A band in disarray. A fancy hotel in West London. Heavy riffs and delinquent ballads. Fifty years since the release of IGGY AND THE STOOGES’ Raw Power, Nick Hasted convenes a crack team of heads – including J MASCIS, JIM REID, MARK ARM and BOB MOULD – to dig deep into one of the most influential records in rock history. “All three Stooges albums are equal to me,” says IGGY POP. “But Raw Power, that’s the big one,” in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, December 8 and available to buy from our online store.
In 1972, The Stooges were on life support. Dropped by Elektra after Fun House flopped, they returned home to Detroit to lick their wounds. There, a new version of the band took shape, with James Williamson, second guitarist since 1970, replacing Ron Asheton at Iggy’s right hand. Invited to London by David Bowie and his MainMan management, Iggy seized the chance to rejuvenate The Stooges. Written while roaming West London’s leafy streets, Raw Power became a blueprint for the city’s punk explosion a few years later. On the 50th anniversary of its release, the album remains a masterpiece of slashing guitars and savage, misanthropic blues.
“I realised that there was almost no-one in the world who wanted to save The Stooges,” Iggy tells Uncut. “I knew that there were a few malcontented, strange people out there who were actually going to like this, but there was no apparatus to gather them up. I knew our management didn’t want it, I knew that radio didn’t understand it and I knew that most people wouldn’t get it. On top of that, we were all one step away from becoming junkies and the ones that weren’t junkies were completely out of touch with reality.
I knew what was going to happen.”
Williamson followed Iggy, then later Ron and Scott Asheton crossed the Atlantic – lured to the UK by the promise of gigs that never materialised – with Ron demoted to bass duties. This reconfigured lineup became Iggy And The Stooges. “I had decided the people from MainMan were our best shot to do something,” Iggy tells us. “At least they would respect art. They did. They put us up in London very well. We didn’t relate to English musicians or producers, and we resolved to do it ourselves. They respected us and left us alone. We were given every artistic requirement – a place to rehearse, and a good studio. The band had a nice house to live in. When I couldn’t come up with the lyrics and live with them at the same time, they put me in the basement of Blakes Hotel. I’d stick my head out and see Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret. ‘Oh, I say, it’s Iggy Pop!’
“The fact that there was a very competent, well-educated photographer, Mick Rock, to document our rehearsal sessions helps,” Iggy adds. “Because people have heard about all the wild shit going down around those sessions and they can see it on the album sleeve, too. That’s entertainment!”
Prevented from working in the UK after they finished the album, Iggy And The Stooges stumbled back to America, where they imploded in a series of confrontational, deranged gigs. Raw Power, though, lives on. “I had the faith that if we did our best, things would come around,” Iggy says. “Of course, they did. We were very well rewarded for that record, later. “Search And Destroy” has become very popular. My personal favourite, though, is “Shake Appeal”. Because that was the only three minutes of my life when I was ever going to approximate Little Richard. It’s practically impossible for me to hit a sustained high tone like that and scream that sort of hyped-up, crazy hillbilly rock thing that I always liked. But “Search And Destroy” is the record’s masterpiece. I knew it when we did it. I felt a sense of relief that it made me artistically secure. But I knew I was still socially fucked.”
Raw Power’s foundational influence – on punk’s lineage in particular – is underscored by the musicians Uncut has assembled to celebrate the record’s eight tracks, including veterans of Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Mudhoney, L7 and Spacemen 3. Our panel of heads even includes two part-time Stooges…
“All three Stooges albums are equal to me,” Iggy concludes. “But Raw Power is the high-priced spread when you’re talking about The Stooges. That’s the big one.”
1. SEARCH AND DESTROY
Chords scythe, a guitar solo screams, drums pound… Reborn, Iggy And The Stooges kick off Raw Power with urgency and attitude. All this in the seconds before Iggy howls out one of the greatest opening lines in rock history: “I’m a sleep-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm”
J MASCIS, DINOSAUR JR: The Stooges was a big thing for Dinosaur Jr. The whole sound and the attitude fed into our music. I love Raw Power. The production of it’s so crazy – the guitars are so loud, and the drums are so tiny. I remember hearing how Scott Asheton threw the record across the room when he first heard it! What do I think of Ron Asheton on bass? I mean, I can barely hear it. It’s different than the other Stooges albums. The guitar playing and songs Iggy and James Williamson were writing together were more developed. It reminds me more of the MC5. More danceable and a bit more normal in the guitars, even though the sound was more crazy. “Search And Destroy” stands out as the hit for me. It’s the riffs, the power, that leaps out, it’s awesome and heavy. Everything else just blends together, like one big song. The attitude, the tone and the mood doesn’t shift.
Is it weird that Iggy was writing about Vietnam while sitting under a tree in leafy Kensington? I never think about Kensington or Vietnam when I listen to “Search And Destroy”. Ron never wanted to play those Raw Power songs [in J Mascis + The Fog], but when he finally agreed to, it was cool to hear, but it was weird. There were none of the guitar solos. It makes you realise what a big part the Williamson leads are. Without them, that track’s a lot more basic.
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