Ron Asheton, founding member of The Stooges, was found dead in a Detroit suburb Tuesday morning. The ‘Punkfather’ whose guitar riffs inspired generations died on his couch aged 60.
Asheton’s riffs propelled Stooges classics such as ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, ‘No Fun’ and ‘1969′. He was found dead on the couch of his home in the Detroit suburb of Ann Arbour Tuesday morning, according to a report published by local paper Ann Arbor News. The cause of his death was unknown at time of going to press but local police did not implicate any suspicious circumstances, according to the paper’s website.
Asheton was one of the original ‘Dum Dum Boys’ duo who in 1968 inspired a clean cut R&B musician called James Osterberg to re-name himself Iggy and explore the wild side. The rest is history, as they say. The Stooges, as James and Iggy called their band, influenced hundreds of Punk Rock bands with their raw energy, aggression and their minimalist take on rock ‘n’ roll.
Ron’s partner in crime, fellow Dum Dum Boy and original Stooges bass man Dave Alexander, died in February 1975 of health complications brought on by alcoholism.
Ron recorded two landmark albums with the Stooges, The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970). Both are stone cold classics and became the blueprint for the Punk and New Wave generation and all that came after it. On ‘The Stooges’, Ron’s style is primitive to the extreme. Two notes repeated over and over again, drenched in distortion. A massive wall of sound. On ‘Fun House’, Ron plays a bit more loose but still concise and to the point. It’s Ron’s style of gaining power by stripping off all unnecessary notes that made him the Punkfather.
A roll call of bands who at some stage admitted they were influenced by The Stooges would include: The Sex Pistols, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Heartbreakers, The Damned, Television, The Saints, Radio Birdman, The Fall, The White Stripes and David Bowie among others.
Following the classic duo of albums, ‘The Stooges’ and ‘Fun House’, Ron and Iggy grew apart at an increasing rate due to their lifestyles, drug habits and egos clashing more and more frequently. Iggy kept the upper hand, kicked out Dave in 1970 and ‘demoted’ Ron from guitar to bass in 1971, bringing in James Williamson on guitar.
Not a mean guitarist himself, James stamped his mark all over the band’s third album ‘Raw Power’ (1973). But his style is a lot more flashy, baroque even, compared to Ron’s.
Burdened down by lack of commercial success and personal problems, The Stooges fell apart after a show at Detroit’s Michigan Palace in February 1974. Iggy went solo and has been through just short of 10 guitarists since, including ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones, but no other musician would ever quite back Iggy’s vocals with the same intensity as the wall of sound created by Ron.
Following the demise of The Stooges, Ron put together two bands, The New Order - not to be confused with the Manchester band of the same name - and New Race with ex-Radio Birdman members. Both played decent rock, but never achieved the same burning brilliance as The Stooges.
Ron and Iggy finally put differences aside in 2003 when the re-formed original Stooges - minus Dave Alexander - hit the stage at the Coachella festival. The re-united Stooges with Ron on guitar recorded one more studio album, ‘The Weirdness’, which was released in 2007.
Ron is survived by his brother Scott (59), who played the drums in the original Stooges line-up.
