Raw Power: Bowie Mix v. Iggy Mix

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bcaulf, Apr 7, 2015.

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  1. bcaulf

    bcaulf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    First and foremost, I am not asking specifically about the differences in sound quality between the two.

    On general terms, which version of the mix do you prefer? I've heard some people say they are like two different albums. So, which "album" is better?

    I've heard some bits of the Iggy mix, but I own the Bowie mix so I'm more familiar with it. What a great album. I do like the Bowie mix, it's got that lo-fi sound and the guitars really stand out where they're supposed to. It's muddy and sloppy but it really fits an album like this. It literally is raw. And there's something about the sound Bowie gave it. It sounds like something from another world.
     
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  2. Partyslammer

    Partyslammer Lord Of The New Church

    I do prefer the Iggy Pop (re)mix. It's just a shame it's a brickwalled hot mess on cd.
     
  3. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I like the original Bowie mess better than Iggy's mess.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2015
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  4. lego

    lego Active Member

    Both !
     
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  5. broccolid

    broccolid Trickologist

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Bowie Mix. For one, I can't stand the weird fuzz guitar that gets overemphasized in Iggy's mix of "Search and Destroy." Also, I prefer the deeper, spaceier tone the Bowie was able to deliver, despite the Bowie mix' lack of bottom end.
     
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  6. pobbard

    pobbard Still buying CDs

    Location:
    Andover, MA
    I hate to be that guy, but you gotta hear the 2012 vinyl remastering of the Iggy mix -- it actually sounds GOOD. Huge improvement.
     
  7. DVEric

    DVEric Satirical Intellectual

    Location:
    New England
    Personally dislike, very much, Bowie's mix. The Record Store Day release is the best by far, especially now that all the brickwalling is gone.
     
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  8. Partyslammer

    Partyslammer Lord Of The New Church

    Didn't know it was issued on vinyl. Thanks for the tip.
     
  9. TheDailyBuzzherd

    TheDailyBuzzherd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    The CD I've got is like a chick with no bottom.
     
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  10. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    Bowie mix for reasons others have already mentioned.
    Have heard the Iggy mix on vinyl. Nah.
     
  11. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    Bowie mix for what is arguably the greatest ROCK album of all time.
     
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  12. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I have a needledrop of the Iggy mix on vinyl, and I'm glad to have both mixes, but the Bowie mix gets my vote as it's the one that was imprinted on my brain via countless listening sessions when I first discovered this album. The power of that music trumps the flaws in the mix, then and now.
     
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  13. bcaulf

    bcaulf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I love the eerie aura Bowie's production gives to "Gimme Danger" and "Penetration."
     
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  14. jimmydean

    jimmydean Senior Member

    Location:
    Vienna, Austria
    +1
    the latest remaster was not so bad, although i think there is still a better version possible... one of my top ten albums...
     
  15. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    I like the Bowie mix. It may have its flaws, but they fit the album perfectly.
     
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  16. Judge Judy

    Judge Judy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    The Bowie mix is awful. The Iggy mix is unlistenable. Congratulations, Bowie.
     
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  17. vonwegen

    vonwegen Forum Resident

    I voted for the Iggy mix, but only on Legacy 2LP vinyl, where the mastering isn't ear-bleedingly awful. On CD, my Austrian Columbia Bowie mix pressing is the only choice for me.
     
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  18. Mother

    Mother Forum Resident

    Location:
    Melbourne
    Either one rocks like hell.
     
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  19. richard a

    richard a Forum Resident

    Location:
    borley, essex, uk
    I too prefer the Bowie mix, because it's the one I grew up with. But the vinyl version of the Iggy mix is pretty darned good too.

    Due to the extraordinary circumstances of it's recording any mix will always have its faults.
    For some reason Iggy managed to persuade his managers and the record company that he, Iggy Pop, was the best person to produce Raw Power. Never mind that he'd never produced anything before, had only spent a few weeks inside in a studio in his whole life, and was, frankly, not the most rational human being at the time.

    Yet, bafflingly, he was allowed to produce the record.

    There are all sorts of stories about he took the tapes home with him every night, even sleeping with them as he didn't want anyone messing with his baby. There are all sorts of stories - but many are plainly just that - stories.
    It's frequently been asserted that Iggy was so green he managed to record all the instruments onto one track and the vocals onto another, making mixing impossible.
    Just a cursory listen to Raw Power shows this to be false. The fact that he could and did remix the thing in the 1990s proves that multitracks existed, and in fact the quality of the recordings really wasn't that bad.

    The Bowie mix was completed in a couple of days after Iggy's original mix was rejected. This had been broadcast on US radio and shows that basically everything is blasted out at one volume. There is little light and shade. Arguably this represented the Stooges' sound rather better than what eventually got released, but Bowie's mix added a little subtlety, things like that weird echo on the drums on "Penetration".

    Iggy's 1990s mix turns it all back up to 11, but advances in technology allow the band to be better heard than on his original 1972 rejected attempt, and with the vinyl mix of this we don't get the horrendous digital distortion that blighted the CD.
     
  20. KariK

    KariK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Espoo, Finland
    Iggy mix on LP
     
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  21. IIRC, even on the original release "Search and Destroy" was Iggy's mix. I recall him saying that he wouldn't let Bowie touch that song because he loved it so much. Take that for what you will.
     
  22. Halfwit

    Halfwit Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    Bowie mix for me. Probably pure nostalgia, but I love the guitar sound, and the lo-fi quality fits right in with what would start to come out of the UK punk scene a few years later.
     
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  23. dino77

    dino77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    I like the Iggy mix but it's very painful to listen to on cd. Thanks for the heads-up on the LP.
     
  24. broccolid

    broccolid Trickologist

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Now that we have this issue pretty much under control, should we have a poll on whether the album should be billed to Iggy Pop or the Stooges? The ambiguity on this topic has always driven me nuts.
     
  25. KDubATX

    KDubATX A Darby Man Never Says When

    Location:
    Austin
    I'll have to add the Iggy mix LP to the wishlist for sure it seems. I grew up with the hot mess Iggy version CD and I have a hot mess of affection for it.
     
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