My Girl Hates My Heroin

Album review

Great title and a beautifully lurid front cover do not really disguise the slim pickings that this album represents for the modern Stooges collector. At the time of release (1989), however, My Girl Hates My Heroin offered up another trawl through the Stooges' 1973-1974 archive, in the form of nine songs taped during rehearsals on the eve of the band's forthcoming U.S. tour. (The CD version added two more.) It's a neat mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Churning renditions of "Search and Destroy," "Death Trip," "Raw Power," and "Gimme Danger" highlight the recently released Raw Power album; "Cock in My Pocket" and "Head On" were destined for immortality courtesy of the Metallic K.O. document of that tour's final night. Other titles, however, would wait years, if not longer, before easing into earshot, and the versions here are fresh again -- although whether anyone really needs to hear an instrumental version of "Jesus Loves the Stooges" is another matter entirely. The problem with this release, and so many more like it, is the absolute lack of annotation, to tell you what you're listening to, what else was recorded at the same time, and where the session fit into that convoluted last two years of the band. Today, thanks to Bomp's Iguana Archive series, that picture has grown a lot clearer. In 1989, however, collectors simply took what they were offered and were grateful for it. History would have to look after itself.

© Dave Thompson /TiVo