Jim DeRogatis eulogizes Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and shares a great quote from the inimitable Lester Bangs from “Roots of Punk (Part One)” originally published by New Wave magazine in 1978:

“1969” featured the only use of wah-wah that I had ever liked on any record (mainly because Ron Asheton didn’t do anything with it, no flash bullshit, he just blanged out a chord and let the technology play its own self), and most importantly of all, THAT HE AND IGGY DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYTHING AND NEITHER DID WE. We knew that over in Michigan his lifestyle was identical to ours, just getting fucked up all the time and trying to find the girls who’d fuck us and usually failing. Fuck the establishment, fuck the counterculture, fuck the Beatles after that white atrocity, fuck rock ‘n’ roll for that matter, everybody being so goddam protective about it like it was some sickly child or something, fuck the government and fuck the war and fuck the college and fuck the hippies and fuck everything. Fuck you. I’m fucked up already. Listen, when one of your best friends is slumped in your room stoned just this side of death on Seconals, drooling on himself and mumbling “I dunno, man, lately I think I been turnin’ into a vegetable…” you really don’t want to listen to Abbey Road, much less “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” a title I can’t even type without sneering.

Note: we replaced the “—“s with ucks and hits, because…well, we can.

Previously: Ron Asheton, Dead at 60.