The Iguanas

The Iguanas.A Brief History.The Iguanas were formed by Iggy ( Jim Osterberg, as i knew him when we were growing up ) and myself when we were in high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The group had it's beginnings when Iggy and i played in the 9th grade talent show in junior high as just guitar and drums. He had been playing drums in the school band and i had played guitar for awhile on my own. He convinced me to enter the talent show and we played "Let There Be Drums" and a rock & roll riff I made up as another song. It was our first taste of performing and audience reaction, which was enthusiastic to say the least. As we started high school at Ann Arbor High, we asked my friend and neighbor Sam Swisher to join the band with his saxophone. Our first gig ( see photo ) was in the fall of '63 at a University High School dance. I remember we were paid the amazing sum of nine dollar ( Hey, three dollar a piece ! ). It was incredible to get paid for playing music. We were hooked. Within a few months we were joined by Don Swickerath and Nick Kolokithas on bass and guitar, respectively. We gathered a large following and became minor celebrities on the local scene. We played everything from high school dances and frat parties to teen clubs and concerts. We made our biggest mark in this area during the summer of '65 as the house band for the Club Ponytail in Harbor Springs, Michigan, an exclusive resort area. We played every night and shared the stage with national acts that came to play the club. We performed with The Kingsmen, The Guess Who, The Shangari-Las, Bobby Goldsboro, The Four Tops, The Reflections and others. In some cases we learned the music in the afternoon and we were the back-up band for the singers that night. We met a number of influential people and their families that summer. Iggy had a knack for winning over the most unlikely people. That fall one of those wealthy families flew the band along with our equipment to Chicago to play a party for the daughter, who had become a fan. Prior to playing the Ponytail we had gone in to United Sound Recording Studio in Detroit to record three songs included in this release. There were two originals: "I Don't Know Why" and "Again and Again" ( the first song Iggy wrote ) plus a cover of "Mona" by Bo Diddley. The latter song had become our trademark and the signature of our performances. The other material included in this release was intended as demos to audition the band. Two sessions were done: one as a three piece from '63 that is all instrumentals, and the other from '64 that includes the five of us. Both were taped at my house in my Dad's home recording studio. He made records for Olympic figure skaters and others, and made our '63 session into an acetate and the '64 version survived as a reel to reel tape. Jim O. left the Iguanas in 1966 to become drummer for The Prime Movers blues band. These friends of his began calling him "Iggy" for obvious reasons and it stuck. The Iguanas continued with a new drummer through 1966 and gained notoriety playing clubs in the Boston and New York areas. We attracted the attention of Columbia Records but were not signed. We pursued separate directions in 1967. Within a year Iggy would be restless again. The sounds in his head prompted him to recruit the Asheton Brothers to live in a practice house for nearly two years while they created what would become the Stooges. Before that Iggy had played only the drums and sung one or two vocals ( under protest from other band members ). Now he began to more or less teach himself how to play guitar and keyboard as well as to sing. This began to combine with his award-winning high school writing skills and the views of life only he had to produce Iggy Stooge, a.k.k. Iggy Pop. The rest, as they say, is history. Jim McLaughlin 1995./style