Iggy and the Stooges
Wild Love (The Detroit Rehearsals and More)
[Bomp; 2002]
Rating: 3.8
Iggy Pop and James Williamson recorded only one proper album together, the
classic and influential Raw Power. It's understandable, then, that every
other year or so, a label like Bomp! graces the rock-loving public with yet
another collection of recently unearthed, never-before-heard rough cuts and
demos of Stooges projects that never were. Often, the value of such collections
lies not in the quality of the music itself, but rather in the incidental trivia
that can be gleaned from such recordings. For example, did you know that the
Stooges actually practiced? Or that Iggy Pop had a recording studio inside
his ass? No? Well, it's all true-- and Wild Love is here to prove
it.
As suggested above, this most recent release suffers from two major problems:
poor content and pathetic sound quality. First, the problem of content: on the
CD cover, Bomp! dubs Wild Love a "stunning collection of never-heard
songs, jams, and works-in-progress from the darkest closet of the band that
started it all." This is part lie and part euphemism-- it's not stunning, and
most of it essentially sounds like band practice. The liner notes are a bit
more candid, noting that the disc is composed of various "false starts and
halfway efforts," many of which were "abandoned along the way." Nonetheless,
with barely a straight face, Bomp! would have you believe that Wild Love
is an essential look into the Stooges songwriting process, and moreover, that
it's necessary to look into their songwriting process at all.
If your brain is on, you've already noted a problem with this rationale. Bomp!
says it themselves: the Stooges' songwriting process consisted of arriving at a
studio, filling up on narcotics, then jamming for a few weeks until a song
emerged. Is this so remarkable that it requires its own CD? Doubtful, especially
given that most of the tidbits documented here never materialized into actual
songs, and sounded as if they never would. But even supposing it were
remarkable, embracing such collections sets destructive precedent. Personally,
I fear the world where bands feel free to peddle recordings of false starts and
band rehearsals. Remember, Creed practices, too.
Then there's the even greater problem with Wild Love-- its remarkably
poor sound quality. This collection may as well have been recorded on an
answering machine, or maybe in that "darkest closet" where they found/stored
these tapes in the first place. The tone is muffled, sapping the band of all
its trademark intensity. Raw, sure, but powerful? Not by a long shot.
Despite its shortcomings, the disc still has a few high spots. The title track
(not coincidentally, the album-opener) is one of the few completed songs on the
disc. As with most bands, the Stooges sounded better when they were trying (go
figure) and the song is a testament to that fact. Wild Love mostly
documents post-Raw Power-era blues jams, pairing Williamson's guitar
noodling (which, although capable, is nonetheless still noodling) with some of
Iggy's most forgettable vocal moments. For example, in "I Come From Nowhere,"
Pop freestyles off of the title verse, "I come from nowhere," eventually arriving
at the Whitman-esque "Everybody's a square/ Dirty underwear." I see England, I
see France...
There's a whole cache of Stooges material more worthy of your dollars than
Wild Love. Those who own it all won't be dissuaded by this review. But
unless Bomp!'s suck-up liner notes truly resonate with you, there's little point
to owning this record. Practice makes perfect; so just listen to the perfect
stuff, and leave practice for the fanatics.
-Brad Haywood, April 24th, 2002