Raw Power

Artist: Iggy & the Stooges
Label: Sony Music Media
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 5099750505625
ASIN: B00005QVHA

Release Date: 2002-01-29

Raw Power

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Proto Punk

| Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Glam

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Rock

| Imports | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Search and Destroy
Gimme Danger
Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell
Penetration
Raw Power
I Need Somebody
Shake Appeal
Death Trip

Similar Items:

The Stooges
Fun House
Lust for Life
The Idiot
The Weirdness

Album Description

Digipak reissue of 1973 album. 2001.

Album Details

Special "Millennium Edition" Digipak Reissue of the Revered Punk Classic Album.

Customer Reviews:

Raw Power (2002 Sony Import Version/1997 Columbia version differences).......2007-04-04

I'd recently heard the 1997 Columbia version of this CD. This was the version which Iggy had remastered, and which included extensive, explanatory liner notes from him. After reading the various mixed Amazon customer reviews, I noticed there was now a newer, 2002 Sony import version available. I assumed that there may have possibly been enough negative feedback regarding Iggy's remix, that the Sony version was updated from the 1997 Columbia version. I thought the Columbia version was great, and assumed that the newer, higher priced Sony import may even be better. But, to my ears, the Sony version doesn't sound much different, if at all. At first, I thought the "in the red" mix was toned down a bit on the Sony version. But, I'm not so sure now. And, the import does not have the liner notes. When I recently rechecked the Amazon Raw Power listings, I saw the 1997 version is still listed. But, it is now listed as being also on Sony. And, in the 1997 version product notes, it says the notes are from a deleted version...? So, I'm very confused! Is this an error? Is the 1997 Amazon listing actually the Columbia version, which is who actually issued it in 1997? Are the liner notes actually intact? Or, did Sony take over the 1997 printing, too, as the Amazon info seems to indicate? (It sounds as though there was even an earlier CD version issued several years prior to both of these versions, too). As far as the music, it's great on both the versions I've heard. The other Amazon customer reviews have pretty much covered everything already. But, it's unclear to me whether the 2002 Sony import version is supposed to be superior to the 1997 Columbia release, since there are no explanatory liner notes at all. (And, unless it's a missprint, why Sony is now listed as the label for the 1997 release)? Before I purchased the 2002 version, I thought maybe they reverted back to the original David Bowie LP mix. I haven't heard that one, but I don't think that's what happened. I'm going to purchase the 1997 Columbia version soon, just for the liner notes. But, music wise, I think anyone would be happy with either version. If it's true that the CD was actually first released several years prior to these mentioned, I wonder if the Bowie mix was used?

"Gimme Danger".......2007-02-08

Where as the Avant Garde grooves of "Fun House" boil with menacing restraint, "Raw Power" is a great hungry Rock N Roll beast unleashed and on the prowl. Now freely indulging in his every wild impulse, Iggy is tranformed from a sneering thug in the shadows to a loud, bouncing off the walls, "over the top" glam rocker while Williamson's screaming lead guitar battles for the spotlight in a never ending duel. Meanwhile, the demoted Ashton brothers appear to channel their bitterness into swaggering but vicious pounding grooves that are anything but background noise. No longer grooving in a sinister trance, Iggy and his Stooges instead blaze through a dynamic offering of "in your face" rock songs. Lyrically, Iggy had evolved from single refrained lines, improv, and scat to actual witty song writing and dare I say, poetry.

The hammering "Search and Destroy" stomps and marches like a blood thirsty war party torching and shooting everything in sight. A blazing guitar leads the charge, cutting a firey path not unlike the napalm of the lyrics. Relishing in the violent power he wields, Iggy sounds like the sole harbinger of the apoclypse as his lyrics read like a warning to keep your distance, while at the same time he sounds tortured and lonely by this path of destruction; even going so far as to drop to his knees and desperately beg for the salvation of love though it's obviously far too late for that. Like a burning car that's threatening to fall apart at any momemnt, the song blindly chugs ahead before completely collapsing upon himself. With it's strumming accoustic guitar and chiming melody, "Gimme Danger" would almost sound peaceful if it were not for the lurking menace just waiting to explode benath the surface. Iggy's crooning is more dangerous than seductive as he lays down the lyrics like a sadistic challenge. Always threatening, the song eventually erupts into violent threats before floating away like a bad drug trip. These first two tracks aren't the heaviest songs ever, but the danger and intense conviction of the performances make them incredibly more threatening than most anything that's came out since; these guys were the real deal, and they meant every word of it.

The over the top hard rock of "Your Pretty Face...." is rude but surprisingly playful in nature, offering a rare glimpse at the humor the band was capable of. "Penetration" features a moaning Iggy crawling all over a slow, raunchy guitar riff. "Raw Power" charges like a freight train while Iggy belts the defiant lyrics with fist pumping attitude. The minimalist blues of "I Need Somebody" barely stays awake as it drunkingly empties it's troubles over a dirty bar counter. "Shake Appeal" sees a squealing sex crazed Iggy strutting and dancing with a swinging dirty riff. The never ending "Death Trip" loosely jams over a harsh groove with wailing solos before an oddly cool Iggy restores order as he clings to what hope he has left for the future; seemingly confident that he's going down in history one way or the other.

As Iggy states in the awesome liner notes, the mix is a better reflection of what kind of band they were. The rough "Louder than an airplane, jump in your face, and grab you by the throat" sound does indeed make more sense than Bowie's slicker more polished version. This is Iggy and the Stooges: blood, sweat, and spit spewing at you, it's not suppose to sound pretty. "Search and Destroy" is now complete with it's meltdown finish, the "Hey! Hey's!" fill out the bridge better and best of all, "Raw Power" doesn't have robotc background "ooohs" distracting you from the killer riff. Other tracks from these sessions and timeframe like "I Got A Right!","Gimme Some Skin", and "Sick of You" are highly recommened companion songs that actually rival most of the material found here. After all these years, there has never been a more dangerous, convincing band in all of rock.

Meet Rock & Roll..........2006-08-13

Another reviewer on Amazon, discussing a different album, stated that the album he was reviewing would be the one he would use to introduce an alien to Rock & Roll music for the first time. That is an interesting question, and to my own surprise, one I immediately had my own answer to.

Iggy & the Stooges' 'Raw Power' is not my all-time favorite album. However, I do believe that it is the very essence of everything that makes me love rock music. The bad attitude, the feeling that it will all explode into a violent mess at any second, the distorted, kick-to-the crotch mix, and the menacing lyrics all say, "this is rock."

I would not end an introduction to rock music with Raw Power, but I think the argument can be made that this is one of the best places to start.

Come to think of it, maybe Raw Power is my all-time favorite album...

A masterpiece, almost totally ruined by bad mastering.......2006-08-02

Raw Power! Whether Bowie's or Iggy's mix, this album deserves 5 stars and a place on any shelf that contains punk, rock, punk-rock, proto-punk, classic rock or any other kind of rock.

UNFORTUNATELY the "remastered" album in front of you is borderline unlistenable due to The Idiot and the incompetence of the mastering engineer. Judging by the liner notes, Iggy does not know the difference between analog distortion and digital clipping and treated the remaster as if on an analog medium, which is a huge %$&^ing shame given the greatness of the album.

Using analog distortion creatively is an art form, while clipping in the digital realm results in a total loss of acoustic information. If you record analog distortion onto a digital medium and master it correctly, it sounds pretty much identical to the original, but alas instead of pre-mastering 'in the red' on an analog console, some fool let Iggy into the digital mastering toolkit where 'in the red' means something a bit different. It means no dynamic range and heavily clipped peaks (in fact, almost no peaks at all, everything is uniformly loud), which defeats the purpose of using a compact disc entirely.

This album clips more than any album I have had the displeasure of hearing, which distorts several songs (Death Trip, Search& Destroy) into near inaudibility. It is Loud, but white noise or britney mastered to 99dB is also loud. Again, this is due entirely to the inept mastering.

While one cannot help but love Iggy's aggressive impulses, one imagines that he should have been left to master an analog record re-issue and the CD mastering should have been done by someone not under his influence.

There is a reason the volume knob exists, and that reason is so you can TURN IT UP. Sadly, turning it up is almost pointless here.

BUY THIS ALBUM.
But, buy a used copy of the record and record it onto disc, seriously.

Your only other recourse is to record this remastering onto a computer, put it through a software audio editing suite and run a declipping algorithm on it. While it's not a real solution since the information that is clipped is forever lost to you, it does make the album sound much better. A better sounding album sells more copies and will be listened to more often. It's also less likely to wind up in the bargain bin due to terrible mastering.

Try it again Columbia, and give us both mixes while you're at it!
If only the rhino people could get ahold of the tapes like with the first two Stooges albums.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Three or Four Shades of Blues ~ Charles Mingus

Music CD 58

Peking No Aki ~ Yasuaki Shimizu

California Cooking ~ Pepper Adams

Trumpet Caliente ~ Don Goldie

A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra ~ Oscar Peterson

Blood Inside

Espaco Rap Especial ~ Various Artists

Present ~ Mayumi Iizuka

Cancoes Para Meu Deus ~ Padre Zezinho