Despite the inconsistencies in the bass playing department, Live At Goose Lake, captures The Stooges in their prime. Recorded by audio engineer Jim Cassily, this quarter-inch soundboard tape was found languishing in his basement following his death and has been faithfully restored by GRAMMY-winning producer Vance Powell (known for his work with everyone from The White Stripes to Clutch via Sturgill Simpson). For Stooges devotees Jack White and Third Man co-founder Ben Swank, the album’s release has been something of a personal crusade, the pair negotiating their way around Iggy’s longstanding grudge against Alexander’s performance and the singer’s uncertainty over the set’s validity.
The press release accompanying this long lost recording describes Live At Goose Lake as being “the Rosetta Stone for fans of this seminal band.” For those of us that have spent years hovering up endless bootlegs featuring the first Stooges line-up in a bid to hear just how wild they really were, that much is true. But this is more than a revelatory, historical document. While it signals the beginning of the end of the original band, it also confirms that when rock’n’roll is at its best, it pushes forward into new territory and has the power to change how we think and how we feel. Live At Goose Lake is effectively a testament to sonic liberation. As Iggy himself proclaims on Down On The Street, for The Stooges there were “No Walls!”
Verdict: 4/5
For Fans Of: Sex Pistols, Queens Of The Stone Age, Amyl And The Sniffers
Live At Goose Lake: August 8th 1970 is out now via Third Man Records.