Click here to play the podcastIggy Pop made his (first) comeback with the Raw Power album, released in 1973. The album opens with the ferocious track “Search And Destroy”. Produced by David Bowie and powered by the savage energy of the reconstituted Stooges (featuring James Williamson’s guitar fury), this track set the tone, not only for this album, but for decades of punk and heavy metal to come.
“Search And Destroy” (Iggy Pop & James Williamson) Copyright 1973 by Bug Music (BMI) and EMI Music Publishing Ltd.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Greetings, wild ones. I am Brad Page, your host here on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, one of many great shows on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode of this show, I pick a song and we dig into it together, trying to get a handle on what makes it a great song. You do not have to be a musical expert to enjoy this show; we run a jargon-free, low-tech shop here that’s light on music theory and heavy on just listening.
There are rock stars, there are legends, and there are huge personalities. And then there are people like Iggy Pop, who somehow manage to transcend all of that, who reach beyond genre. You like hard rock or heavy metal? Iggy Pop was kicking ass with the originators of those sounds. You like punk? Iggy is one of the founding fathers of punk. If you prefer new wave, Iggy made his mark there, too. The dude even released a jazz album.
What a career.
On this episode, we’re heading back to 1973 for “Raw Power”, Iggy’s third album with the Stooges, and one of their all-time classic songs. Buckle up, because this is Iggy & The Stooges with “Search And Destroy”.
James Osterberg, Jr. Was born in Michigan in April 1947. His dad was an English teacher and he grew up modestly living in a trailer park in Ypsilanti. But his parents were supportive of his musical endeavors, even making room in the trailer for his drum set. He played drums for some local bands, including the Iguanas, which is how he would earn the nickname “Iggy”. He eventually landed in Chicago and started a band called the Psychedelic Stooges. Iggy became the lead singer, with Ron Ashton on guitar, his brother Scott Ashton on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. They started calling him “Pop”. And so Iggy Pop was born.
In 1968, they signed with Electra Records and their first album, “The Stooges”, produced by John Kale, was released in August 1969.
They followed that with their second album, Funhouse, in 1970.
Neither album was commercially successful. Of course, they’ve gone on to become classics, but at the time, few people were interested. But one person who was listening was David Bowie. By then, the Stooges had split up and Iggy was pretty deep into his heroin addiction. But Bowie scooped him up, along with guitarist James Williamson, who had joined the Stooges at the tail end. Before they split, Bowie took them both to London, hoping to hook them up with some British players to form a new band. But that just wasn’t working out. Iggy and Williamson were just too “Detroit” for these London glam musicians, so they brought back Ron and Scott Ashton, with Williamson on guitar. Ron switched to bass. He wasn’t exactly happy about that, but he did it.
They signed a deal with CBS Records and recorded the new album at CBS Studios in London. Iggy originally produced and mixed the album, but apparently that mix was kind of a mess and CBS wouldn’t release it. So Bowie was brought in to remix the record. Working under a limited budget, and with limited time, he had to mix the album in one day and it kind of shows it’s a rough and raw mix.
Released in February 1973, the album, called “Raw Power”, wasn’t any more commercially successful than his first two albums. But like those records now, “Raw Power” is considered a classic.
Now, before we delve into the album, there’s one thing we have to discuss, and that is these various mixes. As I mentioned before, David Bowie had mixed the album under less-than-ideal conditions and that is the version that was released on vinyl in 1973. But when the album was rereleased on CD in 1997, Iggy Pop remixed the whole album, and this has led to differing opinions. Some, like the legendary critic Robert Christgau, prefers Iggy’s remix. But many fans, including both James Williamson and Ron Ashton, who were in The Stooges, didn’t like Iggy’s new remix at all, and say the original Bowie mix was better. Now, none of this really matters if you’re listening to the album on vinyl– that’s the original mix. But if you’re listening on CD, well, which one are you really listening to?
There’s the first CD version from 1989, which, like many early CD’s, was not a great transfer. Then there’s Iggy’s remix from 1997. And then there’s the deluxe “Legacy” version CD released in 2010 that restored Bowie’s original mix. And, if you’re listening to it by streaming, well, good luck, because who knows which version you’re getting?
Let’s quickly compare the two. Here is the original Bowie mix and as acknowledged, it’s far from perfect:
And this is the 1997 Iggy remix. You can hear he’s pushed everything into the red. It’s a lot louder, but there’s also a lot of digital distortion which you can clearly hear:
The version that I am going to use here is from the 2010 “Legacy Edition” CD with the remastered and restored Bowie mix. I think that gets us closest to the original version and the original intent. Again, it’s not a great mix, but I think it’s the best of the choices available.
Ok, so the album opens with “Search And Destroy”. Like all the tracks on the album, it was written by Iggy Pop and James Williamson. It features James Williamson on guitar, Ron Ashton on bass and backing vocals, Scott Ashton on drums, and Iggy Pop on lead vocal.
The whole band launches in from the start. A couple of bars in, James Williamson overdubs a few guitar licks.
The song was inspired by an article in Time magazine about the Vietnam War. It’s always been assumed that the character in the song is a soldier, but there’s plenty of Iggy in this character, too. On the back of the album cover, there’s a photo of Iggy in one of his favorite jackets with a cheetah sewn on the back. So Iggy himself could be the “street walking cheetah”.
Let’s look at each element of the second verse. First, let’s hear the bass. Ron Ashton is using a really gnarly, fuzzed out bass sound on this track.
And now let’s hear Scott Ashton on the drums. I really like what he’s doing here.
And let’s check out guitar.
And listen to that second verse.
Let’s listen to the guitar in this section again. You can hear that there’s a second rhythm guitar overdubbed on this part, which adds a little extra punch to this already pretty powerful tracker.
You can barely hear the bass and the drums, they’re mixed so low.
Let’s go back and listen to just the bass and drums.
There’s let’s hear that all together again.
And there’s another short solo from James Williamson.
James Williamson really tearing it up here. Listen to his guitar behind the vocal.
“Search And Destroy” by Iggy and The Stooges.
Whether you want to call it proto-punk, primitive, heavy metal, or just the purest form of rock and roll, there is no denying how influential Iggy and The Stooges were, and how important “Search And Destroy” was in particular.
As always, I thank you for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes are released into the wild on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll join you again then. And if you’re still jonesing for more, there are a ton of old episodes just waiting for you to discover them. You’ll find them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for them in your favorite podcast app.
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On behalf of everyone on the Pantheon network, I remind you to support the artists you love by buying their music. And I thank you for listening to this episode on Iggy Pop and The Stooges and “Search And Destroy”.
REFERENCES:
Iggy Pop
https://www.iggypop.com/
The Stooges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stooges
Raw Power Album
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_Power
David Bowie
https://www.davidbowie.com/
James Williamson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Williamson_(musician)
Ron Ashton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton
Scott Ashton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Asheton
CBS Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Records_International
Time Magazine
https://time.com/
Robert Christgau
https://www.robertchristgau.com/