“You nearly killed me, but you missed again.”
Iggy, Detroit February 9th, 1974
A lot has been made of “Metallic KO”. As a live album, it is horrible. Even as a bootleg, which it isn’t really as two of the band members signed off on it, it’s pretty low quality. It documents the disgraceful last performance of a band way past it’s prime. The songs are badly done and feature corny piano prominently and Iggy is spouting so much foul and annoying shit even a listener decades removed from the show kind of wants to deck him. The whole thing just sounds like what it was; a drunken druggy bad time. But people keep buying it and listening to it, me too. Nick Kent from New Music Express called it a “masterpiece” back in they day, and, not that I care what Nick Kent thinks, I guess I know what he means.
“Metallic KO” represents the final ugly downfall of an ugly confrontational band, and in that it is perfect. Every second of that performance of February 1974 is charged with malice. The crowd hates Iggy, Iggy hates the crowd, the band hates Iggy, Iggy hates the band. Iggy loves eggs and ice cubes and baiting the biker gang he has invited to his own show to “do their worst”. And they did. How Punk Rock is that?
And that is really the genius of this recording. It represents the death of one thing which gave birth to something else. The Sixties were dead and buried in a shallow grave and every one was getting the feeling that the world was several shades meaner. The Stooges had been the voice of the ugly crazy fringe when they began, but by the time of their demise their nihilism was catching. You can hear on this record the blueprint of the Punk Rock aesthetic being lain out, line by obscene line. “Metallic KO” went on to find it’s place on a lot of turntables inspiring people to new heights of angry depths. It was the forest fire that cleared the way for new growth.
But I could be wrong I sometimes am. Put it on and see what you make of it.
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How right you are! To me, this is the essence of punk rock. This paragraph says it all: “Metallic KO” represents the final ugly downfall of an ugly confrontational band, and in that it is perfect. Every second of that performance of February 1974 is charged with malice. The crowd hates Iggy, Iggy hates the crowd, the band hates Iggy, Iggy hates the band. Iggy loves eggs and ice cubes and baiting the biker gang he has invited to his own show to “do their worst” …”