RAW POWER

April 08, 2010

I have been a fan of Iggy and The Stooges since the mid eighties. I discovered the Stooges after hearing The Sex Pistol’s cover of their song “No Fun” from The Stooges first album. I also loved the Iggy Pop solo song “Repo Man”, the title track from the movie Repo Man directed by Alex Cox in 1984. Coincidentally, former Sex Pistol Steve Jones contributed lead guitar to the track. The more I learned about Iggy, his music with the Stooges, his solo material, and his collaborations with David Bowie and many others, the more I realized what a diverse talent and icon he is. During my days of listening to punk almost exclusively, all three Iggy and The Stooges albums were in heavy rotation, but the one I tended to skate to was Raw Power. Raw Power added guitarist James Williamson to the line-up and his leads made the Stooges sound even more aggressive. When the Stooges re-formed in 2003(I think) they only performed material from their first two albums because return member and original guitarist Ron Asheton did not play guitar on Raw Power. Don’t get me wrong, the first two Stooges records are great, but I always wanted to hear material from Raw Power. Sadly, Ron Asheton died last year. This tragedy however seems to have brought Iggy and James Williamson back together. Their reunion has resulted in a Raw Power tour. In a ridiculously fortuitous convergence for me, I was in touch with Iggy about doing a portrait of him for my show at Deitch Projects, and I also worked with photographer Robert Matheu on the Billy Idol greatest hits album “Idolize Yourself”. Anyway, Robert was working on the deluxe re-issue of Raw Power, as well as a book on the Stooges. Iggy, not knowing Robert and I already knew each other, asked Robert to send me the Stooges book. This exchange resulted in me being asked about designing a poster for the Raw Power deluxe package and the Raw Power tour. I could try to act cool about it, but honestly this is a dream come true for me. Thank you Iggy and Robert. My illustration is based on a photo of Iggy and James Williamson by Robert Matheu. The poster is signed by me and Robert. Buy Iggy And The Stooges “Raw Power” album right away if you don’t have it.
-Shepard

http://www.threadshop.net/IggyandTheStooges – merch
http://www.iggyandthestoogesmusic.com/ – website
www.robertmatheu.com