The Stooges

The Stooges is the debut studio album by American rock band the Stooges, released on August 5, 1969 by Elektra Records. Considered a landmark proto-punk release, the album peaked at number 106 on the US Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The tracks "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "1969" were released as singles; "1969" was featured on Rolling Stones list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs" at number 35. Background and recording For their first album, the Stooges had intended to record seven songs: "Asthma Attack", "I'm Sick", "The Dance of Romance", "Goodbye Bozos", "No Fun", "I Wanna Be Your Dog", and "1969". "Asthma Attack" was a completely different composition than the version of the song utilizing the same song title that appears on the album reissue. According to Iggy Pop, "'Asthma Attack' was a structured piece of repetitive descending chording that sounded a lot like (Syd Barrett's) Pink Floyd 'Interstellar Overdrive.'" He elaborates further, "And it was B (major), A (major), G (major), & E (major) like a Who thing – and then I would wheeze and say, 'asthma attack.'" Ron Asheton's main guitar riff in the song "1969" which utilizes an "A (major) & G (major) two chord guitar pattern was directly lifted from The Byrds "Tribal Gathering" (originally occurring between :50-1:02 & again at 1:30-2:03 mark in the original song arrangement). The drum pattern in "1969" was directly lifted from the famous Bo Diddley percussive beat.