Counting down my 100 favorite albums of all time...

#26) The Stooges - Fun House (released in 1970, I got it for Christmas sometime in high school)

On side one, the band lays down simple sludge-garage riffs, Iggy finds four different ways to make the greatest vocal entrance of all time (animal shrieks, ...look out, LAWWWWWWWWD!, and an extended lip smack respectively) and guitarist Ron Asheton multi-tracks his spazz-out solos as if it's time to make "Sister Ray" and he has to cover for Lou, Sterl and John. "TV Eye” is the one with the minimalist mind-numbingly eternal dumb-strum and "Dirt" is the revelatory slow jam where Iggy's learning and burning and making idols Jagger and Morrison sound pretentious and tame in comparison. It's the dirtiest, wildest, nakedest, most wanton form of rock and roll that still expresses a coherent sense of happiness. He's dirt, been hurt and he doesn't care, because he's got a fire inside him and he'll stick it deep inside because he's loose and that pretty thing, she's got a TV eye on him, so COME AWN.

Side two features a victory lap and two tracks of, like, jazz.