Hard, Heavy and a Classic 1973
The Stooges Raw Power 1973 (Columbia)
Proto Punk-Hard Rock
An ammunition dump on the verge of explosion!
The Album
With a gap of three years from the proceeding classic
Funhouse set,
Raw Power was something like a reunion set from these Detroit based schizos! The band hadn’t split up as such, but they were on the verge of doing so. It took a certain David Bowie to change their minds and at least perform on one more album as a band. In fact David Bowie had of course given a lifeline a few years earlier, to a down on their luck Mott the Hoople (see those cool reviews on the 1972 section) So the Bowie management team did some tinkering with the line-up and bassist Dave Alexander left the band, with guitarist James Williamson coming in on lead guitar and forcing Ron Asheton to now play bass. Now this shuffle certainly caused a lot of inner-group tension and this tension certainly carried across to the recording of the album.
Raw Power is probably the most unique sounding album that the Stooges and Iggy put out. The album has all the tailor-made sounds associated with the Stooges, the energy and the aggression are there, but there is also a sound of a band at breaking point, at times it all sounds slightly subdued, at times like a wild dog being kept on his leash…….but that dog’s raring to go and both he and the listener are constantly on edge about the whole scenario and that is the beauty of
Raw Power! Now what I’ve written here is certainly contentious, as Iggy Pop and the band often complained that in the final mix of the album, David Bowie had subdued the album somewhat and it wasn’t until many years later that Iggy himself remixed the album, as how he believed it should’ve been done originally.
The addition of James Williamson gave the music a greater technical feel and he also co-wrote most of the material with Iggy Pop as well. His technical edge though, certainly wasn’t needed on the album opener “Search and Destroy” which sounds like a typical Stooges track. The brooding “Gimme Danger” sounds like a
Raw Power track in every aspect. The raunchy revved up rock ‘n’ roll of “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell” sounds like something Alice Cooper or a manic Jim Morrison could’ve put out! The sleazy sounding ”Penetration” was surely a lesson to all the glam rock bands of the era, on how to sound authentically sleazy. The jangly rhythms of “I Need Somebody” ranks as one of the best on the album and the six minutes of “Death Trip” rolls up the album. At times listening to
Raw Power is like listening to an exotic cocktail of the Rolling Stones, the New York Dolls, Jim Morrison and a boatload of other artists, spewing out their angst using Iggy’s vocal chords! All three Stooges albums offer something very different. The debut is a howling garage set,
Funhouse their definitive album and
Raw Power the edgy bastard of the pack. Fans of the band have their favourites, but quite often
Raw Power comes out as a favourite.
Iggy Pop- Vocals
James Williamson- Guitar
Ron Asheton- Bass
Scott Asheton- Drums
Production- David Bowie/Iggy Pop