Search & Destroy

lthough the Stooges only got around to issuing a total of three records during their short but colorful career, there is an overabundance of outtakes sets on the market -- most of which zero in on the Raw Power era. This material has been repackaged an insanely high number of times over the years, and in 1999, the Cleopatra label issued another similarly styled set, Search and Destroy (The Detroit Studio Out-Takes). The Stooges had penned quite a bit of material around this time, most of which apparently did not make it onto Raw Power -- most tracks were probably going to appear on a projected fourth album. But with the majority of its members sinking into drug addiction, the group was dropped from its label, and broke up in 1974. But tapes of tracks that were never properly recorded in the studio survived, and you get some of the better-known compositions here ("Open Up and Bleed," "Johanna," "Rubber Legs"), as well as several that are quite uncommon ("Till the End of the Night," "She Creatures of the Hollywood Hills"). Most of these songs are available elsewhere in slightly better-sounding versions, as all the renditions here are recorded at rehearsals on what sounds like a boom box (not professionally). Also, you'll find run-throughs of a few songs that did make it onto Raw Power -- "Search and Destroy," "Raw Power," "Gimme Danger," etc. If it's rare versions (and not prime sound quality) of Stooges outtakes that you're after, then Search and Destroy will do the trick. ~ Greg Prato|