The Right Scarfie Profile wrote:I wrote a (somewhat coherent) post comparing the relative merits of Funhouse and Raw Power a while back. Hopefully isn't too garbled to be replaced here
Just as an aside, I really love the celeste on 'Penetration,' the way it seems to drive through the track like a locomotive. Iggy's vocals on this song, and many of the others are quite strange, especially compared to Funhouse.
In Funhouse, it sounds like he's caught in some sort of hurricane (that yowl which kicks into 'Down on the Street'), on Raw Power it's very gutteral and quite grunty even. On the whole, Raw Power is quite a claustrophobic LP, even the langrous 'ballad,' "Gimme Danger" seems to contain this barely suppressed malice. Listen to that side by side with "Dirt" (from Funhouse), and hopefully what I'm getting at will make a bit more sense.
Of course, it deserves its reputation for the opening trifecta alone, and "Search and Destroy" is so immense (particularly the 'in the red' Iggy-mixed version) that it scarcely bares repeating. But I get the feeling that on Funhouse, they were going really outthere, and Raw Power pulls them back into the cage, seething ("Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell"). That said, I might put Raw Power on now and I know all my misgivings will be blasted away. The 1997 remaster sounds a dream, everything's in the red.
It's a far goofier LP than Raw Power anyway, but The Stooges is probably the goofiest of them all, if not the most consistent. It has a number of great 'dumb' jokes, doesn't it, not least "1969." And "I Wanna Be Your Dog" brings the whiplash, those sleighbells are fantastic even without one of Iggy's best-ever, most perfectly pitched vocals.
I saw the reformed Stooges (with Mike Watt) play at the Big Day Out this year and they were utterly superb, leaving every other band in their wake for sheer power. This was a museum piece that tore down its own foundations, and Iggy looked to be having a lot of fun, inviting people onto the stage and the like.
Solo Iggy is very, very patchy, but Lust for Life and The Idiot (Bowie's best-ever production work, incidentally) are both excellent. "The Passenger" might be one of the best things he's ever done, certainly the most endlessly intriguing, with its great, cyclical riff and odd sense of unease inspite of its momentum.
I agree with your assessment of solo Ig - I was never a huge fan of his solo work outside of those two albums. But I absolutely
love those Stooges albums,
Funhouse being my favorite by some distance.
I don't care for the MC5 too much; I never bought the hype, and outside of 'Kick Out The Jams' and 'Lookin' At You,' they pretty much leave me cold. But The Stooges have at least a dozen bonafide great rock and roll songs over those three albums.
Album -
Funhouse
Song - 'Loose' or 'I Got A Right'
), but I agree with you on it being a nice touch. But, I'm not sure it's like a "locomotive through the track" so much as something that seems to hold a kind of menace, just because it's so incongruous to the overall sound of the record. I think that's what makes it such an outstanding touch.
