Discovering James Williamson and The Stooges Raw Power album

[toomanycats]

Of course I know who Iggy Pop is, and I've heard of The Stooges too. Iggy's solo output from the 80s and beyond, as well as his songwriting and many collaborations, were somewhat familiar to me. While I had heard that The Stooges were presagers of punk, and also were influential in a much broader and deeper sense, I had never done a deep dive on them. Namely, I had never listened to the 1973 album Raw Power, upon which much of their notoriety and enduring legend is based. Punk has never been my thing, and my interest rock from the early 70s was more mainstream, things like Aerosmith, Led Zep, Montrose, and so on.

In line with my adult autodidactic program of filling in holes in my education, musical and otherwise, I have spent the last few days obsessively listening to Raw Power over and over. The songs are great, the energy is off the chart, Iggy as a vocalist and frontman is infectious and charismatic in the extreme, and the production is charming in a lo fi sense. There is an entire legendarium that exists around the drama of putting the band together for this record, as well as David Bowie's extensive involvement, including a marathon mixing session.

But what is really blowing my mind, speaking as a guitar player, is James Williamson. There is an immense and alluring expression of personality in his guitar playing, in the stabbing emotional flourishes, quirky melodic additions, and pummeling rhythms. The tone of his 1969 sunburst Gibson Les Paul Custom plugged straight into a cranked VOX AC30 is biting, raw, and primal, like an enraged and cornered wild animal viciously slashing with speed and razor sharp claws. There is the unerring intelligence of instinct guiding this man's playing. It is the sound of controlled power- yes . . . rude, raunchy, and abrasive- but somehow also beautiful. It has actually made me think of the Vox amp in an entirely different light. Not as the chime of the Beatles, or even as Brian May's more refined rock tone, but as a serious vehicle for a raw blues hard-rock voice.

Not only is Raw Power a colossally important album for rock music, it is also an immensely important album for guitar.

Interestingly, after The Stooges Williamson himself went on to have a notable career as an electronics engineer in Silicon Valley.

[Houblues]

Nice writeup. I've never looked into them either, but since one of my favorite bands (The Cult) place their roots as squarely in punk, perhaps I should.

Edit - After giving a quick listen to the above track, it reminds me of the general gestalt of the MC5, which I loved at the time.

[toomanycats]

Nice writeup. I've never looked into them either, but since one of my favorite bands (The Cult) place their roots as squarely in punk, perhaps I should.

Edit - After giving a quick listen to the above track, it reminds me of the general gestalt of the MC5, which I loved at the time.

Now that I'm familiar with it, I hear the influence of Iggy & The Stooges Raw Power in things like Motley Crue's Too Fast For Love album, in Guns & Roses (definitely the raw and wild live performances during the early part of the Appetite Tour, such at The Ritz in 1988), and in bands like Vain.

What I hear in the music that people must relate to it's early influence on punk is a certain disdain for production value, and an emphasis on feeling over technique. However, it doesn't have a lot of the hallmarks we've come to associate with punk, like speedy tempos, or very short songs. I actually hear a lot of groove in The Stooges, and a good amount of bluesy guitar. To me they're really just a great hard rock band, but more raw and edgy than most others at the time. With Iggy as a frontman their live performance must have been completely over the top and shocking for unprepared audiences.

[glasshand]

It's really fascinating to read this, because I've been familiar with Raw Power longer than I can remember, and pretty much everybody I play with is the same way, so it almost never occurs to me that there are people who aren't familiar with it! To me, "Gimme Danger" will always be one of those tracks that just grabs me by the heart, and I think you can definitely hear how it's kind of a bridge between the Doors and Guns 'n' Roses. The whole album has such a bizarre history behind it, as you mention, and technically the production is kind of a disaster, but it's a disaster that absolutely works.

Bowie's own comments on it were pretty amusing:

...the most absurd situation I encountered when I was recording was the first time I worked with Iggy Pop. He wanted me to mix Raw Power, so he brought the 24-track tape in, and he put it up. He had the band on one track, lead guitar on another and him on a third. Out of 24 tracks there were just three tracks that were used. He said 'see what you can do with this'. I said, 'Jim, there's nothing to mix'. So we just pushed the vocal up and down a lot. On at least four or five songs that was the situation, including "Search and Destroy." That's got such a peculiar sound because all we did was occasionally bring the lead guitar up and take it out.

[toomanycats]

It's really fascinating to read this, because I've been familiar with Raw Power longer than I can remember, and pretty much everybody I play with is the same way, so it almost never occurs to me that there are people who aren't familiar with it! To me, "Gimme Danger" will always be one of those tracks that just grabs me by the heart, and I think you can definitely hear how it's kind of a bridge between the Doors and Guns 'n' Roses. The whole album has such a bizarre history behind it, as you mention, and technically the production is kind of a disaster, but it's a disaster that absolutely works.

Bowie's own comments on it were pretty amusing:

...the most absurd situation I encountered when I was recording was the first time I worked with Iggy Pop. He wanted me to mix Raw Power, so he brought the 24-track tape in, and he put it up. He had the band on one track, lead guitar on another and him on a third. Out of 24 tracks there were just three tracks that were used. He said 'see what you can do with this'. I said, 'Jim, there's nothing to mix'. So we just pushed the vocal up and down a lot. On at least four or five songs that was the situation, including "Search and Destroy." That's got such a peculiar sound because all we did was occasionally bring the lead guitar up andtake it out.

A bridge between The Doors and GNR is such a great description of this band. Robby Kreiger is a great guitarist, but he didn’t sound dangerous in the way that Jim did vocally. The Stooges had a guitarist who sounded just as dangerous as the vocalist. To get from there to GNR what was required was a more commercial approach, better production, and more musical discipline.

[helsinkirocks]

I think the songs are good, but I really, truly, hate the way this album sounds. This is coming from someone who loves lo-fi, diy, punk.

[idiotsdelight]

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[mozz]

Are those Traynor amps in the third picture? Did a little research and seems they used rented backline equipment when touring, so Sunn amps, Traynors and a few others.

[jhull54]

Iggy remixed Raw Power from the shrilly Bowie mix a few years ago. It's much heavier, and not as grating. But that treble overkill was part of the original charm of that album. Williamson was a bull in a china closet. Rampaging guitar work on that record.