No ties allowed and no saying the debut, Lust for Life or The Idiot either! Just a steel cage death match between these two classics. I'm going to go with Fun House because it is the clearest example of Rock music as a primal force that I can think of. However, that might just be because it happens to playing right now at casa de mats84.

turn that shit DOWN!


funny question

listened to RP--both IG's and DB's versions-- this weekend and i actually saw that tour a couple of times as a wee high school lad (long story)

but fun house wins

fun house is the only stooges album i ever listen to.

In 1987 Rolling Stone listed their "100 greatest albums" and included "Raw Power." Sorry Jan, but I'd rank it 3rd after "Fun House" and the debut. Did you vote in that one, Ira?

I can't recall...probably LOL

I'm going with Raw Power. I was pushed over the edge when Robert Downey (a prince) used Gimme Danger in the soundtrack to Up the Academy.

As I'm just getting into the Stooges at the ripe age of 43, it's a tossup. I bought my copy of Raw Power along w/the Sexsmith/Kerr duet album & Two Yanks In England by the Everly Brothers at the local Borders. The early twentysomething sales clerk saw Raw Power and said "You're buying this for yourself? That's my favorite album! I play "Search & Destroy" every day!"

Raw Power DB mix vs Funhouse original or
RP IG mix vs Funhouse deluxe CD reissue, or complete Fun House sessions, or Rough Power, or the Raw Power with all their faces on the cover with the Rough Power songs on it?

being a wee teenie in 1973 I went with my cousin to the record store and bought "Raw Power", the first NY Dolls, Roxy music "For Your Pleasure", Bowie "Aladin Sane", LR "Transformer" and Stones "Exile" all on one trip( yeah I know "Exile" and "TRansformer" were released in '72). The buzz of hearing "Shake Appeal" rip through the 10 inch Panasonic speakers with the static and pop of the original vinyl is still with me today everytime I play that song and even though I play it in the SUV stuck in traffic on the way home on Friday afternoon I still get that gooose pimple rush that the skinny fucked up teenage version of me got.

On sentimental value: RP
The better album: Funhouse

*Funhouse* gets my vote as the better album -- indeed, as one of the truly great albums in rock. *Raw Power* has plenty of good songs, but it doesn't have the beginning-to-end flow that *Funhouse* does, IMO.

I once found myself "stuck" in a club in Denver, where a band I really wanted to see had a gig. While I was waiting for the show to start, I reached the conclusion that I hated this dump. Its layout was completely unsuited to live music, and the show's start time was way later than it should've been, IMO. And I thought the crowd really sucked ... although that surely was a result of my own bad attitude, rather than a reflection on the crowd.

The club had a CD jukebox -- barely audible over the din of the crowd -- that included *Funhouse*, believe it or not. About an hour before the band came on, I returned to the jukebox, fed it a $5 bill, and played "L.A. Blues" six times in a row. Jeez, it was fun to watch the unsuspecting patrons respond to that noise-fest. I really could see it stressing them all out, getting under their skin and aggravating them ... and because the joint was so loud to begin with, I don't think anyone really could discern that this noisy, atonal squall actually was emanating from the jukebox.

Stuck Inside of Denver With the L.A. Blues Again.....................

Raw Power - though TV Eye is better than anything on Raw Power

Fun House. And I believe "Down On The Street" won the contest here a few months ago for best leadoff track of all time....

What tweaks me I that I too listened to Funhouse and both versions of Raw Power over the weekend and tried to reach ultimate conclusions (burning a copy for a nephew, doncha know it).
This is sychronicity.

anyhoo...as delvin sez...Funhouse for continuity
(sounds like the jukebox at the old Seven South)

But it was a rough match and went several rounds.

But I'm surprised how much I've likened to the '96 remix of Raw Power. It's really a different LP from RP (db) with a different emotional involvement. We need them both.

In a fight...Dracula or Frankenstein's monster?



Post Edited (02-08-06 17:52)

Raw Fuckin' Power and the original version, flaws and all, is better to me than the remixed one. First Iggy album I owned, almost 30 years ago and it's vicious sounding. Fun House is a great album and well ahead of the curve for 1970 but I still gotta go with RP.

I gotta say Loose and TV eye are as good as anything, but Raw Power works as an album for me better. I like the remix okay, but that original mix, I fit in with All the Young dudes, and Ziggy, and it's a context that works for me. The darkest aspect of that context, and there is a riot going on connection that i'm too lazy to get out of my chair and check dates on.

I suppose you can argue the merits of these two Punk Rock landmarks all day based on the content each one possesses or how each one flows, etc. However, if any one thing separates Fun House from Raw Power as the "better" album it may be that nothing produced at that time came close to sounding like Fun House on a pure sonic level and nothing produced up to now does either, for that matter. Raw Power was still miles ahead of 99% of the rock artifacts produced in 1973 but it took a step closer to more traditional rock, not that that's a bad thing and it is still probably (along with The Ramones debut) the blueprint for the UK Punk Rock movement that would follow a few years later. That being said, it would certainly be a daunting task for any band to try to reproduce the sound of either album but seemingly even more impossible to emulate the sound of Fun House, specifically. Williamson's displacement of Asheton (even though possibly more gifted) on guitar clearly changed the band's direction to a bit more orthodox sound, albeit still miles away from anything conventional.

The Velvet Underground's Sterling Morrison once said something to the effect that he would pull out Venus In Furs as something the band did that sounded like no one else. I think the same can be said about Fun House as well.

"Raw Power". "Fun House" is a strong set but theire not the Allmans, so the jamming can get a bit too long and wearying at times. "Raw Power" is a bit less consistent, but it gets to the point. And how.

There's something about "Raw Power" that's more showy. I guess because Williamson is there and you have to give him room to show-off because, well, he's a genuine guitar hero- which is great, but it's more self-aware, and less basic and so I dig it a little less.

To elaborate a bit more or put things more simply, if I was to try to explain or illustrate the essence of Iggy Pop and his contribution or legacy to popular music for the average person vaguely aware of Lust For Life from those Royal Caribbean commercials or the minor hit Candy from back in the day I would have to play Search And Destroy and probably Raw Power for them. However, to accomplish the goal of presenting Iggy at his apex in all his full glory I would undoubtedly have to play at least the first five tracks off Fun House and start with 1970. Love it or hate it, they would get the picture.

Can't go wrong with either though and think the self-titled debut is tremendous as well.