Raw Power; in all of rock and roll is there an album with a more brilliantly fitting title?
It’s the perfect summation of The Stooges, and evokes all the great and decrepit images one associates with punk rock’s true forebears.
Whether it’s Iggy Pop standing aloft atop a crowd, lathering himself and his transfixed audience with peanut butter; or being dragged from the stage, blood gushing from open wounds, Raw Power as a descriptor encapsulates both the sound and the mission statement of The Stooges.
As a title alone it deserves attention, but as an album, the third and final instalment from The Stooges (let’s all just forget The Weirdness, shall we?) it deserves its place at the pinnacle of the rock and roll pantheon.
Considering The Stooges have spent the past decade on a worldwide victory lap of festival appearances, while being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, it’s difficult to imagine a time when they were considered anything less than heroes. But the band’s original tenure, though peppered with glorious highlights, was more or less an inglorious grind.
Their first two albums were met with squalid album sales, while their infamous live show was divisive. As 1970 wore on, an increasing influx of drugs and a lack of interest in the band was taking a devastating toll.
It was late that year that guitarist James Williamson joined the lineup, just as the group was heading towards self-destruction.
Having lost his father at age four, Williamson’s mother re-married to an army colonel, who despised rock and roll and long hair. When he refused to cut his own, the guitarist’s step-dad sent him to a juvenile home.
By the time he got out and joined The Stooges, James Williamson was a gifted, but intense and troubled young man.
Raw Power evokes all the great and decrepit images one associates with punk rock’s true forebears
Their manager Danny Fields described Williamson as a “malevolent presence”, while drummer Scott Asheton billed him as a “wild, on the street speed-shooting guitar-playing maniac.”
But the best descriptor of Williamson’s character and guitar technique has to go to Iggy, who told The Guardian, “he’s both demonic and intellectual, almost how you would imagine Darth Vader to sound if he was in a band.”
While The Stooges’ disintegration in 1971 occurred shortly after Williamson’s arrival, the band were well and truly careening towards the end whether Williamson hopped on board or not.
Either way, The Stooges’ then-last show was in May 1971 at New York’s Electric Circus. Iggy was covered in baby oil and glitter, and when an audience member told him to vomit, he acquiesced, all over her.
By June 21st, The Stooges were without a record deal. Williamson moved in with his sister after contracting hepatitis, while the Asheton brothers too found couches to crash on. The Stooges it seemed, were no more.
But nothing, not the breakup of his band, nor a relentless heroin addiction, was getting in the way of Iggy Pop. Spending the next three months sleeping on floors across New York City, eventually finding a home with former manager Danny Fields, and being introduced to David Bowie, who had not yet given birth to Ziggy Stardust, but was still very much on the rise thanks to 1971 album Hunky Dory.
Paul Trynka, in his biography Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed, describes how the unpredictable frontman charmed both Bowie and his manager Tony Defries: “Iggy was flip, entertaining, and knew instinctively how to trade on Bowie and Defries’ fascination with Americana, telling them how he grew up in a trailer park.”
By the end of September, Iggy had a deal with Tony Defries’ MainMan agency as a solo musician. His plan was to take James Williamson, his new songwriting partner, with him. Upon hearing that Pop had a deal with David Bowie’s people, a begrudged Ron Asheton was quoted as saying “someone take a shotgun and blow my head off.”
Iggy was flown over to London to work on his solo debut for his new record company, however he managed to sneak James Williamson along into sessions.
The two started working on new material and were paired with a slew of British rhythm sections, none of whom could bring the aggression of their former cross-Atlantic counterparts. Soon enough, Williamson and Iggy decided that the only musicians capable of matching their ferocity were the Ron and Scott Asheton.
When it came time to record, MainMan’s interest was solely on Bowie, who was just starting to crack the American market. Which meant that The Stooges were left to their own devices in the studio.
Their penchant for laziness in Ann Arbour was a thing of the past, the band rehearsed relentlessly, and writing new songs daily. Williamson and Iggy were the directors, while Ron Asheton had seemingly been demoted to bass in his very own band.
Williamson has since commented on usurping Asheton Jr; “I know that with Ron… in later years this didn’t sit well with him, but I think at the time he was very happy to get the job.”
The band played one sole concert during their time in London, which has since become the stuff of rock and roll legend. The quartet were on fire, and the Brits hadn’t seen anything quite like it. Especially one young, impressionable John Lydon who was in attendance, who would go on to become Johnny Rotten and cover ‘Raw Power’ with The Sex Pistols.
For the Stooges’ 1969 debut, they had enlisted the Velvet Underground’s John Cale as producer, who managed to capture the group at (what’s considered today) a reasonable level of quality.
The Stooges still sounds threatening, but there is a disparity between that album’s sound and the truly terrifying sonic KO the band, were capable of producing live. On Raw Power’s predecessor, 1970’s Fun House, former Kingsmen keyboardist Don Galluci essentially produced The Stooges live; letting them wallow in their primal riffs for numerous takes. But when the decision came round to find someone to man the desk for their 1972 sessions, the rock ruffians kept it loose.
With little attention being paid to them by management, for Raw Power, The Stooges saw no need for a middleman between their barrage and the reel-to-reels. Iggy and Williamson recorded the album themselves, and the result was the band’s most contentious record.
While previous album openers – the handclap shuffle of ‘1969’ and the motor-city thrust of ‘Down on the Street’ – are both terrific, nothing in rock and roll before or since hits with such unbridled ferocity as ‘Search & Destroy’.
The song sounds barely capable of sustaining itself; Williamson’s screeching lead guitars do battle with Iggy at his most manic, declaring himself “the world’s forgotten boy”.
The mix betrays it, but the Asheton brothers are putting in one of the all-time great rhythm section performances; Ron with his melodic counterpoints, Scott with his creative snare-flourishes, all the while still managing to pummel you into submission.
A TIME magazine article titled ‘Search and Destroy’ and several rocks of Chinese brown heroin were Iggy’s inspiration for a narrative merging a downtrodden yet fearless hero with language evoking the ongoing Vietnam War. Ironically, the magazine article wasn’t about Vietnam at all, but about the global impact of heroin.
‘Gimme Danger’ is The Stooges’ idea of a love song. But coming from the man who wrote ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’; it’s a perverted sense of romance indeed, “gimme danger little stranger/ and I’ll feel your disease.”
Despite the album’s relentless mix, there are moments that suggest a meticulousness one wouldn’t associate with punk rock. On both ‘Gimme Danger’ and ‘Raw Power’, distant, single-note piano touches propel the songs forward; while Ron Asheton’s meandering bassline during ‘I Need Somebody’ helps shape a swaggering, back-alley sex soundtrack, which Iggy has described as sound “like a whore-house.”
Iggy’s vocals also never sounded more depraved. He jumps from low-register crooning to animalistic yelps in ‘I Need Somebody’, while his throat sounds as if it were lined with gravel throughout ‘Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell’, ‘Raw Power’, and ‘Death Trip’.
The album also achieved its unified sense of assault simply by being mixed into just three audio tracks, one for Williamson’s guitar, one for Iggy’s vocals, while everything else; bass, drums, backing vocals were all crammed into a single channel.
The result is a vicious listen, trebly guitars and screeching vocals squall intensely, with little low-end to take the edge off.
While it set the precedent for subsequent punk rock highlights, at the time MainMan saw nothing profitable from the record’s confrontational sound and style.
Iggy said of their management, “[they], you know, they really didn’t understand our music. They didn’t like it and they didn’t see any potential for it to make hit records, which is what they wanted.”
The record company insisted David Bowie mix the album in order to make it more ‘listenable’. However, due to his exhausting touring schedule, Bowie had only one day to mix the entire album.
Adding to his woes was the three-track mix he was given. The musician’s only real choice was to turn things down a fraction. While the Ashetons and Williamson didn’t trust the British superstar, the latter has since conceded that “the truth is that Raw Power would never have been released had it not been for Bowie.”
After finishing the mix, Bowie returned to his tour, and MainMan’s attentions stayed with their British poster boy. After their impressively productive time in London (there was another album’s worth of material, which has since been released in deluxe reissues), The Stooges were left on their own, with Raw Power lying dormant for six months before it was eventually released on February 7th 1973.“The truth is that Raw Power would never have been released had it not been for Bowie.” – James Williamson
The album, credited as ‘Iggy & The Stooges’ was received with rave reviews, Rolling Stone claiming “Raw Power is the pot of quicksand at the end of the rainbow, and if that doesn’t sound attractive, then you’ve been living on borrowed time for far too long.”
But despite the glowing reviews, sales of the album were poor. Raw Power peaked at just #182 on the Billboard charts, and soon thereafter they were dropped by MainMan.
The band continued touring America for a year, until calling it quits in February the following year amidst a storm of biker gangs and thrown bottles. Williamson quit music altogether, moving to San Francisco and becoming a hugely successful electronic engineer, eventually becoming Vice President at Sony Electronics. The Ashetons seemed to dropped off the map completely; while their fearless leader checked himself into a mental institution.
As time went on however, the album’s influence became apparent. It was only four years later that punk exploded, which turned an entire generation of rock fans onto Raw Power and its electric influence.
The Smiths’ Johnny Marr called it “the greatest album ever made,” while Kurt Cobain too labelled it his favourite album ever. Former Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante once stated “when you think about all the ways bands these days try and expand rock and roll, most of them look pretty silly next to Raw Power. That is a definitive statement.”
Everyone from Henry Rollins to Cee Lo Green have commented on their love of the album, while it continues to inspire artists and fans devotion, including VH1 deeming it to be the 69th greatest album of all time, while Rolling Stone ranked it at #128 on their own list (beating out The Stooges and Funhouse, which came in at #185 and #191 respectively).
Easily one of the most influential albums of all time, Raw Power is rock and roll at its most unbridled. Few artists since have managed to come close to the ferocity of The Stooges, while no frontman can touch Iggy Pop when it comes to spectacle.
While their initial flame burnt out far too quickly, The Stooges have managed to reignite their visceral pilot light many times since, and have earned their place as one of the most important bands of all time, with Raw Power as their flawed and ferocious masterpiece.
Iggy & The Stooges are touring Australia this March/April and play Byron Bay Bluesfest 2013 in Easter, dates and details below.
Iggy And The Stooges 2013 Australian Tour
With special guests: The Beasts Of Bourbon
Tix on sale Wednesday 7th November: Adelaide 9am – Melbourne 10am – Sydney 9am
Adelaide – Monday 25th March – Thebarton Theatre
Tix: www.venuetix.com.au
Melbourne – Wednesday 27th March – Festival Hall
Tix: www.ticketmaster.com.au
Sydney – Tuesday 2nd April – Hordern Pavillion
Tix: www.ticketek.com.au
Also appearing: Saturday 23rd March – West Coast Blues ‘N Roots Festival
Tix: www.westcoastbluesnrootsfestival.com.au
Also appearing: Saturday 30th March – Byron Bay Blues Festival
Tix: www.bluesfest.com.au
West Coast Blues N Roots Festival 2013 Tickets & Dates
Fremantle Park, Fremantle
Saturday March 23rd & Sunday March 24th, 2013
Tickets: www.westcoastbluesnrootsfestival.com.au
Bluesfest 2013 Tickets & Dates
Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay
Thursday March 28th – Monday April 1st, 2013
Tickets: www.bluesfest.com.au
ph: 02 6685 8310
