It was passed around like the key to the secret clubhouse. For many, Metallic KO (1976) was an introduction for many fans to Iggy Pop, a figure known more by legend than for his music until he was embraced by the rising punk movement in the late ‘70s.
That original recording has been reissued as part of the eight-disc box set, From KO to Chaos, and documents the final concerts by Iggy and The Stooges in 1973 and early ’74. Recorded on reel-to-reel in an audiophile’s nightmare, it launches on the power surge of “Raw Power,” with a piano pounding like rattling voodoo bones keeping abreast of the clanking metallic beat. The recording registers a band imploding, from bad drugs and vibes, as Iggy, with a wolfish grin that’s almost audible, descends into the abyss where—nowadays—Trump insurrectionists would dwell. The Stooges were playing to an outraged biker gang and Iggy egged them on, tauntingly. They replied by hurling objects making resounding thuds. Creem magazine’s critic Lester Bangs remarked that it’s “the only rock album I know where you can actually hear beer bottles breaking against guitar strings.”
On Metallic KO (the complete concert is also included in the new box set), Iggy achieved the thing ardently hoped for by many punks and metalheads to come—rock and roll as a confrontation with danger. But it’s not the best music collected on From KO to Chaos.
Although he remained a troubled man in the early years after The Stooges, Iggy’s live shows (as curated on From KO to Chaos) became more focused, no less raw but more powerful from the precision of the musicians behind him and his own performances. Also in the collection are some choice unreleased studio tracks, including an incendiary early take of “I Got a Right” and a three-song session with The Cars’ Ric Ocasek which netted a spectacular piece of harsh electronica, “Warrior Tribe.”
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One of the audio discs plus the lone DVD document Iggy playing solo acoustic shows in the early ‘90s. It was the MTV “Unplugged” era, but Iggy took it on his own terms. The acoustic discs put the spotlight onto his emotionally expressive vocals and the strength of his songs, whose urgency isn’t diminished in his furious, string-snapping performances. He included what he called that “silly song,” “Louie Louie,” the primal rocker with which he hammered the biker gang on Metallic KO, substituting his thoughts on the fall of the Iron Curtain for The Kingsmen’s incomprehensible lyric.
From KO to Chaos concludes in 2004 during The Stooges’s reunion tour. They were in great form on the concert disc included here, playing “Loose” and “I Wanna be Your Dog” with heavy energy behind Iggy’s full-throated vocals. Sadly, the lineup will never regroup again. RIP Ron Asheton (1948-2009), Scott Asheton (1949-2014) and Steve Mackay (1949-2015).
