The 500 - #128 - Raw Power - Iggy And The Stooges

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #128
Album Title: Raw Power
Artist: The Stooges
Genre: Proto Punk, Hard Rock, Garage Rock
Recorded: CBS Studios, London, England
Released: February, 1973
My age at release: 7
How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Search and Destroy

Although I’m on a two-week winter break, I’m still focused on report card writing. If I don’t start now, January will hit like a freight train.  Elementary school volleyball season, several social obligations and publishing this blog will collide with lesson prep, report card delivery and everything else that makes the first month of the year a whirlwind of deadlines and distractions.

Despite all of this, I’m excited to bring back to the classroom an old favorite activity: CNN10. Each weekday, network host Coy Wire, a former Buffalo Bills player with infectious energy, delivers a 10-minute recap of current events. It’s quick, digestible, and engaging – the perfect way to help my middle school students think beyond four walls and connect to the wider world using their critical thinking and listening skills.

Coy Wire presenting the news on CNN 10.

I teach several literacy and social studies activities that are enhanced by the short and snappy CNN program. Moreso, I connect with a colleague at another school, Chris Wilson, who creates a current events-based trivia game based on CNN10 via a program called Kahoot! that lightens up Friday classes.

Using CNN 10 reminds me of the first time I paid attention to the news. I was about eight years old and my parents had CBC Radio on constantly. The evening news program As It Happens was a staple, often playing as we ate dinner. The voice of host Barbara Frum became as familiar as family and her recap of Canadian and world events made me feel tuned in.

It was as if I had discovered a secret window into the world of adults. Most of the headlines flew past me, but I remember the word "impeachment" tickling my brain because it sounded like a cocktail of "peach" and "mint". soon deciphered it had nothing to do with either.

Promotional poster for CBC's As It Happens (circa 1974)

Watergate was everywhere. Nixon, in my mind, was like a comic book villain. He was shadowy, scheming and, with his rubbery face and jowl-wagging delivery, larger than life. He was the kind of character who could have stepped out of the panels of a Batman or Superman monthly. The grown-ups whispered about scandals while the radio hummed with tension, and even as a kid, I could feel something cracking at the edges. I  later recognized that the optimism of the 1960s was gone; the air was heavy with mistrust and exhaustion.

That sensation of a country fraying feels like the same energy The Stooges bottled in Raw Power. It wasn’t polished or polite. The four-piece garage band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, had created something that was jagged, feral and loud. It was the sound of a world coming apart at the seams, and lead vocalist Iggy Pop didn’t just sing songs, he detonated them.

Iggy Pop performing (circa 1974)

Raw Power is the third record by The Stooges on The 500 list. I wrote about their self-titled debut (#185) in November, 2024, and their second record, Fun House (#191), a month earlier. In each post, I recap their formation and the development of their sound, as they moved from minimalist hypnotic and psychedelic grooves to a more aggressive and chaotic proto-punk sound.

Shortly after the release of Fun House, the band was on hiatus. Three of the four members, including Pop, had become serious heroin users and, in 1972, they had relocated to England in an attempt to reconstitute the group. Their new line-up, now dubbed Iggy and The Stooges, featured Pop on vocals, James Williamson on guitars, with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton on bass and drums respectively.

The Stooges (1974) (l-r) Williamson, Pop, R. Asheton & S. Asheton

The record was produced by David Bowie, who was also helping Pop recover from his heroin addiction. It sold rather poorly on release, with many critics complaining that Bowie had mixed it poorly. However, the album’s raw and rough sound gained in popularity among the earliest pioneers of punk rock, a genre which exploded in 1976.

Listening now, one can recognize its intensity. It is as if the guitars were tearing through the fabric of the era, shredding the last remnants of peace-and-love idealism and spitting out something raw, honest and dangerous. As Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong said when inducting the group into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2010: "They symbolized the destruction of Flower Power and introduced us to raw power".

Pop (left) with Bowie (1974).

If history doesn't repeat, it does echo. We’re living through an era of deep political divides and alarming international tensions. Who can guess at how the future will unfold?  I can already see some of my students starting to tune into the world beyond their own circles, the same way I did back in the early ’70s. That awareness often leads to something bigger and I am sure that some of them will seek clarification of the mayhem we are living through. I think our daily 10 minute check-ins with Coy Wire and the team at CNN10 will help facilitate that.

They might, for instance,  discover a musician or band that rises above today’s cacophony and uncertainty, and bring a new era in music that reflects how we got through the current upheaval. Honestly, I can’t wait to look back a decade from now and ask: Who gave us the 2020s version of Raw Power, a record that didn’t just play the times, but ripped them wide open?

Kendrick Lamar? Run The Jewels? Childish Gambino? Fontaines D.C.? or someone currently writing their debut record?

Not me for sure. I'm too old for tearing up stages or reinventing genres...beside, I have to get back to report cards.

The 500 - #185 - Self Titled Debut - The Stooges

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #185
Album Title: Self-titled Debut
Artist: The Stooges

Genre: Proto-Punk, Garage Rock, Rock, Experimental

Recorded: The Hit Factory, New York City, New York

Released: August, 1969
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: A little

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Be Your Dog

Growing up, I genuinely thought I could do anything with my life. My career aspirations changed regularly. During my adolescence, I wanted, and thought, I could be, a professional hockey player, a writer, an actor, a teacher, a psychologist, a musician, and even an Anglican minister. I have my parents to thank for my ebullient optimism and prodigious confidence. Not once did either balk at the grand designs I had for my adulthood.

Me at age 11, positively brimming
with confidence and epic ambition.

Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg Jr.) had the same good fortune as I did. Raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, his parents were high school teachers who supported his every passion, particularly his love of music. They saved so that he could purchase a drum kit when he was in the fifth grade. The family was not wealthy and the Osterbergs lived in a mobile home in a trailer park. However, as Iggy put it in a 2007 Rolling Stone Magazine interview, he was rich beyond measure:

"Once I hit junior high in Ann Arbor, I began going to school with the son of the president of Ford Motor Company, with kids of wealth and distinction. But I had a wealth that beat them all. I had the tremendous investment my parents made in me. I got a lot of care. They helped me explore anything I was interested in. This culminated in their evacuation from the master bedroom in the trailer, because that was the only room big enough for my drum kit. They gave me their bedroom."

Osterberg's music career began in high school and he performed with a variety of bands, including one named The Iguanas. It was this connection that earned him the nickname "Iggy". After dropping out of The University of Michigan, Iggy travelled to Chicago to play in more bands and learn about the blues. Upon returning to Michigan, Iggy decided to put his drum sticks down for a microphone. As he put it, "I got tired of looking out from behind a bunch of butts every night." In 1967, he formed The Psychedelic Stooges taking inspiration from the blues and the experimental and garage rock bands of the era, such as The Sonics, MC5, and The Doors (the latter two groups having, collectively, five records on The 500.) The MC5 (Motor City Five) were at The Stooges’ first gig, a Halloween Party in Detroit in 1968. Impressed, MC5 invited the band to open for them the next year in New York City, shortly after the release of this week’s self-titled debut record.

Flyer advertising the
1969 NYC concert featuring
MC5 and The Stooges.

This is the second of three records by The Stooges on The 500 list. I wrote about #191, Fun House, a few weeks ago; their 1973 record, Raw Power, appears at #128. The first line-up of the band comprised Iggy Pop; brothers Dave (guitar) and Scott Asheton (drums); and Dave Alexander (bass). It was the last three musicians who gave Iggy the surname "Pop" after a Detroit local called Dave Popp whom they thought Iggy looked like after Iggy shaved his eyebrows for a gig. However, on the debut record, he is billed by another pseudonym, Iggy Stooge.

Iggy (centre) on stage with The Stooges. (l-r), Alexander, S. Asheton, 
Pop, and D Asheton.

Earlier this week, I was chatting about this Stooges' record with Various Artists, a friend and former guest writer on The 500 Blog. We agreed that it is an enjoyable debut, with some terrific songs and one unlistenable track -- the strange, experimental 10-minute "psychedelic" opus called We Will Fall. Rolling Stone Magazine writer Edmund O. Ward called the piece "a ten-minute exercise in boredom that ruins the first side of the record."

Various Artists let me know that We Will Fall was necessitated because the band only had "about 15 minutes worth of material" when the opportunity to record in New York arrived. Consequently, they wrote three new compositions over the five days they were in The Hit Factory studios. The other two tracks, Real Cool Time and Not Right were also quickly cobbled together through improvisational jam sessions.

The Hit Factory studios when it was located on 54th street. It
has been located in six New York locations over 55 years.

I'll admit, I started skipping We Will Fall after my first two listens to the entire record. However, its presence made me respect Iggy even more. The confidence his parents instilled in him has shone throughout his career. He has been a risk-taker and innovator who dares to try new things. He "swings for the fences" with his artistic endevours and seems unruffled in the face of adversity.  Still performing, shirtless and energetically at the age of 77, Iggy has earned the accolades afforded him and the legendary moniker, "The Godfather of Punk Rock".

Oh, and as for my long ago ambitions – I became a school teacher, act in amateur theatre, noodle about on a few instruments and still play old timers hockey. Oh yea…and I write this weekly blog. So, I got a few of those boxes ticked.

The 500 - #196 - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965 - 1968 - Various Artists

 I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #196
Album Title: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965- 1968

Artist: Multiple

Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
Recorded: Multiple Studios
Released: October, 1972
My age at release: 7
How familiar was I with it before this week: Surprisingly, many.
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at 405, moving down 209 spots.
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Dirty Water

Like any kid trying to fit in, I made some regrettable fashion choices in high school. Most of them, including bleaching a blond streak in my hair, I look back on with  affection. However, one decision still generates a cringey shudder when I think about it. It all started when I purchased tickets to see American rock guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Ted Nugent when he brought his 1981 World Tour to my hometown of London, Ontario, in support of his sixth studio release, Scream Dream.

If you are familiar with the troubling and sometimes odious controversies that have followed this angry media personality over the past few decades, you may have a suspicion about where this story is going – that I regretted spending money on this ticket. However, I am not. Within his range and style, "The Nuge" is a pretty good guitar player and there are still a few of his songs that I like -- mainly for old times’ sake. As I have said in previous posts, I generally try to separate the "art" from the "artist”.

Ted Nugent performing live in the 80s.\

The regrettable decision I made came the next day when I arrived in my first period history class proudly wearing the official concert shirt I bought at the show. I thought I would enjoy several nods of envy from my fellow rockers in the room. Instead, my history teacher looked at me and said... "Is that a naked man on your shirt?" (See below for evidence of the offending frock).

I found a photo of a vintage shirt, exactly like mine, online.

The class exploded with laughter as I clumsily defended the clothing choice that I was regretting more deeply with every beat of my racing, teen-age heart. I am not sure why I was trying to convince a stodgy, suited, 50-year-old high-school educator that a "Nugent shirt" was actually cool. I suspect I was trying to convince myself that this expensive ($10 was a lot of money in 1981) piece of memorabilia was worth the freight. The shirt remained in my bedroom closet for most of the next few years. It’s probably in a box in my mom's basement, and being in top condition it would likely fetch more than $100 from online vintage resellers. So, perhaps I didn’t make a bad investment after all.

A closer look at the shirt's logo - taken from Nugent's "Intensities
in 10 Cities" live album, released the same year.

Long before his solo career, Nugent belonged to the psychedelic, garage rock band The Amboy Dukes who had a hit single with Journey To The Center Of Your Mind. Released in 1968, the song reached #16 on the Billboard Charts and was a thinly veiled celebration of the mind-altering drugs that were wildly popular that decade, including L.S.D. and magic mushrooms. Nugent, who is now known for his ardent anti-drug advocacy, has claimed he had no idea what the song was about, which seems dubious unless the now aging rocker was terribly naive in his twenties…while playing in a self-described "acid rock" band.

The Amboy Dukes are among 27 bands that appeared on the 1972 compilation record, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965 - 1968. The disc was painstakingly curated by Lenny Kaye, a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies in Greenwich Village, New York City, at the time. Kaye later became the guitarist for the Patti Smith Group whose debut album, Horses, ranks at #44 on The 500 list.

Lenny Kaye, working at Village Oldies - early 70s.

Kaye appeared on the most recent episode of The 500 Podcast and provided a rich and fascinating insight into the development of the outstanding collection of the eclectic songs he assembled. He also discussed the follow-up album, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from The British Empire And Beyond, which was released as a four CD Box set in 2001. I encourage readers to take a listen to the podcast for a much deeper dive into the history of these bands and their music. Kaye even hints there are talks about a Nuggets III production.

Album cover for Nuggets II release (2001)

In previous posts, I have questioned the inclusion of compilation records on The 500 list. I need to amend that stance. My view now holds that anthologies are more than the sum of their parts; this one is akin to a love letter about the music of a generation.

Kaye is passionate about the rare and oddball music he discovered through his writing and work at the Oldies Record Shop, and that shines through on this beautiful tapestry of fascinating and engaging songs. The liner notes, authored by Kane, are further testament to the affection he has for the selections on Nuggets I. It also contains one of the first uses of the term "punk rock" -- a genre of music that exploded a few years after release of Nuggets I. The liner notes begin with a title that captures the spirit of this record, and I smiled when I read it -- "It's a Nugget if you Dug it".

Epilogue:

In 1995, while driving from London, Ontario, through Northern Michigan and across the top of Lake Superior toward Teachers College in Thunder Bay, I stopped at a Tim Hortons in Wawa. It was just before dawn and 11 hours into my 17-hour cross-province journey. I had set off the night before in order to avoid traffic and to enjoy the stunning landscape of the rugged, forest covered Canadian Shield as the sun rose.

Wawa, Ontario, known for its beautiful landscape and giant
goose statue.

As I walked into the Timmies to purchase a cup of conscious-propping caffeine, a slim man in camouflage gear and a ball cap held the door for me to enter as he left.

"Do you know who that was?" the cashier asked me as I ordered. "Ted Nugent" she said, excitedly answering her own question before I could respond.

I turned to see the door of a large pick-up truck close, so I couldn't confirm the information -- but, who would lie about seeing Ted Nugent at dawn in a Tim Hortons in Wawa, Ontario?

At least he had more clothes on.

The 500 - #199 - Is This It - The Strokes

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #199

Album Title: Is This it

Artist: The Strokes

Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock Revival, Post-Punk Revival

Recorded: Transporterraum Studios, New York City, U.S.A.

Released: July, 2001

My age at release: 36

How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #114, moving up 85 spots

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Last Night

Pictured above is the album cover for the debut record Is This It from American rock band The Strokes – a photograph of a nude woman’s hip and buttocks, with her leather-gloved hand provocatively positioned. The original snapshot was taken by professional photographer Colin Lane on a Polaroid Big Shot camera. He took it spontaneously as his then-girlfriend (who still remains unnamed) stepped out of the shower and slipped on a black Chanel-quilted lambskin in their shared apartment.

A Chanel glove similar to the one used in the photoshoot.

As Lane tells the story:

“Shooting on a Big Shot isn’t easy; you can only shoot from a specific distance, and it’s really designed for head-and-shoulders portraits. But when she put the glove on and slid forward, I knew it was the perfect shot – simple, straightforward, graphic and just so sexy.”

A ‘70s advert for the Polaroid Big Shot

The album cover, which is included in the coffee table book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time, was only available to international audiences. In the United States, the release was delayed until October, 2001, and a different cover was chosen – a psychedelic photograph of subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber (below).

Initially, I assumed the “black glove cover” was deemed too racy for American retailers – particularly in the Bible Belt. However, I was wrong. Strokes’ manager Ryan Gentles was contacted by lead singer Julian Casblancas immediately before the release of the record in Japan and Europe to say: “I found something even cooler than that ass picture.” The call was too late because the album was already being printed. However, there was time to change the cover for the later U.S. release date.

The history of the album cover legend is complicated by a passage in The Strokes’ 2003 biography by Martin Roach in which the band allegedly admitted that ‘the fear of objections from America's conservative retail industry and right-wing lobby was also a reason for the artwork's alteration.”

Regardless of the cover, The Strokes exploded on the music scene in the early 2000s. Formed in New York City in 1997, the group helped kickstart the post-punk and garage band revival of the new millennium, alongside The White Stripes, The Hives, Jet, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

Singer Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer Fabrizio Moretti began playing together as teenagers while attending the prestigious Dwight School, a private preparatory college on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They added bassist Nikolai Fraiture and Albert Hammond Jr., both childhood friends of Casablancas.

The Strokes  (l-r) Valensi, Casablancas, Moretti, Hammond Jr., Fraiture

Like some popular bands and artists, including some I have written about in this blog series (Gram Parsons, Vampire Weekend, Lars Ulrich from Metallica and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane), The Strokes are from wealthy families. For example, Casablancas' father, John, was the founder of Elite Model Management and worth nearly $100 million when he died in 2013. He was credited with developing the concept of the “supermodel” in popular culture, a phenomenon from the ’80s in which fashion models transitioned into celebrities in mainstream media – Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer, to name a few.

‘80s Supermodel Cindy Crawford in a Pepsi commercial.

John Casablancas was also a documented racist and serial sexual harasser who married a 17-year-old when he was 50. He avoided criminal charges in 2003 when a case of sexual abuse was dropped by the Los Angeles Superior County Court because he was not a California resident. He, along with David Copperfield and Donald Trump, judged the Elite Model Look annual competition. The prize: $150,000 and a chance to secure a modeling contract. It was criticized by journalists from The Guardian newspaper, as “a chance for the trio to proposition these young and vulnerable girls.”

Donald Trump posing with contestants, as featured in a 2020 expose from The Guardian.

I suppose there is an element of disdain on my part for highlighting the band’s affluent background. Taking a chance in the music business was not a financial risk to The Strokes. Had their ambitions been dashed, the quintet would still have had money, social status and financial opportunities to cushion their failure.

There is a part of me, and no doubt others from middle class and working class homes, who admire a band that struggles to make it from humble beginnings to superstardom. We can identify with their determination to achieve their dreams – the artists who saved to buy their instruments, lived in a van or couch-surfed, criss-crossing their country playing gigs that barely covered the costs. Artists on The 500, including Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash, are good examples.

In a research paper published in 2019, Danish economist Karol Jan Borowiecki analyzed the historical development of creative activity in the United States from 1850 - 2015. Among his conclusions was that “every $10,000 in total family income makes a person around 2 percent more likely to pursue a creative occupation — meaning that someone who comes from a family worth $1 million is ten times more likely to become an artist than someone whose family is worth $100,000.” (See source here)

 Karol Jan Borowiecki

However, there is another side to this argument. As the baseball analogy goes, The Strokes “hit a homerun after starting on third base”. However, that discounts the fact that they worked hard to make it to home plate. According to many sources, the band practised and performed tirelessly in the late-’90s and their seemingly meteoric rise to rock stardom was fueled by their dedication and hustle.

Furthermore, they knew how to write damn catchy tunes and picked the perfect time to relaunch the garage rock sound of the ‘70s. Much like the infamous black glove cover, they took a bang-on shot and made a record good enough to land at #199 on The 500.