fredericton, New Brunswick's history; the Angered Wrecks, that 3 of the first 5 songs we smoked were "Search & Destroy", "Shake Appeal" and "I Need Somebody". The 4 of us in the Angered Wrecks were sure that the Stooges were "God" and we were out to and definitely proved it. Whenever we played their songs they were show stoppers and crowd pleasers and we were taking the Stooges music to new people (even the cops on numerous occasions!) who were in turn runnin' out and grabbing the real deal! Over almost 30 years in community radio I couldn't even guess how many Stooges songs I've spun either by Asheton and the boys themselves or the tons of killer covers of any of their work.

This Friday on Friday Morning Cartunes I will pay tribute to Ron Asheton and to the greatest rock band of our lives by spinin' some more and not only the Stooges but New Race, Dark Carnival, Destroy All Monsters if yer tuned in you'll even hear Fredericton's Angered Wrecks do 'em justice ! Ron Asheton, may you find peace and thank you for all you gave, RAFR !