In 1973, Iggy Pop may have been, unjustly, the world’s forgotten boy, but today The Stooges’ influence looms large over a generation of guitar bands. Kurt Cobain said Raw Power was his favourite album of all time, British rock critic Nick Kent called it “the greatest, meanest-eyed, coldest-blooded hard rock tour de force ever summoned up in a recording studio” and Ted Maider of Consequence Of Sound “by far the most important punk record ever”. It didn’t stop Iggy being dropped by both his label and management company, but the record’s legend has grown exponentially over the years. Raw Power was a commercial flop, peaking at 182 in the Billboard Chart, but the reviews were positive, Rolling Stone’s Lenny Kaye praising the “ongoing swirl of sound that virtually drags you into the speakers”. While that incarnation has been dubbed “the loudest album ever made”, with every fader pushed deep into the red, it did little to halt the arguments, with Williamson complaining it “sucked” and Bowie saying his version had more “wound-up ferocity and chaos”. Iggy was finally given the opportunity for some closure when he was invited to remix the album at New York’s Sony Music Studios in 1996, modern studio technology and all. Among his tweaks was feeding the guitar track on Gimme Danger through the Cooper Time Cube, a garden-hose based delay unit devised two years earlier, and of the several mixes of the album, Bowie’s is still widely regarded as the definitive version. In the circumstances, Bowie did a commendable job. “I said, ‘Jim, there’s nothing to mix’.” As Williamson remembers, “The fact of the matter is, when we made Raw Power, we really didn’t know what we were doing.” “He said ‘See what you can do with this’,” Bowie later recalled. Handing the tapes to Bowie to sort out was the ultimate hospital pass. Unlike the first two Stooges albums, it was self-produced, resulting in a clueless Iggy mixing the whole band on one channel, the lead guitar on another and his vocals on a third of the 24-track desk. Recording and mixing Raw Power was a suitably shambolic affair, with at least one member of the band by that point lucky to be alive. David Bowie came to the rescue, finding Iggy a label and management deal and setting up the recording sessions in London. “ By the time the Michigan band regrouped in England to record Raw Power they’d already hit rock bottom, splitting in 1971 due to a combination of Iggy’s voracious appetite for heroin, extreme poverty, dangerously violent gigs and the lukewarm response to their first two albums. Although some were not a fan of David Bowie’s mix, nobody can deny the incredible legacy and importance of Raw Power: wrote about an album that received huge praise from critics. First, there are a couple of features that explore Iggy & The Stooges 1973 masterpiece. Pop’s remaster rectified that and gave fans something they had been waiting on for years! There is no denying that, ahead of its fiftieth anniversary, Raw Power remains this colossal album that changed the face of music. There has been some controversy about the 1973 original, and the fact that it does not really have that much grit and venom. Co-produced by David Bowie, the original was given a remaster by Iggy Pop in 1996. One of the most influential albums ever, it influenced everyone from the Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. It is no wonder Raw Power is seen as a forerunner to the Punk era. It is raw and powerful throughout! This direction was inspired by new guitarist James Williamson, who co-wrote the album with Iggy Pop. Less groove-oriented than their first two albums, this was a more direct and Hard Rock-influenced album that lives up to its title. It was a much-needed return from a band who were on the point of collapse prior to that. Their second studio album, Fun House, Iggy & The Stooges’ Raw Power was released on 7th February, 1973. PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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