III
1. I Got A Right (Live)
2. You Don't Want My Name (Live)
3. Fresh Rag (Live)
4. Dead Body (Live)
5. Big Time Bum (Live)
6. Do You Want My Love (Live)
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By 1971, proto-punk band the Stooges had composed their third album of material. But upon hearing them play it, their record label immediately dropped the group. This album was thus never recorded in the studio and, as a result, only reached the public during the band's four-month 1971 tour, where they played their entire album from start to finish. However, none of the concerts were professionally recorded, meaning that the only documentation of this album (and of the shortlived dual-guitar lineup of the band that performed it) are a few bootleg audience tapes recorded onto cassette, most of which sound pretty horrendous. Released in a semi-official box set some years ago, however, were audience recordings of two gigs played at New York City's Electric Circus in mid-May '71 that actually sound alright, although singer Iggy Pop is very low in the mix, nigh on inaudible at times; this isn't disastrous though, because the central focus of the music is really on the two churning, pummeling guitars, which come through loud and clear. I'll leave you, dear listener, to try and figure out the lyrics for yourself—for me, that's half the fun of the album.
Anyways, considering that none of these songs made it onto the band's actual third album, I decided to pick the better version of each track they played between the two nights and remove nearly all the audience noise between the songs, so as to create a live album of this essentially unreleased project. I named it III to reflect both its chronological position in the band's catalog and its rough-draft nature, and designed the cover in homage to hardcore punk band Black Flag, who were heavily influenced by the third album that the band did write, record, and release: Raw Power (1973).
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