• '

  Michael S Begnal's book is diligently researched but passionately engaged with the times and temperature of this wanton act of creativity/destruction . . . a brilliant, compulsive read.

  '

  Classic Rock

• '

  Scholarly, overflowing with detail, supremely well researched and written with genuine enthusiasm and an impressive depth of historical insight, Death Trip documents The Stooges’ journey from post-Elektra dead end oblivion to their miraculous resurrection as Iggy & The Stooges in London in the summer of 1972 . . . Anyone who considers Raw Power to be one of the defining albums of the ‘70s and the savage harbinger of the sound and attitude of punk needs this book.

  '

  Shindig!

• '

  American poet and academic Begnal has written a definitive study of The Stooges around their creation of Raw Power. The book is meticulously researched, with the author accessing the archives of long-gone fanzines and rock magazines and interviewing many who were in The Stooges' orbit at the time . . . Punk fans will enjoy Begnal's ability to create a clear narrative of a band that thrived on chaos. And cultural studies types will appreciate his placement of Raw Power as a direct response to the Vietnam War.

  '

  The Wire

• '

  As Begnal shows in this focused study, Raw Power captures a band caught between competing impulses toward recognition and toward self-destruction. Drawing on interviews, archival sources, and cultural theory, Begnal places the album within the broader disillusionment of the post-sixties era and the circumstances that sparked punk rock’s emergence as a genre . . . For fans of punk history and music studies, Begnal makes a persuasive case for Raw Power as a foundational work.

  '

  Booklist

• '

  Fans of Iggy and the Stooges, as well as general rock history enthusiasts, will appreciate this insight into an iconic album and band.

  '

  Library Journal

• '

  With scholarship rather than machismo, intelligence rather than bluster, Michael S. Begnal gets to the heart of the Stooges’ lortuous and lonely road to Raw Power: one of the greatest albums ever made.

  '

  Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock

• '

  A kaleidoscopic study that criss-crosses and brilliantly illuminates the Stooges’ second act. Michael S. Begnal brings together the methodology of a scholar with the enthusiasm and knowledge of a life-long fan. Death Trip will enthral, inform and entertain die-hard and casual devotees alike as it elucidates, through the story of Raw Power, the lost history of punk before the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.

  '

  Peter Stanfield, author of The Yardbirds

Introduction: Rock’n’Roll, the War in Vietnam, and Punk in the Early 1970s
1: Origins of a Style
2: The Stooges in London
3: The Making and Meaning(s) of Raw Power
4: Raw Power Response
5: Opened Up and Bleeding
Conclusion: Aftermath and Afterlives

References
Sources
Partial Stooges Discography
Acknowledgments
Photo Acknowledgments
Index

Michael S. Begnal teaches rhetorical and creative writing. His previous books include The Music and Noise of the Stooges, 1967–71: Lost in the Future (2022).