I NEED SOMEBODY
As implied by the name, Rough Power includes the original mixes of most of the songs from Raw Power (and in the same order): “Search and Destroy”, “Gimme Danger”, “Hard to Beat (Pretty Face)”, “Penetration”, “Raw Power”, “I Need Somebody”, and “Death Trip”. The third track was originally called “Hard to Beat”, while its name on the official Raw Power album is “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell”. According to the song listings, these songs were recorded on March 10, 1972 and April 10, 1972.
The only Raw Power song that is not included is “Shake Appeal”, but there are two other mixes of this song later in the CD; and “Shake Appeal” is well represented on another Iguana Chronicles album as discussed below. However, it is still hard to understand why the full album would not have been presented by, say, including the mix of “Shake Appeal” that is provided near the end of the CD.
As given on the middle portion of Rough Power, presented during the WABX broadcast, and interspersed with discussion (and a lot of apologies about how bad they sound), six of the songs from Raw Power – “I Need Somebody”, “Hard to Beat”, “Death Trip”, “Raw Power”, “Search and Destroy”, and “Shake Appeal” – are followed by “Not Right”, with the latter song identified as a “previously unknown outtake”.
To call these recordings “mixes” of any kind is probably a compliment that they do not deserve; much of the music is almost unintelligible, and in more than one case, I could not recognize the song at all even though I had the song listing to go by. However, they are a fascinating glimpse into the earliest versions of these amazing songs; and at least for the people in Ann Arbor – the hometown of the Stooges – getting to hear any new Stooges material three years since the previous album, Fun House came out would be considered a blessing.
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California Bleeding is probably my favorite of these albums and likely the one of most interest to collectors. The first four songs – “Search and Destroy”, “I Need Somebody” (which has probably never sounded better), an extended performance of “Open up and Bleed”, and a shortened version of “Johanna” – are taken from the five-night stand (two sets a night) by the Stooges in September 1973 at the landmark nightclub Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
(December 2017)
