Classic Of The Week: Iggy and the Stooges

Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power 

“There’s nothing in my dreams 
Just some ugly memories 
Kiss me like the ocean breeze”

Literature, music and art are usually constrained to certain rules and can be predictive in an era. For example Poetry/lyrics that are written in order of a particular, thematic custom. Any form of expressionism tries to stay in the boundaries set by institutionalized notions. The complexity of the human psyche and unconscious desires contradict these conventions and constraints. An art form that provoke certain suppressed ideas or desires give new meaning to how we view ourselves and see the world.

Raw Power is like a confused, angry teenager that hated the constraints that is placed on him; with Raw Power it was, taboos of recording and the type of music. Like a teenager that reinvented himself against the establishment, Iggy did the same with the album Raw Power. He wanted to produce the album as raw as possible, to amplify the aggression and alienation he expresses on the album. There is a dark under tone that runs through the lines of the album and a type of energy that hasn’t been experienced at that time in music, something more tangible and real.

The stand out track on the album for me is Gimme danger. It takes you through a story of love, misery, anger sang to a rhythm that seems distant to the vocal and the song dynamically changes between torment and sentiment.

Download Raw Power and appreciate one of main albums that started the Punk movement. ▲

- Jacques Fourie