Stooges - Fun House (Dlx)
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.72 You Save: $12.24 (65%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.22 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Fun House (Dlx)
Free Music Review: Hot animalistic rock and roll at its best...
Hit: 5 Stars
This has to be one of the hardest hitting albums ever released. The fact that it came out in 1970 is amazing, only confirming that the Stooges were ahead of their time. (This album pre-dated the punk movement of '77 by seven years.) Also confirming that "Fun House" was a work of genius is the fact that Elektra records dumped the Stooges from their roster after they released this album, which proves the theory that genius is rarely understood, accepted, or recognized in it's time and is only appreciated in hindsight. This album wipes the floor with what is considered "heavy" today, you put it up next to a band like Nickelback or another band in that genre and it makes the other band look emotionless and weak by comparison. The first three songs on this disc don't let up a bit, "Down On The Street", "Loose", and "T.V. Eye" are all relentless grooves that capture the Stooges throbbing rhythm section, buzzsaw guitar, and Iggy's over the top vocals and gutteral screams and yelps. (I once read Iggy's explanation of what the "T.V." stands for in "T.V. Eye", and it doesn't stand for television, and thats all I can say on Amazon.) "Dirt" stands as one of the Stooges best slow songs, and doesn't lag for a seven minute dirge. The onslaught continues with "1970" which was later to be covered by many punk bands years later, most notably The Damned, who released it as "I Feel Alright" on their debut album. "Fun House" has one of my favorite Iggy vocals and a struttin' vamp of an arrangement by the band, including a honking sax. I can remember blasting it in college and having people walk by my door and asking, "What the hell's that noise?". "L.A. Blues" is like a free jazz blow out where the band implodes on itself. Unbelievable. This album sounds as fresh today as it probably did back then, and will remain timeless. It is amazing to me that the Stooges combined a punk attitude and aggressive music this way in the late sixties and early seventies, when hippies ruled the music scene. I spoke to a guy once who saw the Stooges live during this period and said it was the most inspiring thing he ever saw. If you are a rock fan and haven't heard this one, don't hesitate, just buy it. This disc never gets old and should be an essential for everyone's CD collection.Free Music Review: intensity Taken to a Whole Other Level
Hit: 5 Stars
My God. Is this the most raucous, out-of-control, reckless set of songs ever recorded? For their second album, the Stooges pulled out all of the stops, with the net result being a rock and roll album with near-seismic strength, supplanted by hooks that never die, even thirty years later. This is all the more incredible when you consider that just one year previous, the Stooges were barely able to play their instruments, and virtually incapable of writing original material. Most of the songs on their previous (debut) album were written almost overnight, because the record company felt (perhaps rightly) that four songs weren't enough to sustain a debut album. Despite their green-ness, they assembled a debut album that still stands as one of the most preposterous, unlikely classic debuts of all time. Afterward, most people presumed that they'd never be able to follow it up. Instead, they blew it away.
"Fun House" contains a never-ending set of mind-blowing rock and roll, played with a ferocity that most musicians can only dream of, or spend a lifetime cowering from. Many `studied' musicians thought the Stooges to be some kind of joke (that school of thought still exists in some quarters). The fact is, most musicians couldn't pull this off, even if they downed a quart of bourbon and gobbled a handful of Hercules pills. Even the late `70s punk bands couldn't reach this level of intensity. The 1-2-3 punch of "Down in the Street", "Loose" and "TV Eye" was enough to redefine the parameters of rock and roll forever. Since then, there is no looking back, except to listen in awe to Iggy Pop and his cohorts as they maraud your stereo system. This re-release only deepens the intensity, since the album is re-mixed for full atomic effect, while the bonus disk provides alternate takes that rival the original album.
Time would eventually prove that Iggy Pop and the Stooges were no fluke. There is only a handful of albums which one can point to and say "That record proves just how intense rock and roll can be". "Fun House" broke barriers in 1970, and it still defines the same barrier, since it remains virtually unsurpassed.
A+ Tom Ryan
Free Music Review: There should be a 6-star exception for this one
Hit: 5 Stars
How the hell do you improve on someting that's already perfect? Well, Rhino has done just that. I popped this disc in and there it was... the most menacing, swaggering riff ever, the opening for "Down On The Street". I've heard it a million times before on the original release...but here it sounds bigger, badder, and more potent than ever. Does it ease up from there? No way! The remastering of this already sonically perfect album brings it to a whole new level of intensity... as if such a thing was even possible. I won't give you a song-by-song account... they ALL sound bigger, badder, and more potent than ever, and this is one album that you just have to listen to all the way through at maximum volume to appreciate anyway. What does need to be mentioned here is the bonus disc, which is chock full of goodies... demos, alternate takes, single versions, and a previously unreleased track which to my knowlege hasn't even been included in the countless bootlegs (I've heard many) that have accumulated over the decades. The song is called "Lost In The Future", a title that would best sum up the Stooges existence. Not too many people were ready for this album at the time of it's release at the dawn of the 70's. It is only in the last few years that the rest of the world is finally catching up to it, and even that is questionable... so it only makes sense that Rhino stepped in to up the ante. There's also some great vocal banter on some of the alternate takes, which sort of clues you in to the overall vibe that was buzzing in the studio at the time of the recording. Funhouse was and still is probably the most primal and dangerous rock and roll album ever recorded. It's all here... the primordial stew from which punk, hardcore, metal, and other edgy genres evolved, but never improved upon. This is the genuine article, and it has been remastered to ultimate perfection with great liner notes and photos. If you're wondering what would make the perfect christmas present for that teenage nephew or niece that needs to be steered away from all those bland pop-punk and emo albums which are cluttering their music collections... you can't go wrong with this one.Free Music Review: The ReMaster is worth it for the Second Disc.
Hit: 5 Stars
The Funhouse Album. Can it get much better than this? Apparently it can. I'm not one to buy reissues, remasters, and such. I have found that sometimes a remaster can be worse than the original! This is one remaster you're going to want to get, though.
The opening track of the Stooges' Funhouse album is "Down on the Street". Henry Rollins once described the driving rhythm that begins this album as a sound that makes a person want to either f[...] or fight, but you know something's going to happen. This album scares people. It is violent. It is sexy. It is everything that makes rock and roll worth listening to. An incredible mix of rock, protopunk, and even some free jazz to top it off.
So, why get the remaster? Honestly, my ears are not in tune enough to be able to tell a difference between this version of the album, and my old beat-up version. That being said, you need to buy this album for the incredible Second CD that it comes with. This album was recorded over several days in Los Angeles. Each day the band would focus on recording one new song live in the studio (something that was not very common then, with emerging advances in studio technology). Every song had several takes and many different versions throughout the day it was recorded.
The second disc consists of several of the alternate takes of the songs on the Funhouse album, and they are incredible. The new and unique interpretations of some of these songs are something any Stooges fan will want to hear. You might even end up liking the alternate versions more than the ones you are familiar with!
On top of the alternate takes, there are two new tracks, "Lost In The Future" and "Slide (Slidin' The Blues)". These are both great songs recorded in the same session, and they come out sounding incredibly clear (most stooges collectors know, tracks like that are hard to come by). If you are a long time Stooges fan, you need to pick up the remaster. If you don't own any version of this recording, what are you waiting for?
Free Music Review: Awesome
Hit: 5 Stars
There are albums you like, and then there are albums that you play so much that if anyone were around, they would beg you to play something different. This is likely to become one of those. Visceral, punishing rock and roll. Nobody has ever made an album like this one.
A few words about the Funhouse box set, since Amazon doesn't even list it. It is called 1970: The Funhouse Sessions. It is a seven disc set, containing everything the Stooges laid down for the Funhouse album. It was made by Rhino Handmade and is now ridiculously out-of-print. I managed to stumble across it used somewhere, so I'll provide a little low down. It is great, but it is truly only for the DEVOTED Stooges fan. Basically, every song's multiple takes fill up a single CD. It is an amazing fly-on-the-wall experience to hear the Stooges work out each track. The little one-off ideas that they throw to the side would be genius on anyone else's album. Most people couldn't make it through a CD and a half of "Loose", but I'm just that mad. But it can be worth it (I'm listening to the "Loose" CD as I'm writing). You fall into this kind of trance. And by take 28 of "Loose" (yeah, 28), which was the keeper, the band have honed it down to an utterly savage track. Of particular interest also is the "TV Eye" disc. It is fascinating to listen to the band figure out what works in the track - thankfully the wrestling intro and the tambourine were dropped. Ron performs a genius solo on the first 8 takes of it, but it was unfortunately dropped on the last few takes. That is why it is a good thing takes 7 and 8 are put on the Funhouse reissue. But why were they combined? If you can include 3 Loose takes on disc 2, surely "TV Eye" deserves at least two takes? But that's just nitpicking.
The reissue is great. It sounds meaty, louder, and fuller. If you need a comparison, just play TV Eye on the old CD and then the new one. You will be convinced.