METALLIC 2xK.O.
Metallic K.O. is a live recording by American hard rock band The Stooges. In its original form, the album was purported to contain the last half of a performance at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, on February 9, 1974 – the band’s final live performance until their reformation in 2003. Subsequent investigation of the master tapes and the May 1988 release of the double album Metallic 2X K.O. reveals that the original album contained the last half of the February 9, 1974 show, but opened with the first half of an earlier show (from October 6, 1973) at the same venue. The 2X K.O. version features the full shows from both dates. (More from Wikipedia)
I have already discussed Metallic K.O., a 1976 release on the French label Skydog Records that was taken from live performances by the Stooges at Michigan Palace in Detroit on October 6, 1973 and February 9, 1974. Allmusic gives the album a 5-star rating, with Dave Thompson’s review of the double-CD reissue Metallic 2xK.O. stating: “Metallic K.O. means the world – to anyone and everyone who ever sat down and unsuspectingly dropped needle onto wax and then reeled back in horror; this ain’t rock & roll, it’s a snuff movie. And the fact that it all sounds so tame these days just shows how much it’s become a part of the language. . . . [T]hrough lurching takes of ‘Open up and Bleed’, ‘Heavy Liquid’, and the ever-inspiring ‘I Got S--t’ (all of which are new to the package), past the familiar dissolution of ‘Head on the Curb’, ‘Rich Bitch’, and ‘Cock in My Pocket’, and into the nightmare closure, this remains rock & roll so far out on the edge that you get dizzy just listening to it. And, by the time the last glass explodes at the end of the world’s greatest ‘Louie, Louie’, you’ll be ready to take on anything.”
Based on the listings in Discogs – and there are 24 of them for Metallic K.O. and 6 for (I Got) Nothing – nearly all of the Stooges releases on Skydog Records are vinyl. Interestingly, while the cover of my copy of (I Got) Nothing is basically the same as on the 12” single of (I Got) Nothing, the disc itself is marked “Metallic K.O.” and shows the same catalogue number – 622332 CD – as their double CD reissue of Metallic 2xK.O. the previous year.
(December 2017)
