Blowing It Up, Part One Summary and Analysis

In "Of Pop and Pies and Fun," Bangs defends the band the Stooges and, in particular, their front man Iggy Stooge (also known as Iggy Pop). Other critics say that the Stooges were musically simplistic and their lyrics, along with Pop's stage show, juvenile. Bangs admits as much, but argues that the Stooges' music and show were a natural reaction to the chaos of the late-1960s. Furthermore, rock bands had become pretentious and many of them deserved to get pied in the face as Alice Cooper had at a recent show. Rock crowds had become convinced that bands were supposed to be objects of worship when in fact they were no better, and may in fact be worse, than their fans. Bangs argues that Pop's onstage antics such as jumping out into...