Raw Power
|
|
Raw Power is a 1973 (see 1973 in music) album by blues-rock/punk rock band The Stooges, fronted by future rock star Iggy Pop. Featuring blistering-fast guitar riffs and shouted vocals, Raw Power was not able to capture a mainstream market. In spite of the inaccessibility, a small number of listeners took the sound to heart, and many of these people soon became influential leaders in the early punk movement.
Iggy Pop had been signed by Mainman Management, who handled David Bowie, as a solo artist, but Pop was hellbent on reforming the Stooges. Signed to Columbia Records, he was sent to London to write and record their album with his new collaborator, James Williamson. Pop insisted that his fellow ex-Stooges Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton participate in the recording sessions. Ron Asheton was "demoted" to bass (having played guitar on the first two Stooges album) while Williamson played all of the guitar parts.
Pop produced and mixed the album by himself. Mainman demanded that the album be remixed, but Pop refused. When Mainman offered to let David Bowie handle the remix, Pop agreed -- having been told by Mainman that the album would not be released otherwise -- on the sole condition that his own mix for "Search And Destroy" be retained. Bowie reportedly remixed the other seven songs on the album in a single day in a cheap Los Angeles studio.
The song, "Search and Destroy", was pulled from the album and released as a single in June. It did about the same in the charts as the album did.
Such was the controversy over Bowie's mix that several years later, rough mixes from the album were later released by Bomp Records as Rough Power.
Raw Power peaked at #182 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.
In 1999 Columbia Records invited Iggy Pop to remix the entire album for re-release on Compact Disc. 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 mix.
In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 69th greatest album of all time.
Track listing
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:26
- "Gimme Danger" - 3:28
- "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" - 4:52 (originally titled "Hard to Beat")
- "Penetration" - 3:35
- "Raw Power" - 4:22
- "I Need Somebody" - 4:50
- "Shake Appeal" - 3:00
- "Death Trip" - 5:53
All songs written by Iggy Pop and James Williamson.
Personnel
- Iggy Pop, vocals
- James Williamson, guitars
- Ron Asheton, bass and vocals
- Scott Asheton, drums
Originally mixed by David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Recorded at CBS Studios, London. Mixed at Western Sound, Hollywood. Photography: Mick Rock. 1999 CD reissue produced and remixed by Iggy Pop at Sony Studios, New York.