Iggy and the Stooges Reveal Bonuses on “Raw Power” Box Set

2/9/10, 5:05 pm EST




Iggy and the Stooges’ 1973 classic Raw Power will be reissued April 27th as a Deluxe Edition box set complete with three discs worth of music featuring 15 previously unreleased bonuses — never-before-heard tracks, demos and remixes. One of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Raw Power was the first Stooges album to feature James Williamson on guitar in place of the great Ron Asheton, who switched to bass. The LP spawned the punk anthems “Search and Destroy” and “Gimme Danger.” As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Stooges, who will be inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, will celebrate their third album by performing the whole LP in concert.

The first disc of the box set will contain the newly remastered Raw Power, featuring David Bowie’s original mix for the album that was previously out of print, while the second disc boasts the Georgia Peaches bootleg, comprised of an unreleased soundboard recording of a 1973 concert the Stooges performed in Atlanta, Georgia. Two more unreleased songs will grace the second disc: An Iggy Pop/James Williamson-penned outtake called “Doojiman” and a rehearsal performance of “Head On.” The third disc features four more outtakes — “I’m Hungry,” “I Got a Right,” “I’m Sick of You” and “Hey, Peter” — and alternate mixes of four tracks: “Shake Appeal,” “Death Trip” “Gimme Danger” and “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell.”

The Raw Power: Deluxe Edition box set also includes a new hour-long making-of Raw Power documentary, a 48-page photo book and a replica of the 1973 Japanese “Raw Power” 7” single. The box set will only be available through the Iggy and the Stooges Website.

rollingstone.com

should be interesting to hear the remastered bowie mix... i hated iggy's mix... it was just all loud and worse mix than bowie's, which i thought was kinda messy.

I saw yesterday VH1 Behind The Music about Iggy, I got "Raw Power" when it first came out & it was fantastic & still is, great to hear Bowie's arrangement on it, although if he was on drugs back then like he once mentioned about the "Ziggy Stardust soundtrack "I don't know what I was on, but it was mixed terrible"

Zack wrote on Feb 20^th, 2010 at 7:07am:



I stood next to his g/f at a show in SF, beautiful, but def. some fake boobs and other work, and did have that, could be anything feel... I think she was asian, very exotic looking... not sure if this is same girl you're asking about. I don't think she was a once a man, but you never know. I've seen post-ops that are gorgeous looking women.

POSTED: MARCH 7, 2010
Iggy Pop takes some convincing that hall of fame really wants the Stooges
BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER

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Iggy & the Stooges in 1972. From left: James Williamson, Iggy Pop, Scott Asheton and Ron Asheton. (MICK ROCK)


Seven tries. Seven strikeouts.



Surely you can forgive Iggy Pop a little skepticism about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

When he got the news in mid-December -- his Stooges had finally, mercifully made the hall of fame cut -- the front man's reaction was understandable.

"My first thought was, 'OK -- now what are they going to do to kick us out?' "

The line is followed by Iggy's familiar cackle, but you get the sense he's only half joking. Iggy's favorite version of the Stooges story is that of the snakebitten band -- a tale of bad breaks, missed chances and untimely self-destruction for a group that cut its teeth on the vaunted Detroit scene of the late 1960s.

But it's probably about time we added "redemption" to that list: The little-band-that-couldn't is now officially the historic force that has. Reunited in 2003 amid hosannas from younger acts who fully grasped the Stooges' musical import, the band has enjoyed a new lease on life, marred only by last year's unexpected death of founding guitarist Ron Asheton.

On March 15, Iggy and his band mates -- including Asheton's brother, drummer Scott -- will step before a tuxedoed crowd at New York's Waldorf Astoria to graciously accept induction into the rock hall, joining the 2010 class of ABBA, Genesis, the Hollies and Jimmy Cliff. As is custom, the group will get a performance slot, during which the Stooges will play what Iggy sardonically describes as "our two big hits." (He won't divulge names.)

He'd given up on the prospect.

"It's an honor," says the 62-year-old Iggy. "And I do think the group belongs there. If you're going to take the honor at face value -- ignoring the corruption that's endemic to any institution -- then it's great. I mean, Fats Domino! Come on. It's all the great musicians from a great music form."

A long time coming
The Stooges became eligible for the rock hall way back in 1994, a quarter-century after the release of their self-titled debut record. What followed was like a replay of the band's early days, when respect from hipster quarters failed to convert into a broader embrace. Seven times the Stooges made the nomination round, handpicked by a committee of rock experts; seven times they were shot down at the finish line by the 500 writers and executives who make up the hall's electorate.

"I kept hearing it's a bunch of 40- to 60-year-old guys," says Iggy of the balloters. "It's funny to me: I still think like a kid, so when I hear 'males 40 to 60,' I think, 'Ugh, yeah, they hate us.' Then I realized, wait a minute -- that means they're all younger than me."

That cackle emerges again -- a glimpse of the infectious, devil-may-care vibe that still permeates everything Iggy. It was the same spirit that guided classic work like "Funhouse" and "Raw Power," the latter slated for a deluxe boxed-set release April 13. The Stooges' primal rock maelstrom, a sinewy blast of punk and metal before those genres had names, was Detroit through and through.

Indeed, the Stooges' induction next week will bring Detroit's hall of fame tally to 17 acts -- more than 10% of the total. (And that doesn't even count temporary residents like Al Green and Del Shannon.)

The Stooges got a taste of hall of fame pizzazz in 2008, when Madonna enlisted them for her induction performance, welcoming the band onstage as "another ass-kicker from Michigan." Hours before the show, Ron Asheton had spoken to the Free Press with obvious bemusement about the whole odd affair.

"Basically she was upset that we've been nominated so many times and never made it, so she asked us to play in protest," he said. It wasn't the first time: The previous year's closing jam session saw inductees whipping up a version of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog."

The Madonna night was to be Asheton's lone hall of fame appearance. Within 10 months he was dead, having succumbed to a heart attack at home in Ann Arbor.

Filling the guitar role now is a returned James Williamson, whose gritty, roaring riffs drove the Stooges' "Raw Power" in 1973. He left the rock 'n' roll life in 1976, and embarked on a business career that made him a vice president with Sony Electronics.

Williamsons' wife, daughter and son will be on hand for the ceremony March 15, the latest high point in what's been a whirlwind few months since he rejoined the band.

Williamson was deep into his globetrotting executive life in the '90s as the Stooges' historical revisionism kicked in. Amid the rise of Nirvana, punk's rebirth and the garage-rock revival, the once-beleaguered Detroit band was getting a positive reassessment, two decades after its inglorious split.

"It was astonishing to me," Williamson recalls. "I didn't believe it, having lived through the rejection of the Stooges by everybody. Literally, our tours were like death marches through the country. Everyone hated us.

"So when people started giving us all these accolades, calling me for interviews, I thought they were just blowing smoke."

Regional taste
Grande Ballroom founder Russ Gibb was in the thick of it all in 1968 when the Stooges arrived on the Detroit scene from Ann Arbor, honing what became a legendary live show. Gibb, who saw Iggy Pop take the Grande stage wrapped in aluminum foil, singing into a prop toilet bowl, is convinced the herky-jerky front man invented the art of stage-diving with his high-charged Detroit audiences.

He also gets why the Stooges faced a long haul to the rock hall. It was the same struggle he saw years ago, when the band captivated its hometown while failing to stir outsiders. Rock culture may have couched itself against the conventional establishment, but the Stooges grated against rock's own established conventions.

"Early on, the people who liked them were the avant garde -- the kids who had long hair long before anyone else in Michigan, wearing bell-bottoms, who liked their music loud," says Gibb. "There's always this group of people who are doing things the great masses don't catch on to.

"Part of the problem the Stooges had is their base was here in Michigan. It became a very intense fan club. But New York and L.A. didn't catch on. So the belly of the beast was filled, but nobody else understood what they'd eaten. Iggy put a show to rock 'n' roll before rock 'n' roll understood it had a show to put on."

Iggy takes it all in stride. He may not be convinced he's made it until he's handed a plaque on March 15. He needed some reassurance from friends after the December news.

"No, you don't understand -- you're in it. They can't kick you out," he recounts their telling him. "And even if they do, at least you've been in it."

Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM: 313-223-4450 or [email protected]

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POSTED: MARCH 7, 2010
Familiar gig for Stooges guitarist James Williamson
BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM

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James Williamson of the Stooges (SONY/LEGACY RECORDINGS)


He wrote the template for punk guitar playing, then disappeared.


And now James Williamson is back with the Stooges, the band he helped save decades ago -- just in time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The years outside rock 'n' roll were good to the 60-year-old ex-Detroiter, who resides in California's Bay Area. Rejoining the Stooges last year meant leaving behind a life of executive suites and world travel: Williamson resigned as vice president of technology standards for Sony Electronics.

Not a surprise achievement for a guy once lauded as a boy genius: Williamson was a 22-year-old wunderkind when he joined the Stooges in 1971, just as other members began a descent into heroin addiction. He went on to cowrite the "Raw Power" album in 1973 -- his searing lead guitar heating up songs like "Search and Destroy" -- before setting aside his guitar in 1976.

He didn't touch it again for three decades, and Williamson watched from afar as his old band mates reunited in 2003.

When founding guitarist Ron Asheton died in January '09, front man Iggy Pop was left with a dilemma: Call it a day for the Stooges or try to carry on?

"I started playing the records, and they were just so good," says Iggy. "The material was so compelling. I kept trying to come up with these reasons not to do it. Finally I just said (screw) it. Let's give it a whirl."

With prompting from drummer Scott Asheton, he called Williamson. The guitarist did "some serious soul-searching" before saying yes.

"I realized that, hey, these guys need me, and I can do it. So I kind of owe it to them," he says.

He quit his Sony position and began rehearsing in June, relearning his old licks to prepare for his comeback gig, a November show in Brazil.

"It took a while to get it all firing again, but I came around," he says. "And lucky for me -- it was my music and my playing, so it was natural."

The group will hit the road this spring, accompanied by April's deluxe "Raw Power" boxed set, which Williamson helped compile. The Stooges of today are a far cry from the band he left behind, says the guitarist.

"These guys are all business now," he says. "They're working very hard out there. Iggy has gotten very professional, which is very different. He's still a very intense guy onstage, and it's great to see."

And it's a good time to get sentimental about what Williamson describes as "a crucial thing in my life."

"I've forgotten plenty of it," says Williamson, "but never how important it was to me."

http://www.freep.com/article/20100307/ENT04/3070343/1035/Ent/Familiar-gig-for-St...

got an e-mail from iggy, he said the raw power box set is on sale for $59.99 on the website

great value if I do say so Mr Watts

Pdog wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 5:43pm:


i am gonna have to disagree with ya there, ol' buddy. for one, the low end of ig's mix has some oomph (the bowie mix does not). i just rec'd my copy - nice packaging, the book is better than most that come with these sort of things, and the extras are top notch (i havent listened to the extra discs yet, nor have i watched the dvd, though i have read some reviews of the latter that all agree the docu is good stuff), but they shouldve included ig's mix. i just listened to the bowie mix (disc one) and "search and destroy" still sounds way thin, which is kinda tough 'cos it is the opener and its sound should have some balls, but it just doesnt, and (imo) this is 'cos the tracks lacks the low end. on the ig mix, that tune hits ya like a 2x4, but there is alot more bass. the mix gets better as the album moves along, and it sounds better than my old bowie mix cd copy, but my ig mix sounds the best of all (again, imo).


buddhabone wrote on Mar 16^th, 2010 at 10:48pm:


well, in this case, the album didnt really light up the charts, so the reissue kind of shines a light on a great album that was often overlooked. funny, 'cos everybody knows the cover shot, and people know who iggy is, but many dont know the music, esp. the stooges stuff, so maybe this will get some of them on the bus, so to speak...