Warren Klein (born July 27, 1944) is an American musician and songwriter, best known for being a founding member and lead guitarist of The Factory with Lowell George (produced by Frank Zappa), as a member of Fraternity of Man (Don't Bogart Me), and for being a guitarist in The Stooges with Iggy Pop in the spring of 1973. [1] [2]
Warren Klein was born in Queens New York but grew up in suburban Detroit. He became interested in science and electronics in high school where he and a few others were building a cyclotron particle accelerator, an unheard of project for high school students. Klein built the electronics to control it before moving to Westbury New York at age 17. There he met a contingent of folk musicians and fell in love with the guitar and acoustic guitar finger picking which led to him studying with folk music icon Dave Van Ronk, the “Mayor of McDougal Street” and host of the famous hootenannies at the Gaslight Café featuring performances by the likes of Bob Dylan and other folk music greats. [3]
Leaving his scholarship at Pratt Institute, Klein grabbed his guitar and a sleeping bag and headed to California in a drive-away to Colorado. While hitchhiking in the Colorado desert he was picked up by the Siebrand Brothers Circus and Carnival, stayed with them for a few weeks, then headed off to California where he hoped to start a career in music.
After arriving in Los Angeles Klein became a founding member, lead guitarist, and co-writer in The Factory with Lowell George. They were produced by Frank Zappa and played the notorious “Freak Out” & “Freak In” shows along with the Mothers of Invention at the Shrine Auditorium and Earl Warren Showgrounds. They had several singles released on Uni Records, & their remaining recorded material was later released as “Lowell George & The Factory” on Rhino Records.
When Ravi Shankar started the Kinnara School of Indian Music in Los Angeles, Klein took the opportunity to study sitar and was accepted as a disciple by Ravi not long after. At Ravi's request, Klein composed and performed the electric guitar music over the montage of stills in the Academy Award-winning movie, Charly.
After the Factory broke up, Klein joined the group Fraternity of Man best known for the single “Don't Bogart That Joint” taken from their ABC Dunhill album that was featured in the classic movie Easy Rider. Klein played all the psychedelic leads with the band as well as writing the song “Wispy Paisley Skies” which was in Ang Lee's movie Taking Woodstock. The band played at the Magic Mountain Music Festival, the San Francisco Pop Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, numerous love-ins, and a tour with Canned Heat.
Klein then put together The Emergency with Drachen Theaker (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown) and later formed the groups Tornado, Lazer (the original), and The Wolves with Niki Oosterveen. His relationship with Niki, who was managed by film producer Jon Peters, led to him playing the guitar solo that Barbra Streisand dances to in The Main Event.
Other bands he played in were the band Road with Jimi Hendrix's bassist Noel Redding, the band Tarantula at the Vancouver Pop Festival, and The Incredibly Strung-Out Band with Peter Case. When Iggy and The Stooges needed a guitarist for a concert in Chicago, Klein (then nicknamed “Tornado”) was the guy to fill in. [4] [3]
A partial discography of his recordings includes:
The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, and also known as Iggy and the Stooges, were an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll, the band sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which often involved acts of self-mutilation by Iggy Pop.
James Newell Osterberg Jr., known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor, and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band The Stooges, who were formed in 1967 and have disbanded and reunited many times since. Often called the "Godfather of Punk", he was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR. In 2010, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of the Stooges. Pop also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, for his solo work.
Raw Power is the third studio album by American rock band the Stooges, released on February 7, 1973 by Columbia Records. The album departed from the "groove-ridden, feel-based songs" of the band's first two records in favor of a more anthemic hard rock approach inspired by new guitarist James Williamson, who co-wrote the album's eight songs with singer Iggy Pop. Pop produced the recording sessions himself and David Bowie assisted with post-production work, though the team were allotted only one day to mix the album and the resulting fidelity was poor. Later reissues have attempted to either correct or enhance the original mix, most notably Pop's 1997 remix which became notorious for its extreme volume and compression.
Vincent Peter Colaiuta is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert.
Lowell Thomas George was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, who was the primary guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and founder/leader for the rock band Little Feat.
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George, keyboardist Bill Payne, drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Roy Estrada in 1969 in Los Angeles. The band's classic line-up, in place by late 1972, comprised George, Payne, Hayward, bassist Kenny Gradney, guitarist and vocalist Paul Barrere and percussionist Sam Clayton. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving members re-formed Little Feat in 1987 and the band has remained active to the present.
Ronald Franklin Asheton was an American musician, who was best known as the guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter for the rock band the Stooges. He formed the Stooges along with Iggy Pop and his brother, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Asheton, once ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, is currently ranked at number 60.
The Fraternity of Man were an American blues rock and psychedelic rock group from the 1960s. They are most famous for their song "Don't Bogart Me", which was released on LP in 1968, and subsequently used in the 1969 road movie Easy Rider. The original members included three musicians from Lowell George's band The Factory – Richie Hayward, Warren Klein, and Martin Kibbee – who joined Elliot Ingber from the Mothers of Invention and Lawrence "Stash" Wagner. Blues leads were handled by Ingber, and psychedelic leads were played by Klein, including "Oh No I Don't Believe It". The band broke up after recording two albums.
Dann Lee Huff is an American record producer, studio musician and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the Musician of the Year award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Country Music Association Awards and the Producer of the Year award in 2006 and 2009 at the Academy of Country Music. He is the father of American singer and songwriter Ashlyne Huff a member of Giant and White Heart and brother of drummer David Huff.
Richard Hayward was an American drummer best known as a founding member and drummer in the band Little Feat. He performed with several bands and worked as a session player. Hayward also joined with friends in some small acting roles on television, which included an episode of F Troop.
Scott Troy Thurston is an American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and session musician. He was a member of the Stooges, and of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, in which he sang harmony vocals and played guitar, keyboards, and harmonica.
James Robert Williamson is an American guitarist, songwriter, record producer and electronics engineer. He was a member of the iconic proto-punk rock band The Stooges, notably on the influential album Raw Power and in the reformed Stooges from 2009 to 2016. Between his stints in music, Williamson worked in Silicon Valley developing computer chips. Most recently he has continued as a solo artist.
"Search and Destroy" is a song by American rock band the Stooges, recorded for the group's third album Raw Power (1973). Lead singer Iggy Pop said that the title was derived from a column heading in a Time article about the Vietnam War. In 1997, "Search and Destroy" was remixed and remastered by Pop and Bruce Dickinson. The result was far more aggressive and stripped down than the original release, which had been mixed by David Bowie.
The Go is an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1996, the group released seven studio albums before their indefinite hiatus in 2013.
Barbra Joan Streisand is the thirteenth studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand, released in August 1971 on Columbia Records. It was her second consecutive album produced by Richard Perry and features backing work by members of the female band Fanny. Like the two previous studio albums, the singer continued to opt for a more contemporary repertoire, this time choosing three songs by Carole King, two by John Lennon, two by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in medley form, and one each by Laura Nyro and the trio Michel LeGrand, Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman.
The Weirdness is the fourth studio album by American proto-punk band The Stooges. Released on 5 March 2007, it was the first Stooges album of new material since Raw Power in 1973, and is also the final album to feature guitarist Ron Asheton, who died in early 2009. Founding members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), and Scott Asheton (drums) are featured, along with new band member Mike Watt, formerly of Minutemen, and returning guest musician Steve Mackay (saxophone), who appeared on The Stooges' 1970 album, Fun House.
While the sitar had earlier been used in jazz and Indian film music, it was from the 1960s onwards that various pop artists in the Western world began to experiment with incorporating the sitar, a classical Indian stringed instrument, within their compositions.
Richard Bennett is an American guitarist and record producer. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond for seventeen years and Mark Knopfler since 1994. As a session musician, he has worked with Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill. He has produced albums for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, and Kim Richey.
Jesse Willard "Pete" Carr was an American guitarist. Carr contributed to successful recordings by Joan Baez, Luther Ingram, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, Percy Sledge, The Staple Singers, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Wilson Pickett, Hank Williams, Jr., and many others, from the 1970s onward.
Ready to Die is the fifth and final studio album by American rock band The Stooges. The album was released on April 30, 2013, by Fat Possum Records. The album was the band's biggest success on the Billboard 200 chart, where it debuted at number 96.