RAW POWER
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.
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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.
Rough Power closes with three other mixes by the Stooges of “Raw Power”, “Shake Appeal” and “Search and Destroy” that possibly date from November 28, 1972.
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I also have the 10” vinyl EP of the Stooges album Rough Power that has two of the mixes from the CD – “Search and Destroy” (from the beginning of the CD) and “Raw Power” (near the end of the CD) – plus “Gimme Danger” (the April 10, 1972 version as opposed to the March 10, 1972 version on the CD) and “Hard to Beat” (from the November 28, 1972 mixes where the final three songs on the Rough Power CD were taken). The latter two versions are not available elsewhere.
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Writing for Allmusic, Cub Koda says of Year of the Iguana: “This is an interesting collection that’s primarily culled from other Bomp CD collections and 10” vinyl LPs. If you’re into Iggy and the Stooges enough to have made it this far, this collection of alternate mixes (‘Death Trip’), raw rehearsal tapes (‘Rubber Legs’, ‘Head On’, ‘Till the End of the Night’, ‘Wild Love’, and an extended run-through of ‘Raw Power’), and ‘suppressed masters’ from the original Raw Power sessions (‘I Got a Right’, ‘Gimme Some Skin’, and ‘Scene of the Crime’) will almost seem like a greatest-hits package of sorts. And for the new fan who’s just discovered the chaotic magic that was the Stooges – and has heard the rumors that there’s material far more incendiary than their three studio albums – this compilation will serve just that purpose, sifting through the unending maze of unissued Stooges material to make a single-disc package that hits on the spots.”
(December 2017)
