2000 Great Songs #1222: I Wanna Be Your Dog

I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but since we're all about candor here: Long before I actually heard The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog," I heard a bizarre parody version by The Seven Stooges--essentially a remake of the song performed in the voices of The Three Stooges. (Heard it in high school when I picked up a pretty awful record called The Rhino Brothers Present The World's Worst Records, at a time when I was occasionally listening to Dr. Demento on late-night radio.) I had read about the actual Stooges, but hadn't actually heard them (or Iggy Pop, for that matter)--and didn't think I'd like them, based on what I'd read. Which is admittedly a little narrow-minded, as I was already a massive fan of the Velvet Underground in high school, and they were typically lumped in alongside the Stooges as proto-punk pioneers--but the prettier/poppier side of a lot of the Velvets' songs made them an easier sell.

I finally got around to checking out the Stooges' 1969 self-titled debut when I got to college and had access to the college station's vast vinyl library. Turned out I like them after all! Maybe not like the Velvets; not something I'd cue up very often outside my radio show. But when the mood struck, the band--and, yeah, especially "I Wanna Be From Your Dog" and its apocalyptic doom-struck sonic anarchy and gross sexual innuendo and insistent piano (minus the Curly, Larry, and Moe imitations)--was just the thing.

2010 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction:

2013 live:

Sonic Youth:

R.E.M. with Patti Smith:

Joan Jett:

Americana style with Uncle Tupelo:

The Primitives (at end of medley):