The Stooges - 1970: The Complete Funhouse Sessions [7CD Remastered Limited Edition Box] (1999)

Over several days during the month of May 1970, The Stooges went into Elektra Sounds Recorders in Los Angeles to cut what would be their second, and ultimately final, album for the label. The idea was to capture, as close as possible, the sound of a Stooges concert on vinyl disc. To that end each track was recorded live in the studio again and again over many days; in the end, seven tracks were edited out of these session reels and rearranged and assembled to make up the original 1970 album.Though a poor seller and almost universally panned upon initial release, Fun House has since been recognized as a true American classic. It is loud, breathtaking music without which much of the punk and hard rock that followed would be unimaginable.What you have known for almost thirty years as a 36-minute long proto-punk masterpiece is now presented in its complete 7-hour and 52-minute recording session entirety — that's more than seven hours of previously unreleased recordings from Iggy and company. Every take from every Fun House session, in order, exactly as The Stooges recorded them -- all the music, mayhem, false starts, inside jokes, and equipment hum.Everything on this 7-CD set has been remastered from scratch from the original multi-tracks. And in addition to all the alternate takes of the Fun House tracks we've known and loved for decades, there are two previously unheard songs which never made it onto that original disc, as well as a remastered version of the original "Down On The Street" b/w "I Feel Alright (1970)" single. Of the 142-tracks (109 are music and 33 are studio dialogue), all but nine are previously unreleased.Six compact discs are packaged in standard jewel cases each with an 8-page folder; the seventh is packaged in a die-cut cardboard sleeve as a replica of the original Elektra single. There is also a 9.5-inch by 19-inch poster which features the original unretouched band photographs from both the front and back album cover. And, to explain it all, there is an essay from journalist Ben Edmonds which puts all of these remarkable Stooges recordings into an understandable context. *The original 1999 release was individually numbered to 3,000 copies.