If you need to ask Who? you're reading the wrong blog

Nice interview with Strait James in Pommy rag The Guardian here.

When too much Raw Power is never enough

April 27 needs to be marked in your diary. Here's why:

RAW POWER: LEGACY EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
(Columbia/Legacy 88697 56149 2)

Disc One: RAW POWER (recorded September-October 1972, originally issued February 1973, as Columbia 32111) Selections: 1. Search And Destroy • 2. Gimme Danger • 3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell • 4. Penetration • 5. Raw Power • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Shake Appeal • 8. Death Trip.

Disc Two: “Georgia Peaches” (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973, all tracks previously unreleased) Selections: 1. Introduction • 2. Raw Power • 3. Head On • 4. Gimme Danger • 5. Search And Destroy • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Heavy Liquid • 8. Cock In My Pocket • 9. Open Up And Bleed • Bonus tracks: 10. Doojiman (previously unreleased outtake from Raw Power sessions, 1972) • 11. Head On (previously unreleased CBS Studio rehearsal performance, New York City, 1973).
__________________________________________________________________

RAW POWER: DELUXE EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
(Columbia/Legacy 88697 65714 2)

Disc One: RAW POWER (recorded September-October 1972, originally issued February 1973, as Columbia 32111) Selections: 1. Search And Destroy • 2. Gimme Danger • 3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell • 4. Penetration • 5. Raw Power • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Shake Appeal • 8. Death Trip.

Disc Two: “Georgia Peaches” (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973, all tracks previously unreleased) Selections: 1. Introduction • 2. Raw Power • 3. Head On • 4. Gimme Danger • 5. Search And Destroy • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Heavy Liquid • 8. Cock In My Pocket • 9. Open Up And Bleed • Bonus tracks: 10. Doojiman (previously unreleased outtake from Raw Power sessions, 1972) • 11. Head On (previously unreleased CBS Studio rehearsal performance, New York City, 1973).

Disc Three: Rarities, Outtakes, & Alternates from the Raw Power Era Selections: 1. I’m Hungry (outtake from Raw Power sessions) • 2. I Got A Right (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session) • 3. I’m Sick Of You (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session) • 4. Hey, Peter (out¬take from Raw Power sessions) • 5. Shake Appeal (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, “The Embassy Reels”) • 6. Death Trip (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, “The Embassy Reels”) • 7. Gimme Danger (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy “violent” remixes) • 8. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy “violent” remixes). (All tracks previously unreleased except tracks 3, 7, and 8.)

Disc Four: DVD – The Making Of Raw Power, produced and directed by Morgan Neville (featuring interviews with Iggy Pop, James Williamson, Scott Asheton, Mike Watt, Johnny Marr, and Henry Rollins; plus performance footage from James Williamson’s first reunion concert with Iggy and the Stooges, at Festival Planeta Terra, São Paulo, Brazil, November 2009).

Bonus Japanese 7-inch 45 rpm single reproduction: Side One – “Raw Power” b/w Side Two – “Search And Destroy”


So...the original mix - finally mastered to CD properly, I'd guess - plus a stack more good stuff. Fifteen previously unheard tracks. Smart people would bookmark this site. That would be you?

All I want for Xmas...

...is an air ticket. That's not too much to ask, is it?

I would like the band (Iggy and the Stooges, that is) to refrain from playing Ig's solo stuff. As much as Strait James had a hand in "New Values" as producer and all, this is a Stooges show and they should perform Stooges songs. The insertion of "The Passenger" et al into their set in Brazil last month just didn't fit, after listening to a shoddy MP3 audio download of the gig.

Metro Times reveals Deniz Tek nearly became a Stooge

Probably the best and most comprehensive interview with Iggy and James Williamson you'll see this time around in the lifetime(s) of the Stooges has appeared in the Detroit Metro Times. Bill Holdship has conducted long interviews with both and has done a fantastic job.

Watch for the "Raw Power" original mix re-issue and ponder what might have been, post Ron, if Ig hadn't decided to put ex-Radio Birdman leader Deniz Tek on ice and pursue Strait James.

It's not too late on that front and reprising "Raw Power" songs surely needs a second guitar. Read it here.

JW Week

If you hadn't heard it's James Williamson Week over at the I-94 Bar. Here's my interview with him. Nice fella.

Thought I'd add this as it seems to be a new addition to the YouTubeage of James' return to the stage with the Careless Hearts in San Jose earlier this month.

What they played

Courtesy of Kristy, here's the set list for James Williamson with The Careless Hearts at The Blank Club in San Jose:

Raw Power, Cock In My Pocket, Johanna, 1970, Funhouse, No Sense Of Crime, Gimme Danger, I Need Somebody, Penetration, Night Theme, I Got Nothin', Loose, TV Eye, Search and Destroy, I Gotta Right, I Wanna Be Your Dog, Louie Louie.

Raw Power - James Williamson w/ the Careless Hearts, San Jose. September 5

...and Search & Destroy....



...along with Cock in My Pocket.

James Williamson online

He has a website. A new I-94 Bar interview will appear in the fullness of time.

James Williamson returns to live music (2)

James Williamson is warming up for his pre-Stooges return to the stage with a local band on September 5 with an interview in the NBC Bay Area Online. It turns out country-fied backing band The Careless Hearts are putting aside their usual set list for a night of "Raw Power" covers.

Here's what James says about past and future Stooges set lists:

One of the things about The Stooges in the old days that was very stupid was that we very rarely played the same stuff very often. We would be playing new stuff as we went along because we thought we were being creative and also because we got bored very easily. So as entertainment we kind of failed because no one really knew the songs. This time around we are trying to draw on things the audience knows and that covers a lot of territory. A lot of "Raw Power" stuff and we'll hit on the first two Stooges albums, maybe a couple of Iggy's solo things.

More here and watch for the I-94 Bar's chat with James after the Stooges rehearsals are done.

Yes, it's true

We have confirmation from someone who knows. Iggy & The Stooges with James Williamson on guitar will rehearse in July. No word on gigs yet.

Stooges 2009?

The Australian's respected rock writer Iain Shedden may have landed a world exclusive.

Stooges '71

Ever hear the short-lived Stooges line-up with Ron Asheton AND James Williamson on guitars? Little survives except a St Louis show, booted on an obscure label from a tape that was traded among colectors for years. UK legacy label Easy Action have been on the case, however, and have come up with a box set dating from that 1971 US tour.

There's a considerable back story to this which I might relate at a later time. Meanwhile, you can watch as more details go up, hear sound samples and pre-order here.

James Williamson

So what's the rumour about James Williamson playing with the Stooges again? That's him in the photo as he looks today, doing well in his career as a senior executive for Sony and as an audio industry decision maker. Thanks to Block for the heads-up. It also seems he's more into lap steel today, judging by this link.

And just for old time's sake, here's Ken Shimamoto's I-94 Bar interview which marked a public re-emergence of sorts for Strait James.

Historic Stooges photos published for the first time

Here's a piece of history for Stooges fans. We're publishing - for the first time anywhere - three sets of photos of the "Funhouse" and pre-"Raw Power" Stooges, from the six shows they played in the St Louis area in 1970 and '71.

CRAIG PETTY was lucky enough to be at all those shows, several of them with camera in hand. His photos were destined for publication in a Stooges book which, alas, appears to have stalled. So we're presenting them for the first time, in copy-protected form. (You may be able to reproduce these photos if you have a worthy project in mind - but please make sure you seek permission here first. OK?)

Craig takes up the story...

"The color photos of Iggy with longer hair, no dog collar and unripped jeans were from Kiel Stadium, St Louis, Missouri on March 7th, 1970.

"The next set of color shots with Iggy in ripped jeans , dog collar and shorter hair come from The Rainy Daze Club St.Louis MO in about July 1970 - a week or so before the famous Cincinnati Festival with the 'walking on the hands' film."

Close observers will note that Iggy is almost identically dressed in that TV footage:


"The black-and-white shots are from May 27th 1971 at the Factory, in St.Charles (a suburb of St Louis.) This show is the one that many bootlegs are from, and many of those are mistakenly labeled Kiel Stadium 1970,"
Craig says.

(There's a bootleg on the mysterious Starfighter label which purports to be this show - a better quality copy of that tape is circulating through traders.)

"The Factory show had Ron AND James Williamson on dual lead guitars for a very rare and short lived period. This was a makeup show for one canceled the night before at The Music Palace when the band's equipment truck didn't show.

"About 35 minutes into the show, Ig whacks Ron in the head with his mic by accident and the gig stops. They come back and try one more but it goes down. The show is over.

"People are pissed. Iggy comes out into the crowd afterward and hangs out and talks to everybody and is very apologetic. This is very cool.

"The promoter stiffs them. That's very uncool.

"A couple of weeks later they're dropped by Elektra and the band goes dormant.

"They came back to St Louis in '73 for two shows at the American Theatre."

Dates Craig recalls the dates the band played in St Louis over 1970-73 were:

3/7/70 Kiel Stadium
3/25/70 Rainy Daze
?/7/70 Rainy Daze
5/27/71 The Factory
8/18/73 American Theatre (two shows)

You can access the photos here. Wouldn't hurt to tell Craig how you feel (to quote Ig) by leaving a comment.