How do you improve on a classic album? Judging by the re-release of The Stooges' Raw Power out this week, Bruce Dickinson of Sony Legacy now seems to think that it's best to leave things the way they were as much as possible. And maybe adding a couple session outtakes and an unreleased live recording from the period as added purchase incentive for the people who already bought Sony's two previous issues might not be such a bad idea.
Although David Bowie's initial slap-dash mix of Raw Power has been a constant sore spot amongst Stooges fans over the years, Iggy Pop's crack at remixing the album in 1997 – which was meant to be the last word on the subject – only led to more debate. While some people liked Iggy's redlining approach to his warts 'n' all revision, many others, including the Stooges late co-founder Ron Asheton, weren't impressed.
"Basically, all that Iggy did was take all the smoothness and all the effects off James [Williamson]'s guitar," Asheton noted, "so his leads sound really abrupt and stilty and almost clumsy, and he just put back every single grunt, groan, and word he ever said on the whole fuckin' soundtrack. He just totally restored everything that was cut out of him in the first mix, and I thought, Damn, I really did like the old mix better."
So the new two CD Legacy Edition of Raw Power restores the original Bowie mix to the 8-song 34-minute punk rock blueprint but thanks in part to engineer Mark Wilder, the newly remastered version sounds significantly cleaner and brighter than the much maligned 1989 model.
Raw Power promotional EPK
The big selling point here is really the second disc entitled Georgia Peaches which along with two throwaway studio jams includes an interesting hour-long soundboard recording of a never-officially-released-but-widely-bootlegged Atlanta show at Richards from October 1973. Since a year had passed since the Raw Power recording sessions, Stooges piano-player Bob Sheff had been replaced by Scott Thurston and the set list now included newer songs Head On, Heavy Liquid, Cock In My Pocket and Open Up And Bleed in addition to Raw Power, Search And Destroy, Gimme Danger and I Need Somebody from the album. If you can get your head around the recording's weird balance which for some reason has Thurston way up in the mix (as if Joe Neil set up to tape a jazz piano quintet by mistake), it's an intriguing document of valiant effort in the face of a less than welcoming crowd.
As a performer, Iggy thrives on confrontation. The challenge of winning over a hostile audience is what brings out the best/worst in him. That's precisely what makes the chaotic Michigan Palace show, released as the Metallic KO album, such a compelling listen. It's also part of the reason why Iggy has lost his edge. For the last three decades, the vast majority of people going to see Iggy perform, like the hired musicians joining him in the studio, have been lining up to kiss his ass rather than kick it. The threat of danger is gone and sadly, the excitement went with it. Consequently, he's been relegated to recreating set routines for adoring audiences and he appears quite content to continue with the Stooges repertory charade which comes to Yonge-Dundas Square on June 19.
Along with the Legacy Edition, Sony is also rolling out a Deluxe Edition on April 27. The extra-special seven-inch square slipcase set will append the two discs in the Legacy Edition with an extra CD of Rarities, Outtakes and Alternates as well as The Making of Raw Power 30-minute documentary DVD, a 48-page softcover book with an essay by Henry Rollins and some Mick Rock photographs, five 5"x7" prints and a reproduction of the Japanese picture sleeve vinyl single of Raw Power b/w Search and Destroy. You can order it in advance of the street date here. Here's a sneak peak at what you get...
RAW POWER: LEGACY EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
Disc One: RAW POWER (recorded September-October 1972, originally issued February 1973) 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.
Disc Two: "Georgia Peaches" (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973, all tracks previously unreleased)
1. Introduction
2. Raw Power
3. Head On
4. Gimme Danger
5. Search And Destroy
6. I Need Somebody
7. Heavy Liquid
8. Cock In My Pocket
9. Open Up And Bleed
Bonus tracks:
10. Doojiman (previously unreleased outtake from Raw Power sessions, 1972)
11. Head On (previously unreleased CBS Studio rehearsal performance, New York City, 1973).
RAW POWER: DELUXE EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
Disc One: RAW POWER
Disc Two: "Georgia Peaches" (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973)
Disc Three: Rarities, Outtakes, & Alternates from the Raw Power Era Selections:
1. I'm Hungry (outtake from Raw Power sessions)
2. I Got A Right (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session)
3. I'm Sick Of You (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session)
4. Hey, Peter (outtake from Raw Power sessions)
5. Shake Appeal (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, "The Embassy Reels")
6. Death Trip (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, "The Embassy Reels")
7. Gimme Danger (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy "violent" remixes)
8. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy "violent" remixes).
All tracks previously unreleased except tracks 3, 7, and 8.
Disc Four: DVD - The Making Of Raw Power, produced and directed by Morgan Neville (featuring interviews with Iggy Pop, James Williamson, Scott Asheton, Mike Watt, Johnny Marr, and Henry Rollins; plus performance footage from James Williamson's first reunion concert with Iggy and the Stooges, at Festival Planeta Terra, São Paulo, Brazil, November 2009).
Bonus reproduction Japanese 7-inch 45 rpm single: Raw Power b/w Search And Destroy.
LINKS
iggyandthestoogesmusic.com
legacyrecordings.com
facebook.com/legacyrecordings
No comments:
Post a Comment