I wasn’t around in the early ‘70s to see the Stooges destroy themselves. And I wasn’t there for solo Iggy shows where the frenzy that he reached back and grabbed was a combination of self destructive disgust and drugs. It honestly might have been terrifying at times.

And since the time of the group’s reformation – including basser Mike Watt from the Minutemen and fIREHOUSE – their pricey shows seem a bit out of reach and void of danger. If nothing else that band, at one time, wanted danger.

Yesterday though, guitarist and an integral musical part of the group, Ron Asheton died.

He left behind one of the most torrid and perhaps misunderstood musical legacies from the birth pangs of punk. While it seems that the MC5 garner a great deal of admiration – they should of course – the Stooges are occasionally thought of as the Detroit band’s dumb brothers. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” surely isn’t symbolist poetry of the highest form, but really it does work on more than one level. But since Asheton was responsible for a great deal of those melodic lines, we can say that he was something of a bridge from Bo Diddley and the Stones to Johnny Thunders. He provided an important link between like minds that may not have existed otherwise.

The term ‘buzzsaw’ gets applied to a lot of guitarists of this era, but the tone of Asheton’s guitar is a full step more distorted and disorienting than that of either Wayne Kramer or Fred Smith from the MC5. His chops might not have been at the same level as those two gentlemen, but that’s not really what punk – or proto-punk is about.

But with the disintegration of the Stooges during 1974, Asheton went on to play in an additional two bands of note. First, he formed New Order – and no, it’s not the band with the dead guy - then he helped solidify the line up of Destroy All Monsters - a group with former MC5er Michael Davis.

But even if Asheton’s work had ended with those 1974 mishaps along side Iggy Pop, his legacy would have easily been assured.