Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power - 1973
It is a convincing argument that this seminal album of raw, raucous, loud, thrashing rock was the first punk album, along with The New York Dolls' similarly barnstorming debut from the same year. It had the sound, the attitude and the lo-fi, grubby appeal.
Apart from seeing its now iconic cover while flicking through sleeves in the record shop, it completely passed me by in 1973, despite David Bowie's involvement as producer and mixer. I came across it again years later and, for some reason, rejected it as noisy guff. Further listens have totally changed my outlook, however. I now fully accept its position as one of the most influential albums of all time.
Let's take a look at its history.
It was the third album from Iggy & The Stooges and it rode a crest of a Bowie wave with David drafted in as producer and the band touring with Lou Reed in 1972-73, who Bowie was also producing (Transformer in 1972). Apparently the album was mixed on only one day and the original album's sound - now known as "the Bowie mix" - was dreadful. Subsequent remastering has improved it somewhat and Pop himself remixed it - turning the sound up to the max - in 1996. That is now known as "the Iggy mix", obviously. The current 50th Anniversary edition of the album includes both.
Bowie has said that he found the mixing of the album a challenge and admitted that he wasn't quite clear what he was doing, viewing it retrospectively as something of a learning curve, a work done on the hoof, so to speak. The only material of his own that was remotely as heavy was The Man Who Sold The World album from 1970. There is no glam sheen or shimmer here, that's for sure.
The Bowie mix is very rough and ready, but it carries a definite proto-punk punch, full of crashing guitars and pounding drums. This is most obviously exemplified on the opener, the frantic, visceral thrash of Search And Destroy, a song which has the sound bobbing up and down seemingly at will, as if Bowie was turning knobs up and down in the name of experimentation. As it was, these errors were never rectified and it ended up on the album. As for the song itself - have you ever heard anything so blatantly punk? It is absolutely the sound of 1976-77, yet it was from 1973.
The intro to Gimme Danger is much better, warmer and softer, with an almost folk rock vibe together with huge Doors influences, both in its sound and Iggy's Morrison-esque delivery. It is a surprisingly subtle song, despite a strength on its choruses. There is a nice bassy feel to it. It is a most underrated number.
Listen to the powerful rock chug of Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell. Just how Ramones circa 1984 does that sound? Surely to goodness Dee Dee Ramone listened to this over and over, because nearly all his compositions for The Ramones sound just like this.
As for Penetration, did the UK punk band name themselves after this? Probably. (I've just looked it up - yes they did). It is a brooding mysterious piece of punk noir magnificence. You can also hear groups like Magazine and Joy Division in its dark minimalist grind. It is the sound of the night of the urban underbelly, of litter, rats, stale urine and broken glass. The Iggy mix of it inserts a little light, insistent keyboard riff into its backing, which lifts the murk somewhat.
Raw Power is also just so goddamn punky that you can hear a hundred punk bands from three or four years later in it, can't you? It is noisy, insistent and in-your-face. All classic punk ingredients. You know, punk was considered so new in 1976 but it wasn't. This had been around for three years. Furthermore, this had to have been influenced by something itself, and there are considerable Velvet Underground echoes in it.
I Need Somebody merges electric and acoustic guitars, Bowie style, and is another of the album's better-sounding numbers. Pop's vocal typifies the style he would use over the next few years - sneering yet resonantly haughty.
The album's most poppy number (forgive the obvious pun) was the catchy, handclappy romp of Shake Appeal. Many subsequent punk bands would put out singles in this vein.
Death Trip reverts to a grungy, lo-fi sound for its industrial machinations. This isn't just punk. It is angry punk morphing into gloomy, dour post punk. It is the sound of 1977-80, four years ahead of its time. By the time others had caught up, Iggy, like his pal Bowie was already changing.
On the Iggy Mix, some of the "up and down" sonic problems on Search And Destroy have been ironed out, but overall the mix, although louder, actually sounds slightly more lo-fi, for me. Maybe that sounds a bit contradictory, but I feel there were surprising subtleties in the Bowie mix that have been obliterated here in the name of appealing to the thrash metal sub-genre in 1996. That said, the more musically inventive tracks such as Gimme Danger and I Need Somebody have a more attractive, separated stereo sound.
Which mix do I prefer? Probably bits of each. I respect the Bowie one for being the 1973 "as it was" original, but I am always open-minded to remixes and I enjoy Iggy's mix too, as I do the whole album, whichever mix I hear it in.
