Raw Power
is the third album by American rock band The Stooges, released in 1973. Raw Power
was largely ignored upon its release, and the group broke up in obscurity a few years later. However, it was embraced by a small, rabid fan-base that included many younger musicians who would go on to help create the punk rock genre in the mid- to late-1970s and experience commercial success, making Raw Power
one of the most important proto-punk documents of its era.
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RAW POWER TICKETS
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The recording history
After their first two albums,
The Stooges
(1969) and
Fun House
(1970) were released and were commercially unsuccessful, the group broke up. Singer
Iggy Pop had signed on as a solo artist to
MainMan Management, who also handled British singer
David Bowie. The band was in disarray: they had officially broken up, bassist
Dave Alexander was fighting
alcoholism, and singer
Iggy Pop's heroin addiction was escalating prior to Bowie's intervention. However, Iggy was determined for a reformation.
After signing to
Columbia Records, he was sent to London to write and record an album with his new collaborator, guitarist
James Williamson. Pop insisted that his fellow ex-Stooges
Ron Asheton and
Scott Asheton participate in the recording sessions. Williamson played all the guitar parts, Ron Asheton was relegated to bass guitar (having played lead guitar on the first two Stooges albums), and Scott Asheton played drums.
Pop said that Columbia executives insisted on two
ballads, one for each side of the record. These two "ballads" were "Gimme Danger" and "I Need Somebody", both much more ominous and menacing than traditional ballads.
Pop produced and mixed the album by himself. Unfortunately, Pop's botched first attempt mixed most of the instruments into one stereo channel and the vocals into the other. Mainman demanded that the album be remixed, but Pop suddenly refused. When MainMan informed Pop that if the album were not remixed by Bowie, the album would not be released. Pop agreed, but insisted that his own mix for "Search And Destroy" be retained.
Due to budgetary constraints, Bowie remixed the other seven songs in a single day in an inexpensive Los Angeles studio.
"Search and Destroy" and "Shake Appeal" were both released as singles.
Initial Response
Sales of
Raw Power
were weak, and the album peaked at #182 on
Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The group continued touring for about a year, but Columbia dropped their contract and The Stooges broke up.
Legacy
right
Despite its weak initial reception, the reputation of
Raw Power
grew tremendously in subsequent years, and the album's volume and ferocity became benchmarks against which later albums were measured. In 2003, the album was ranked number 125 on
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Singer and guitarist
Kurt Cobain from the grunge band
Nirvana wrote in his
Journals
numerous times that this was his favorite album of all time.
Johnny Marr of
The Smiths has also stated Raw Power as his favorite album.
Henry Rollins had the words "Search and Destroy" tattooed across his shoulder blades.
Steve Jones from the
Sex Pistols mentioned in an interview that he learned to play guitar by taking
speed and playing along to
Raw Power
.
Low-fidelity copies of Pop's original mixes circulated among fans for years. In 1995, a selection of these original mixes was released by
Bomp Records as
Rough Power
. Fans and critics generally agreed that the original mixes were interesting, but not necessarily superior to Bowie's efforts.
Remastering
40% align=right quote="Everything's still in the red, it's a very violent mix. The bottom line is that this is a wonderful album but it's always sounded fragile and rickety, and that band was not fragile and not rickety. That band could kill any band at the time and frankly can just kill any of the bands that built on this work since, just eat any of those poodles"
—
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In 1997
Columbia Records invited Iggy Pop to
remaster the entire album for re-release on CD. Pop says in the liner notes that had he declined, the studio would have remastered it without his blessing. Pop cited longtime encouragement from fans and peers, the existence of
Rough Power
, his distaste for how the original 1989 CD release of
Raw Power
sounded, and the fact that Columbia were going to release the new mix on its sublabel
Legacy Recordings as factors that led him to go through with the new master. On the other hand, some fans — guitarist
Robert Quine among them — felt the new remaster was as unfaithful to the material as the original 1973 mix, and further criticized the audible digital distortion in the new mix
[1]. In the reissued CD's liner notes, however, Pop points out that one of his intentions in doing the new mix was to keep audio levels in the red (which would deliberately cause such distortion) while at the same time making the music more "powerful and listenable". This new version is arguably the
loudest album ever, reaching RMS of -4 dB, rare even by today's standards.
James Williamson and Ron Asheton have both stated that they prefer Bowie's original mix of the album to Pop's remastered version.
Williamson:
| “
| I personally think [the remastered Raw Power
] sucked. I gotta tell ya that I like the IDEA of what he tried to do, and I talked to him about it, and there's a lot of factors involved, but at the time, none of us liked Bowie's mix, but given everything, Iggy, when he went in to mix it, he found out that the guy who had recorded it originally had not gotten a lot of level on certain things, like the bass and drums, especially the bass, so he didn't have a lot to work with. Then Iggy, on his mix, he left a bunch of guitar stuff on there that probably shouldn't have been left in, and just odds and ends. Bowie's not my favorite guy, but I have to say that overall, I think he did a pretty good job.
| ”
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Asheton:
| “
| Don Fleming (musician)
| ”
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In 2006 the album was reissued on 180-gram virgin vinyl by Columbia, retaining the album's original mix rather than Iggy Pop's new remix. This edition was mastered by Rob LoVerde.
In 2008 Sundazed Records released the album on on 180-gram vinyl. This pressing also used the original mix.
Covers
The album's songs have been frequently
covered. Prominent versions include the
Dictators',
Red Hot Chili Peppers',
The Dead Boys's,
Shotgun Messiah's,
Def Leppard's cover of "
Search and Destroy";
Guns N' Roses's cover of "Raw Power" (title track) on
The Spaghetti Incident?
and
Ewan McGregor covering "Gimme Danger" for the film
Velvet Goldmine
, a movie telling the story of a character based around
David Bowie's
Ziggy Stardust during the 1970s
glam rock era. "Gimme Danger" was also covered by
Frank Black for the game
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Johnny Marr has stated that the guitar intro to "Gimme Danger" was the main inspiration for his own Smiths composition "Hand In Glove" - the similarity is quite evident.
The Smiths' singer
Morrissey is also an admirer of "Search and Destroy" - he once described it as "a very LA song...A great song."
[2]
Track listing
All songs written by
Iggy Pop &
James Williamson.
Side one
# "
Search and Destroy" – 3:29
# "Gimme Danger" – 3:33
# "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" – 4:54 (originally titled "Hard to Beat")
# "Penetration" – 3:41
Side two
# "Raw Power" – 4:16
# "I Need Somebody" – 4:53
# "Shake Appeal" – 3:04
# "Death Trip" – 6:07
Personnel
- Iggy Pop - vocals
- James Williamson - guitars
- Ron Asheton - bass, backing vocals
- Scott Asheton - drums
Recording credits
Original 1973 version
Recorded at CBS Studios, London.
Originally mixed by
David Bowie at Western Sound, Hollywood
1997 reissue
Produced and remixed by
Iggy Pop at
Sony Studios, New York.
Executive Producer: Bruce Dickinson
References
- Robert Quine interview- Perfect Sound Forever
- KROQ interview, 7/6/97, Morrissey-solo