James Williamson (musician)  

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James Robert Williamson (born 29 October 1949 in Castroville, Texas) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer best known for his contribution to the protopunk rock band Iggy & The Stooges.

Contents

Biography and career

Williamson's family moved to Detroit, Michigan when he was in the 8th grade. He formed his first rock 'n' roll band, 'The Chosen Few', with Scott Richardson in the 9th grade. They performed cover versions of Rolling Stones songs and others. Williamson also spent some time in a juvenile home after his step father had told him to cut his hair - Williamson refused. In one of the Chosen Few's later line-ups, in 11th grade, Ron Asheton was the bassist. Asheton, as guitarist, went on to form The Stooges with his brother Scott, Dave Alexander and Iggy Pop.

After graduating from High School, Williamson travelled to New York City in 1969 where he met up with The Stooges, who were recording their debut album with former Velvet Underground member John Cale.

In 1971, Williamson joined The Stooges, who were by then struggling with line-up changes, drug problems and lack of commercial success. David Bowie offered Iggy a chance to record in London, and eventually the Asheton brothers re-joined, with Ron on bass. Williamson co-wrote all the songs (with Iggy) and played all the guitar parts for The Stooges' classic 1973 album Raw Power. He played louder and raunchier than almost anybody at the time, with a jagged high-energy approach. For this, along with his creative song writing, many people consider him one of punk's pioneersTemplate:Citation needed.

Many of the demo recordings made prior to Raw Power were belatedly issued, including the hard rock tracks "I Got A Right" and "Gimme Some Skin". After collaborating with Iggy on the 1975 sessions for their duo album Kill City, Williamson left the music business to become an electronic engineer and work in the computer industry. Williamson recently retired as Vice President of Technology Standards with Sony Electronics, Inc.

Kill City was issued in 1977 and in 1979 Williamson returned to produce, write and play on Iggy's third solo album New Values (with former Stooge multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston emulating Williamson's guitar style). Williamson also did the initial production work on Iggy's subsequent album Soldier, before falling out with Iggy and allegedly not talking to him for 18 years.

After being out of the music business for nearly 30 years, James Williamson is returning to the stage with Iggy & The Stooges in 2010. In the meantime, to rehearse for the forthcoming Stooges gigs, he hooked up with San Jose based roots rock band Careless Hearts, who backed him on his first gig in 35 years at the Blank Club in San Jose, CA on September 5, 2009.

Discography

Albums

with The Stooges

with Iggy Pop




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "James Williamson (musician)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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