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Title: The First Punk Record, In My Opinon Anyway
Review: Listening to Raw Power makes me hate the garage rock-revival scene. It all sounds so safe and so carefully calculated, thus completely losing the amaturishness and spontaniety that made garage rock so lovable. Raw Power is garage rock torn apart and reassembled in the most haphazard way possible. And that's a compliment. It's the first punk record: abrasive, uncomprimising, dirty, violent, and unpretentious. Iggy Pop alternates between a nasal drawl and a jagged bark. Ron Asheton's guitar completely obliterates everything in its path. This is what rock n' roll was meant to be, and it has everything that rock lost when it became a marketable commodity. It's sloppy and filthy and perfect. You know that a record has to be great when even a "ballad" like "Gimme Danger" rocks harder than the entire output of most modern punk bands.
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