Track Listing

1. Search And Destroy
2. Gimme Danger
3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell
4. Penetration
5. Raw Power
6. I Need Somebody
7. Shake Appeal
8. Death Trip

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2660 in Music
• Released on: 1997-04-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
After releasing The Stooges and Fun House--two LPs of brutally elemental rock--the Stooges split, reforming three years later with the encouragement of David Bowie to produce Raw Power. If, at the time, Iggy's music seemed primitive and crude, it also foreshadowed heavy metal at its best and the energy and nihilistic attitude of punk--an energy somewhat tamed by Bowie's original production on this record, which emphasised Iggy's voice and the tunes at the expense of the band's trademark powerhouse riffs. The celeste line on "Penetration" and the guitar and piano on "Gimme Danger" show how adept the band were at using melodic detail to sweeten the bitter thrill of the songs--but most of the other tracks launch straight into a sublime frenzy, with guitarist James Williamson soloing almost before the first few chords have sounded. The Stooges' first three albums, and the live LP Metallic KO (which captures the band at their most blisteringly confrontational) are excessive, supremely exciting, awe-inspiring rock records. --Burhan Tufail

CD Description
Though the Stooges were on the verge of breaking up at the time RAW POWER was recorded, it still comes across as (arguably) their most focused and powerful release. Former guitarist Ron Ashton was moved to bass and replaced by James Williamson, whose precise, razory playing makes RAW POWER the Stooges' most guitar-driven album. Scott Ashton drums up a storm, and Iggy yowls, yelps, drawls, and croons with a sense of menace that is both exhilarating and frightening. Though thealbum retains the reckless urgency and noise-happy chaos that defined FUN HOUSE, it strips away the swampy murk of thatalbum with its trebly, metallic production. [paragraph here]
The songs work sexy, primal grooves ("I Need Somebody"), hopped-up boogie ("Shake Appeal"), reworked, adrenaline-pumped early rock & roll (the title track), and creeping, whisper-fueled come-ons ("Penetration"). The album's two best tracks, the spastic, take-no-prisoners danger anthem "Search and Destroy, " and the minor key, Doors-influenced "Gimme Danger" bristle with energy and the kind of sleazy, libidinous glamour that keep the true heart of rock thudding furiously.Aptly named, RAW POWER was the Stooges' third and final album, putting the cap on their small but hugely influential discography. A rock essential.

Customer Reviews

Iggy Remix a mixed Success
The item invariably offered for sale on CD is the 1997 Iggy Pop Remix of this classic 1973 Stooges album. The original Bowie mix - often characterised as 'arty' - was strange, muted, and distant. It lacked punch in the rhythm and bass, and this Iggy tried to remedy. However, as James Williamson (guitar, riffs) has pointed out, the recording levels were overloaded in this area, making the remix task difficult. Some numbers do come across quite well e.g I Need Somebody, but others, such as Search and Destroy suffer from excessive treble and clipping.
Most of the tracks are better presented on the 2004 Demon Music release, Penetration - which also benefits from the inclusion of most of the Kill City album, and tracks from the pre Raw Power era such as Sick of You, Scene of the Crime etc.

Classic album but ....
Giving this four stars for the kick ass songs on it, but the mastering? Ouch! I got the re-mastered version in the hope of more depth compared to the tinny, bass light original. Frequency wise, these are definitely more balanced mixes, but they're blighted by being pushed into the digital extreme.

I totally agree with another reviewer here. A hot ANALOG mix pushing into the red would've been good and kicking and could've then been transferred to the digital medium and mastered at a reasonable loudness level preserving some nice 'grungey' harmonics. Sadly, though, these seem to be digital re-mixes mastered far beyond the digital threshold. The first track averages -4dB (CDs have a dynamic range of more than 90 db meaning that this track has only 4db). The result is BAD DISTORTION with clips everywhere and an overpowering mid range. Maybe this is some global irony? The raw power is always there in the songs themselves, but you have to dig it out from either bass weak or saturation drenched versions? A classic album nonetheless.

The Stooges were under there all along
This is a quite extraordinary remix of an already powerful album. The Bowie mix has been rightly criticised for for being too muffled. Iggy takes it all the way the other side. This is almost completely distorted.

And that just makes it all the better.

About halfway through Pretty Face I realised what the production reminded me of: Black Flag. And not Black Flag when they learned to play - Black Flag in their earliest Venice Beach incarnation (think the original Gimme Gimme Gimme or Wasted). That crude - the fact that it took digital technology to perfect the amps-on-11 garage sound is a perfect irony.

The Stooges, of course, rock harder than Black Flag ever did.

It's just a shame they didn't restore the original sword-fighting effects to Search and Destroy.

My only problem with this album is that I can't get it loud enough: my ears are hurting and I still want more.