By Brett Callwood
Published by Independent Music Press
Hot on the heels of Brett Callwood’s book about Detroit’s other famous rock sons The MC5 comes the long awaited story of the true originators of punk, The Stooges. While Callwood was out in Detroit researching his MC5 book, he fell in love with the place so much he upped sticks and moved out there for good! And having covered The MC5 it was clear he was going to have to next focus his attention onto what was then termed ‘The MC5’s little brother band’ and get the true story of Iggy Pop and his Stooges down on paper for good.
Although bearing the dreaded ‘Unofficial & Unauthorised‘ tag, ‘A Journey Through…‘ is the bands first in-depth biography and Brett has secured interviews for the book with the whole band and the key players around them. Brett’s passion for the subject shines through the book as he enthusiastically takes as through the band’s chaotic years, the fall out from their original split and the joy they brought to their legions of new and old fans when they finally reformed and hit the festival circuit a few years back.
Bands don’t come much more legendary than The Stooges. They practically single-handily invented the sneering, attitude-drenched lose and raw rock n’roll that spawned punk and if your record collection doesn’t contain their first three albums then more fool you. The less said about ‘The Weirdness‘, their reunion album from 2007, the better. It was a turkey and a massive disappointment. But this book isn’t. Read it and weap that they don’t make them like this anymore.
James Sherry