Review #25 - Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power

Genre: Rock n Roll, Protopunk
Label: Columbia Records

Country: US

Released: 1973
My Rating: 8/8

This album was another musical turning point in my life. I didn't honestly know nothing about the Stooges, i just bought this album 'cause i've read it praised by some of my favorite bands at that time and so i felt like it could be a cool record. At first i didn't think Raw Power wasn't that good as i expected, but as i learned more about the Stooges, be it their notorious behaviour and Iggy Pop's unstoppable energy and ability to make people stare at them with their mouths open, or the massive influence they had for future generation bands, lets just name a few bands that got influenced by The Stooges just for fun, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Tales Of Terror, Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, The Fluid, Joan Jett, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Green day, Rancid, The Germs, The Wipers, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Misfits, Fang, Mudhoney, Joy Division, The Clash, The Damned, Circle Jerks, The Runaways, The Jam, Husker Du, Alice in chains.... Or just simply that they rocked so motherfucking hard and they were born to do so. It wasn't phony. I learned that this is one remarkable piece in music history. This was the 3rd Stooges album to be released. 3 years before they had released another remarkable album titled "Fun House". Their record label back then was Elektra and they dropped the Stooges off their label after Fun House!!! No one liked these nasty boys back then. No one thought they were worthy enough, but those who did care about them, did really become somebodies. Iggy had met David Bowie before Raw Power was released and the two developed a strong friendship. Stooges had broken up, the members were dealing with drug addictions, but Bowie got Iggy and the Stooges to sign with Columbia Records and to record the album that would become legendary. Only this time the late Ron Asheton would not play guitar here, but bass and James Williamson would play the guitar instead. Bowie was the one who mixed the original release. I myself own the 1997 re-release of the album mixed by Iggy Pop himself. This year the album got re-released again but its somekinda boxset which includes ton of stuff with it and i must have it. The album reception was pretty poor and they called it as an commercial failure. Columbia Records desided to drop the Stooges off their label. This didn't stop the band though. They continued their notorious live act and living life on the fast lane. Sex, drugs & rock n roll. Well lets hear the bloody songs now and stop jabblin',

1. Search And Destroy
The beginning is loud as fuck. I like Iggy's dog like shouts he makes. He sings about being the world's forgotten boy whos searching to destroy. Iggy said he got the name of this song title from an article from Time magazine about the war in Vietnam. He also said he thinks no one had used the word "destroy" in a pop song before.

2. Gimme Danger
Now this is way more deep and calmed down song. Pretty sad song too. One of my favorite Stooges songs. It's played with an acoustic guitar, which isnt that common with the Stooges previously. Iggy thought at this point that he should write some really good songs, but girls would always come to his way and he would be not writing anything and developing his music. This song was written about one of the girls of his life. He tells to the girl "Theres nothing in my dreams just some ugly memories". After the second verse, the song gets more intense. Hes singing with pure passion. He wants to find a wild stranger who would spend some time with him. Hes not sure if the girl will do so, so he demands her to swear. This song has so many good elements that a song should have and its just 3 and a hald minutes long which makes it pretty much perfect.
3. Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell
Back some good old loud n raw rock. Iggy's voice is really raspy and defines the word "raw" perfectly. I'm sure he got fed up with the clean, nice, sweet, beautiful boys singing about love and Iggy just gets it straight to the point, "I knew right away that i'd have to get my hooks in you". I like the line "I'll tell ya honey it's a crying shame, All the pretty women look the same". Haha i hear you. They all wear same clothing, have same hair, which is usually dyed blonde, same bags, some even sound exactly the same. It's frightening. This song was dedicated to some girl who Iggy knew, who wasn't very nice according to him. Like i said before, the sweet singing boys were popular and singing how they'll love someone forever and ever and ever and everiosfdhgiozdfxhgosd, well Iggy knew she wasn't gonna be pretty all her life so she wont have that weapon in the future!
4. Penetration
This song is pretty haunting. The way Iggy sings and the lyrics just wanna fuck with your mind. They repeat the song riff through the whole song. Iggy makes some weirdass sounds with his mouth near the end of the song. I like the sounds they make with (whatever instrument it is, i think its with an electric piano im not sure though). This song is about boredom and loneliness. End of side 1.

5. Raw Power
Side 2 starts with the title track.Iggy makes somekinda burping sound at the beginning. In this song it seems like Iggy is trying to hypnotise a girl and talking about raw power. That if she wants to be with him, raw power is surely comming runnin' to her. Which means kind of an wild lifestyle or something. towards the end hes asking the girl "Can you feel it" over and over again. I'm not fucking sure if i even make sense at all. Really noisy guitar solo towards the end of the song.

6. I Need Somebody
Kinda bluesy melody here. The guitar fills they threw in, sound really haunting. This and "Gimme Danger" are the two dark, ballad kinda songs on the album. Real high pitched solo towards the end which changes its form like a good blues jam does.

7. Shake AppealThis song has an awesome rock n roll formula as usually in the Stooges songs. Again real noisy solo thrown in. I think this is about time going too fast and feeling really down and out, thinking about the empty past or just how he likes seeing girls in tight pants, well "Tight Pants" was the original title of this song... Iggy sings with pretty high voice at the end.

8. Death Trip
Iggy wrote something on the album sleeve that the reason this is the last song on the album is that he knows the album is doomed. No ones gonna promote it, its way too rawrr to be played on the radio. So he desided to sing about it, cause its the kind of music they all loved to do so thats what theyre gonna do. It's also the longest track on the album being over 6 minutes long. Hes also singing about being a sick boy with "weird" kinda love. I really like the riff. The whole album should be played on full volume.

Just can't give this album nothing but the best possible rating. It was hated by most people, 'cause it's way ahead of its time, more loud and rocking than anything up to that point. Theres not really a thing to complain. Screw Deep Purple, Uriah heep and White snake, this is rock n roll as its honest.