No. 191: Fun House

Band: The Stooges
Album: Fun House
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Stooges are a great band and this record is more about raw power than the album named as such. The record also has some cool sounds, moving into an avant garde place.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: All three Stooges records are on here, which makes sense, but having all three in the top 200 is foolish.
Best song: "TV Eye" is pretty much the best song on the album.
Worst song: "Dirt" goes on too long.
Is it awesome?: It's pretty good and most consider it the best Stooges record.

Drugs and rock and roll appear to go pretty well together. Songs like "White Rabbit" and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" are pretty clearly about drugs and artists lie Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Jim Morrison all sang the praises of drugs.

"Fun House" is kind of the other side. Iggy Pop and Co. were going through their hardest drug phase. The band likely broke up because of their drug problems a few years later -- Pop said it hurt their "purity of intentions."

Still, it's a fierce-sounding record. Employing ex-Kingsmen keyboardist Don Gallucci as a producer, the record's muddy, prehistoric sound fits the band better than their more experimental debut. "1970" feeds off the debuts "1969," while "T.V. Eye" is almost the definition of protopunk. It all works over a fantastic groove that the band once called "trogolodytic."

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I find it a little strange that the most critically acclaimed Stooges record is also the lowest on the list. Pitchfork loves it, RS loves it, Christgau loves it and Allmusic loves it. It just goes to show that the list properties are kind of dumb. Is it about influence? Best albums? Importance? Who knows... Not me.