Iggy Pop on his favourite song from The Stooges’ ‘Raw Power’
Today, Iggy Pop stands remains a towering force in the music industry and a bonafide legend as the most important vocalist of the proto-punk wave. Iggy’s career has taken many a swoop and dive with violent peaks and comparatively placid plateaus. Having begun his career as the drummer for a Michigan high school band called The Iguanas, from which his nickname was derived, Iggy took his vocal cords out for a spin.
Iggy’s transition from stickman to manic frontman was partly inspired by Jim Morrison, whom he saw fronting The Doors in 1967 at the University of Michigan. By 1968, Iggy had formed The Stooges, his segue into the limelight, and made a huge statement the following year with the band’s eponymous, John Cale-produced debut album, which boasted hits like ‘No Fun’, ‘1969’, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’.
High on this early success, The Stooges became a central figure of the contemporary countercultural movement that foreshadowed the aggressive presence of punk. The band’s live performances became infamous for wild antics on-stage and in the audiences, including indecent exposure, self-mutilation, destruction of property, assault, and on a couple of occasions, the wearing of Nazi uniforms.
Following the release of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House, the group disbanded due to Iggy’s spiralling heroin addiction. Thankfully, Iggy found a saviour in David Bowie, who offered to produce an album for him in London. After struggling to find a suitable backing group, the pair decided to reinstate The Stooges for the release. The result was Raw Power, arguably the refined pinnacle of The Stooges’ limited output.
“Very few people recognised the quality of The Stooges’ songwriting; it was really meticulous,” Iggy wrote in the Raw Power CD’s liner notes. “And to his credit, the only person I’d ever known of in print to notice it, among my peers of professional musicians, was Bowie. He noticed it right off.”
Complete with Mick Rock’s iconic photograph on the cover, Raw Power was a surefire head-turner that spawned the two hit singles, ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Raw Power’. Tracks like ‘Gimme Danger’ and ‘Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell’ were equally single-worthy.
In an interview with Uncut in January 2023, not long before its 50th anniversary, Iggy discussed Raw Power and revealed his favourite track. “I had the faith that if we did our best, things would come around,” he said. “Of course, they did. We were very well rewarded for that record later. ‘Search And Destroy’ has become very popular. My personal favourite, though, is ‘Shake Appeal’. Because that was the only three minutes of my life when I was ever going to approximate Little Richard.”
“It’s practically impossible for me to hit a sustained high tone like that and scream that sort of hyped-up, crazy hillbilly rock thing that I always liked,” he continued. “But ‘Search And Destroy’ is the record’s masterpiece. I knew it when we did it. I felt a sense of relief that it made me artistically secure. But I knew I was still socially fucked.”
Listen to The Stooges’ ‘Shake Appeal’ below.
