Even in the apparently weak standard rendition, the "Raw Power" sessions were fittingly titled, taking the underlined bleakness and menace of old and enriching it with a gutsier approach and improved writing and performance. Iggy Pop institutes the gloomy, unhinged raspy-voiced role that he would later refine on his solo outings, with his and Williamson's lyrics being particularly charged. "Raw Power" is appropriately metallic, fuzzy, swaggering and unruly, capturing the garage rockers at the peak of their powers, be it establishing punk on "Search and Destroy," "Gimme Danger" and "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" or retaining elements of noise rock on "Penetration" and the eponymous track.
If there are any bum notes, then they are all part of the primal murk, crude viscera and spirit of punk, and in order to hear Iggy's throaty grunts in all their glory, you will find them to be most pronounced in the 1997 remix, though if you want to prevent hearing loss, opt for the recent vinyl edition, which contains both mixes in remastered form. "Raw Power" punishes and attacks from all sides, with the band faltering and driving monstrously to such an extent that even the less savage, slightly more accessible original mix is malicious in its urgency and attitude. Not only is the band on top form musically, there is an increased quantity of treble-heavy volatility and entropy arising from Williamson's primitive, gonzo guitars and the general disorder inherent in the production process. It may have caused high tensions, but in terms of technique, the introduction of James Williamson as Iggy's new leading axeman amplifies and elevates every aspect of the band's gritty signature sound, taking their customary malevolence to new heights. Of course, the Stooges would collapse and self-destruct during the recording of the album anyway, but the manifestation of that friction and fury is vicious, pulverising and as nihilistic, wild and uncompromising as the band who made it. For all intents and purposes, he should be crediting Bowie with the actual existence of the album since it was his intervention that precipitated its materialization.
It must have slipped Iggy's mind that the Stooges were on the verge of disintegration when Bowie urged his management team to take a big risk and offer the band a lifeline. Despite being the version most people heard first, Bowie's supposedly sterile mix was promptly condemned, and in 1997, at the behest of Columbia Legacy, Iggy remixed the original tapes and the fierce, punchy "definitive" version was released, albeit with caveats: zero dynamics and lashings of distortion, compression and clipping. So the story goes that Iggy Pop, dissatisfied with David Bowie's sonic neutering of "Raw Power", attested that egregiously tamed the ferity of the original recordings. Unfortunately, with the surplus of various remasters, reissues and deluxe packages currently on the market, how do you figure out which one is conclusive? Truthfully, you have to go with what particular one you prefer, not what the consensus insists is the authoritative source, master or mix. "Raw Power" is one of those pre-CD era classics now accessible in several forms, with not all of them sounding as bad as you would expect for such a poorly recorded proto-punk record. No longer is deciding which version accords with the vision of the creators the only burden of a modern music consumer, there is also the added difficulty of cherry-picking an edition that will not result in earache if you listen to it through headphones. In recent years, the advent of revisionism has led to a veritable Sophie's Choice. Quite simply, if a mix of a classic album was less than acceptable, people did not decry it, they tolerated it, for there was no possibility (or so they thought) of improving it. "Raw Power" was not available in multiple versions back in 1973.
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