But when Alexander took too many downers before a festival appearance and couldn’t play, a few days before Fun House came out, frontman Iggy Pop fired him. He also contributed several outside-the-box ideas to the group, such as the Indian-inspired “We Will Fall” on their debut and clanging “Dirt” rave-up on 1970’s Fun House. The Stooges’ founding bassist Dave “Zander” Alexander had the reputation of being a loose cannon before the group even came together: He dropped out of high school 45 minutes into his senior year to win a bet, and he and Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton once traveled to England with hopes of running into the Beatles. Image Credit: Mark and Colleeen Hayward/Getty Images He is buried in an unmarked grave in Mississippi. 'Well, this is it.' In August 1938, just a few months after his 27th birthday, Johnson made moves on the wife of the owner of a roadhouse where he was playing, drank from an open bottle of whiskey he was offered, and died three days later of strychnine poisoning and pneumonia.

'You want to know how good the blues can get?' Keith Richards once said. He recorded less than 50 songs – including ones later covered by Cream ('Cross Road Blues'), Captain Beefheart ('Terraplane Blues') and the Rolling Stones ('Love in Vain,' 'Stop Breaking Down') – and performed alongside the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James and Memphis Slim as he rose to fame. One of the Delta blues' most celebrated and singular talents, Robert Johnson recorded chilling, folkloric songs about hellhounds, the Devil and general despair amid swinging, dissonant, sometimes off-kilter guitar lines – the likes of which have reverberated through rock & roll for decades.

Mysteries by colin wilson