Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

In 1969, the Grateful Dead released their third studio album, titled Aoxomoxoa (pronounced "ox-oh-mox-oh-ah"). This album marked the beginning of a long partnership with lyricist Robert Hunter, who was the Dead’s non-participating songwriter. The album was highly experimental, and the band reportedly ran up a big recording budget that did not make the Warner Brothers executives happy. The album was remixed in 1971 by Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, and the original 1969 mix was discontinued. The original 1969 master tapes were reportedly misplaced, and that mix was subsequently unavailable for four decades. The original mix finally resurfaced recently as one of the 5 LP’s in Rhino’s vinyl-only box set The Warner Bros. Studio Albums , released in 2010. Rhino also released the original mix on a separate vinyl LP in 2011. As of this writing, the 1969 mix is still unavailable on CD. The experimental sound of the original 1969 release may have been partially due to the participatio...

On Record Store Day 2012, a special double-LP edition was released of Iggy (Pop) and the Stooges’ Raw Power (Legacy 88691959351), containing the David Bowie mix of the album which was originally released in 1973, as well as the 1997 version of the album as remixed by Iggy Pop. The Bowie mix was out of print during the late-‘90’s and in the ‘00’s after it was deleted in favor of Iggy’s mix. Iggy’s newer mix has received much criticism, but this is one case where I personally don’t prefer one mix over the other. The two mixes are very different, and each of them serves its own purpose. Bowie’s 1973 mix is clearly the one that is historically important. When you hear musicians and magazine writers discussing the impact of Raw Power on the evolution of rock music, they are certainly not referring to the 1997 version. But Iggy’s mix possesses a raw power of its own. Raw Power was the third and final album by the Stooges before the start of Iggy Pop’s solo career. Unlike the band’s two ...