is there, anywhere, any record as lean and forceful as 'funhouse'?

You realise yr complaining aboot a ltd. to 3000 copies, available only over the Internet, box set that was sold out in six months, right, and not some mass produced item? It's not like there's this fictious huge demand for every scrap of sound that they made that you seem to want to convince people there is.

I rest my case.

Oh, well that's thrown the blinders off. Aside from the fact JJF is mid-tempo, and "Loose" is fast tempo'd and completely falls apart on itself mid-way through, they're the exact same song.

But anyway -- Iggy Pop worshiped the Doors, right? And considered joining the band after Morrison died?

The first one, as far as I know, is a myth. The second one is only partially right.

Ron Asheton: "We just wanted to experiment. We used to listen to Harry Partch, lots of Ravi Shankar. Shankar would be on all day. We also liked to listen to the Mothers of Invention so (you had) a little comedy in there! I also admired Frank Zappa, a really under-rated guitar player.

Any kind of strange music. Any electronic stuff. Also, I loved the Tibetan monks playing those great big horns. The big gongs and tambourines and the horns going RRRRRRRRRRRRR. And Gregorian chants. Iggy had a record of that and he loved it. "OK, let's see, we take Harry Partch, Buddhist music, Gregorian chants and try to throw in a little Stones and a little Beatles and see what happens." And then add our madness and our own inexpertise. When you don't know what to play, you're not restricted by a style. So many people are TAUGHT to play a certain way. When you have that free mind, ignorance IS bliss and you come up with some really interesting stuff.

The guy who was the manager of the Chosen Few was our manager before we got a record deal. He went to the Monterey Pop Festival and he came back with a Jimi Hendrix record. He woke me up when he got back. "I got this album you won't believe." He had these fat joints so we got stoned and he put it on. We wouldn't give him the record back for three days. "Alright, now we got another..." So that was the start and basically, we just plugged away."

That doesn't sound like Doors worship at all. Hmm, you think perhaps Elektra's staff made up the Doors worship to sell a few extra records?

Iggy didn't consider joining the Doors. After the Stooges broke up, he had nothing better to do, and Ray Manzerek had nothing else to do, so someone suggested they try something together, and nothing became of that.

That was some closed case.

I'm not saying in no uncertain terms Iggy was not influenced by the Doors, but, aside from "Ann", you probably wouldn't be able to tell, and the records that Asheton has listed (well, maybe not the Mothers), certainly would seem to be far more influential on the sounds of the first record.

Although, Iggy's whole life seems to revolve around "Louie Louie".

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000005IU2/qid=1029531639/sr=2- 2/ref=sr_2_2/102-3032615-8050518