SCENE OF THE CRIME
An early release by Iggy and the Stooges on Bomp! Records is a 7” EP from 1977 called I’m Sick of You, consisting of “I’m Sick of You” b/w “Tight Pants” and “Scene of the Crime”. The catalogue number, Bomp EP-113 is in the original sequence for the Bomp! Records 45’s, so I’m Sick of You might even have predated the release of Kill City; anyway, it does not appear to be part of The Iguana Chronicles. The EP came out right after the release by the Weirdos on Bomp 112, “Destroy All Music” b/w “A Life of Crime” and “Why Do You Exist?” (all three massive first-wave punk rock classics by the way).
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The picture cover for the Bomp single I Got a Right – “I Got a Right” b/w “Gimme Some Skin”, and marked “The Classic Raw Power Outtakes” – says that the two songs were recorded in the same June 1972 recording sessions as the songs on the earlier Bomp EP, I’m Sick of You: “I’m Sick of You”, “Tight Pants” and “Scene of the Crime”. These are among the first songs laid down for the Stooges album, Raw Power, but none were included on the album. The single is also marked as being Volume X-1 in The Iguana Chronicles. It has been reissued several times, as recently as 2011.
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An expanded album based on the 1977 Bomp! Records EP, I’m Sick of You was released in the same time period. The Discogs listing for the I’m Sick of You CD has a date of 1991, but that is in error; both this CD and the I Got a Right CD came out in 1995.
The songs originally released – “I’m Sick of You”, “Tight Pants” and “Scene of the Crime” – are demo recordings by the Stooges that were made in June 1972. Along with “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin”, they were summarily rejected by David Bowie’s management company MainMan Management, with only “Tight Pants” considered to have any promise; this song was rewritten and included on the Raw Power album as “Shake Appeal”.
The new Iguana Chronicles CD, I’m Sick of You – I have a 2006 reissue of I’m Sick of You with the original cover – starts with the three demos from the 1977 EP I’m Sick of You – “I’m Sick of You”, “Tight Pants” and “Scene of the Crime” – and then presents five live versions of these songs that were made between 1978 and 1993.
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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)
