Raw Power was the third Stooges album, following 1969’s self-titled debut and 1970’s Fun House, but was the first to be credited to Iggy & the Stooges. Released on February 7, 1973, Raw Power didn’t exactly set the charts on fire at first, but proved to be instrumental in pioneering the burgeoning punk scene. The highly influential Stooges Raw Power album turns 50 Wednesday. When asked about Raw Power, Iggy Pop put it bluntly: “It was done with drugs, youth, attitude, and a record collection.When it comes to the sin of helping to invent punk rock, Iggy Pop still ain’t got time to make no apology. With his cherry red Les Paul Custom and Vox AC30, Williams sounds like pure rock and roll fury. Because Williamson wasn’t restrained by Asheton’s slower, groovier playing, Raw Power is more aggressive with Iggy left plenty of room to snarl and growl. Because the record is so dark, the label, along with Bowie’s management, didn’t know what to do with a band releasing songs like “Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell” or “Penetration”, complete with a maniac singer and guitar player writing these virulent riffs unlike anything happening in the mainstream. The band worked around the clock for six months, with Iggy coming up with the iconic line of “I’m a street walkin’ cheetah with a heart full of napalm” while high as horse nuts on Chinese heroin. Raw Power was actually supposed to be a strictly Iggy Pop record, but having recruited Williamson and then trying out some English musicians who weren’t working, Williamson and Pop arranged for The Stooges’ Ron and Scott Asheton to fly over from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They’d already broken up once, but David Bowie had found them a label and management after seeing the impact of Pop. The most significant difference between Raw Power and its predecessors is the arrival of guitar player James Williamson, who joined The Stooges in 1970 following When the band landed in London for their recording session, they were already a skeleton crew ravaged by heroin and dead broke. (Steve Jones even admitted he learned how to play taking speed and listening to Raw Power.) Without it, there is no Clash, no Ramones, and certainly no Sex Pistols. And now, celebrating 50 years, Raw Power is viewed as one of the most influential rock albums ever. Throughout their three records - The Stooges, the delirious Funhouse, and their final and most important record, Raw Power - The Stooges gave the Ramones the blueprint to create what came to be punk rock. The Stooges were a pack of misfits while their singer, some weirdo calling himself “ Iggy Pop,” screamed at the top of his lungs, daring God to fuck with him. They cranked their amps, opting for a dirty tone with an edge that sounded like Harleys roaring rather than the silk Eric Clapton was pumping out. These kids from Detroit wanted to give you scars. There wasn’t any danger.Īnd then, in 1969, The Stooges came swinging. Rock and roll became a business of image and slick sounds fueled by hot pants and cheap smack. Some guys bought castles while others wound up playing in nerd aggregate bands like King Crimson and Yes, noodling for the sake of seeing how far they could take the genre. These bands gave rock ‘n’ roll new possibilities, but the stages got higher, the piles of cocaine came in suitcases, the groupies followed in droves, and bank accounts fattened. They came at the culture like a brick to the teeth: Jimi Hendrix took us to a different plane of existence, Black Sabbath dared us to see the devil and dance with him, and Zeppelin riffed hard and heavy along to Robert Plant gyrating in skintight trousers, begging listeners to squeeze the lemon “till the juice ran down his leg.” They accelerated what the culture and art form were, but even as the Stones dipped their toes in dark water, it was still palatable to the masses, selling millions. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or the smooth but malicious undertones of Let It Bleed. Those bands dared us to see the emotional and sonic boundaries via large, orchestrated movements with Sgt. When rock ‘n’ roll evolved from the harmonious sludge of ditties about loving a gal from down the street or how kids wanted to rebel against their parents, the Beatles and Stones pushed our consciousness. Editor’s Note: This feature originally ran in 2021, but has been updated to reflect the 50th anniversary of Raw Power in 2023.
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