Today I met two really fun people from Austria... Rokko and Alex.... They contaqcted me a few days ago and asked me to take them on a Stooges and MC5 tour of Ann Arbor. Sorry Heather we just forgot all about the infamous railroad bridge that Scott Asheton rammed a truck underneath. I will go out tomorrow and shoot it.
We met at Weber's where Iggy stays when he is in town.. I took them down State St. and they recorded me narrating about Middle Earth, Discount Records, Scott Morgan and the Rationals, King's Keyboard House and more cool businesses where the Stooges and MC5 used to work and hang out.
Famous "Bomb" Crater in front of 1520 Hill St.
The last time I was near the Hill St. houses Margaret Saadi Kramer was in town and we did a drive by tour of a few MC5 landmarks. Today we parked the car and walked around both of these huge houses taking pictures.
Behind 1510 Hill St.
The back of 1510 was so cool looking...much more than next door at 1520. I think this top room was Dennis Thompson's room. Met a young resident out on the back porch and he knew all about the history of these houses. That was cool that he learned about the history of the MC5 and The White Panthers etc. Rokko and Alex really enjoyed Jack's talk about living in the same room (2) that John and Leni Sinclair used to live in.
Most of the Stooges fans I have met all wish they could see the "funhouse" sadly it was demolished when Eisenhower Parkway was being constructed. Not many photos have surfaced of this old farm house. Read MC5 Drummer, Dennis Thompson's story of being the "Psychedelic Stooge"
The Fun House - 2666 Packard Road - The legendary Fun House was actually out on the outskirts of town when the band moved into it in 1968. It was also known as Stooge Manor and housed not only the band and its gear, but also manager Jimmy Silver and his wife and child, as well as various roadies and insiders. Pop lived here with his wife during that brief union and, later, singer and model Nico lived here briefly with Pop. Nico’s cult video for her song “Evening of Light” was recorded in the cornfields behind the house. The Fun House was eventually torn down.
The Fun House - 2666 Packard Road - The legendary Fun House was actually out on the outskirts of town when the band moved into it in 1968. It was also known as Stooge Manor and housed not only the band and its gear, but also manager Jimmy Silver and his wife and child, as well as various roadies and insiders. Pop lived here with his wife during that brief union and, later, singer and model Nico lived here briefly with Pop. Nico’s cult video for her song “Evening of Light” was recorded in the cornfields behind the house. The Fun House was eventually torn down.
In Paul Trynka's famous book on Iggy Pop Open Up and Bleed he talks about Iggy pretending to live in Arbor Hills a wealthy subdivision in Ann Arbor. Supposedly Iggy did not want his peers to know that he actually lived in a small trailer court on the east side of Ann Arbor.
I didn't remember how close to Washtenaw Ave the Hill St. houses were. Right across the street is the famous painted rock on the campus of the University of Michigan. Each year many students paint this boulder with different things.. We even painted it back in 1972. The paint has to be 2 feet thick on this rock by now....
Rokko and Alex wanted to see Coachville the most so I shot some new photos. My last ones were from the winter of 2009. Coachville looks a lot nicer in summer...
We met a resident who has a trailer near lot 110 and she thinks that this was Iggy's lot when the Osterberg family lived here in the 1960's. Not certain if that is true but Iggy did live in the back of Coachville.
The lady we met pointed out that the trailer court now has a huge white fence across the back. There is a huge beige subdivision behind them now. No more deer...no more woods... no more pretty scenery.. just beige beige beige boring homes.
View of the back of Coachville
Alex and Rokko in front of Ypsilanti's water tower
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