Things I've learned from immersing myself in all things Iggy and the Stooges for the last three weeks as I approach my next birthday for which there are a mere six shopping days left-

Open Up and Bleed, the new bio by the Mojo editor dude, focuses on the right time period by skewing his 330 page book toward the first 25 years, but dude, keep your 1st-person ass out of your subject's biography. Stop the meta-bio, bro. I'm Cali reviewer, and I'm sick of it, OK? Nobody cares how the interview went. Nobody cares who cooperated and who didn't. It is your job to stand above the fray and deliver the story in the clearest fashion you can, given what the fuckwads selfishly told you. Biographers- stop covering your asses. Backbiting after publication is the very nature of that fucking beast. Tell the story and keep your whiny ass out of it.

That said, I recommend the book. Plenty of new Stooges info and some Berlin stories about Bowie that I've never heard. He clearly believes the Stooges kicked the shit outta any Iggy solo material, so his taste is creditable, but he overrates The Idiot and underrates Soldier. I can live with that.

I underrated the first Stooges record, and it still surprises me when you can hear something almost 40 years old with entirely new ears. Frozen opinions sometimes need a good listening thaw.

The distilled Funhouse record (down from 9 cds) that delivers alternative takes is a fascinating freak listen. Hey, some of those songs sucked worse than Pleader's Hour the first time they were recorded. Producers matter. That Ray Manazarek organ on Down on the Street is hilarious and wisely left off. What a revelatory listen! You can hear how some of the greatest rock songs ever written were built, block by block. I got the shivers on the way to work this morning. From the music and not the hangover. The glory!

Iggy has only a couple of solid solo records, and the rest of them suck hard: in order of goodness- Lust for Life, The Idiot, Soldier, New Values- all the rest that I've heard (I skipped the last four or so) are varying degrees of awful, with the weird exception of Blah Blah Blah, which has three barely worthwhile numbers: Real Wild One, Cry For Love, Winners and Losers, and many gruesome stinkers. I think I got off the boat around Instinct, the most boring 'hard rock' record ever laid flat in an expensive studio.

The Stooges were the greatest rock and roll band for the short time they existed, and they made my all time favorite, Funhouse. I would also put Raw Power in my top ten, and the first one is growing on me. The first side of I Got a Right (not a proper album but a collection of material that was never released because no label would sign 'em and Iggy and James were too fucked up to get their act together) with some of the best shit from Kill City could have been yet another monster. That would have been four stone dead classics in five years. Only Creedence managed that shit, but ain't nobody gonna put The Stooges in Cleveland.

Iggy is nothing but a wherling dervish icon now, but if you've ever him seen live or if you go back and listen to the best of this bunch, you'll know it's clear- he is the greatest rock animal. Each live performance far surpassed any weird expectation I might have conjured regarding record quality and/or age. The man delivered on all levels each time beyond anything I ever seen in the clubs now or any time previous. Say what you will, but that sweating and stretching skin is rock and roll. It's easy to forget what he did, but don't. Go back for another listen.

I'd like to thank the good folks at Grimbergen for fueling this rant.