James Osterberg keeps on rolling on. I’m a firm believer in the boxed set as the medium to convey the artistry of deep-catalogue performers and this tidy four disc set does a great job of providing a glimpse for the uninitiated into how very credible Iggy is, as well as his unbelievable consistency. We are talking about 32 years of recordings which cover songs that were Stooges’ staples as well as key items from his solo repertoire.
It’s tough to write a review at the computer when you listen to the disc repeatedly in the car while cruising around from errand run to errand run…and with the overwhelming amount of Iggy videos on YouTube, it’s easy to see why writers like David Maine of POP MATTERS will question when is too much too much? (He answers the question in his article with another question “why the hell not?”). This four CD boxed set is terrific…and – yes – you can go to YouTube and watch killer videos like “Search & Destroy” (Olympia 1991)…in fact, there’s probably the entire 1991 Olympia set up on YouTube – the Jimi Hendrix cover of Foxy Lady and more…but with great competition comes great creativity if you want to stay competitive and relevant…and this four disc set is competitive, relevant and dynamite. From the comic book-styled cover to the dates and places where the material was culled from, ROADKILL RISING is evidence of how this artist is able to surf the decades and provide quality performances of his cherished material without skipping a beat.
Keith Richards/Rolling Stones engineer/producer Rob Fraboni listened to one disc from a proposed Marty Balin 4 CD boxed set and thought that the low-fi quality was too low-fi for an artist of Balin’s Top 40 stature. The Iggy Pop 4 CD set from Shout! Factory is actually better than the usual “bootleg” standard, and Stooges fans aren’t as demanding as fans of groups like the Jefferson Airplane or early Jefferson Starship…though my philosophy is that the hardcore fan is going to want everything anyway. Remember David Johansen said something about real rock & roll fans will listen to something they love on a blown out speaker on a transistor radio. That being said, for those fans this is sonically superb, for the rest of the world it should satisfy as the performances are spectacular and the different renditions of songs the devoted know and love make it all so very essential.
Shout! Factory continues to give great music a great home with superb packaging and the respect it deserves, just as the company’s previous incarnation as the original Rhino Records label did in decades past. Roadkill Rising: The Bootleg Collection comes highly recommended and it’s the best argument for The Farrelly Brothers to consider putting Iggy on the Three Stooges soundtrack, if not having three clones of Ig show up in the film version of the Stooges (the movie) itself.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio. Visual Radio is a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon’s Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
