[2] Pop produced the recording sessions himself and David Bowie assisted with post-production work, though the team were allotted only one day to mix the album and the resulting fidelity was poor.

[7] Williamson's raw guitar sound deeply influenced acts of different music genres such as the Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

Upon reviewing the 1997 edition of Raw Power, Christgau – who in the past had complained about how Bowie had mixed the original album "down till it's thin as an epicure's wrist" and inflicted "ruinous underbassing" – wrote, Strict constructionists and lo-fi snobs charge indignantly that by remixing his own album Iggy has made a mockery of history and done irreparable damage to a priceless work of art.

"[15] In the reissued CD's liner notes, however, Pop points out that one of his intentions in doing the new mix was to keep audio levels in the red (which would deliberately cause such distortion) while at the same time making the music more "powerful and listenable".

Basically, all that Iggy did was take all the smoothness and all the effects off James [Williamson]'s guitar, so his leads sound really abrupt and stilty and almost clumsy, and he just put back every single grunt, groan, and word he ever said on the whole fuckin' soundtrack.

[18]In 2002, Bowie said that his original mix of Raw Power is "the version I still prefer over the later remix – it has more wound-up ferocity and chaos and, in my humble opinion, is a hallmark roots sound for what was later to become punk.

[23] In another analysis, PopMatters writer Iain Ellis said the album can be seen in retrospect as punk metal,[24] while Tucson Weekly's Jarret Keene deemed it "garage-punk-metal" fusion.

After spending time in a drug-fueled stupor in L.A. – and later rehab at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute – Pop re-joined Bowie's entourage, and emerged as a solo artist in 1976.

"[39] Ben Edmunds from Phonograph Record called it "an experience so overpowering that it forces new definitions for even the most familiar things", arguing in March that it will undoubtedly be the album of the year.

[2] According to Lester Bangs, the "by-now banal words 'heavy metal' were invested for this group", while "the ferocious assertiveness of the lyrics is at once slightly absurd and indicative of a confused, violently defensive stance that's been a rock tradition from the beginning".

In Stereo Review, he called the album a "comeback of major proportions" and "monomaniacal fury so genuine" that it may be too overwhelming for listeners, concluding that, "whether you laugh at them or accept their chaotic rumble on its own terms, they're fascinating and authentic, the apotheosis of every parental nightmare.

"[2] Reviewing Raw Power for Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye praised its uncompromising music and said, "for the first time, the Stooges have used the recording studio as more than a recapturing of their live show, and with David Bowie helping out in the mix, there is an ongoing swirl of sound that virtually drags you into the speakers".

[40] Longtime Stooges fans were less receptive to Bowie's mix for the original album;[27] Robert Christgau later wrote of the original fan response, "first-generation Iggyphiles charged just as indignantly that David Bowie had mixed the real thing way too thin, before it was anointed the Platonic idea of rock and roll by desperate young men who didn't have much else to choose from".

[42] Writing of the album in retrospect, Will Hodgkinson believed that while the band's debut was "charged and brutal garage-rock" and Fun House was "lurid chaos", Raw Power was more musically sophisticated "in its debauchery".

[43] In The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records, Scott Isler credited Williamson's writing contributions with providing more musicality and structure to the band's songs, whose lyrics conflated sex and death.

[30] Nick Kent said in 2010 that Raw Power remains "the greatest, meanest-eyed, coldest-blooded hard rock tour de force ever summoned up in a recording studio".

Writing that year in Entertainment Weekly, David Browne believed it rectified "one of rock's most exciting, but worst-recorded, audio assaults", and found it "as collar grabbing as the Stooges' skin-scratching rage itself", improving upon past releases of the album, in which "the guitars were too loud, [and] the drums buried.

"[50] Hilburn gave the remix a rave review in the Los Angeles Times, writing that it "simply presents greater instrumental clarity and definition" than previous mixes and concluded, "It may have taken all these years to get the album right, but it has finally arrived.

"[27] Tim Stegall from The Austin Chronicle said while the original mix "was so muted that it sounded like Vietnam being fought inside a Kleenex box", the remix is comparable to an atomic bombing and, "with its sonic gonads now fully restored, it can be further stated Raw Power is the single most dangerous rock & roll album ever made.

[54] Christgau observed, "strict constructionists and lo-fi snobs charge indignantly that by remixing his own album Iggy has made a mockery of history and done irreparable damage to a priceless work of art.

"[41] In Berman's opinion, "after spending the past 13 years having my ears ravaged by the '97 Iggy mix, I find it difficult readjusting to the leaner, original version—even with the remastering, the '97 version far outstrips it in fidelity and sheer brute force, and remains a better entry point for younger listeners seeking to understand the album's impact.

"[56] DIY's Jonathan Hatchman wrote, "Above all, the reason that Raw Power should be regarded as, at least, one of the greatest punk albums of all time, is the influence it has provided.

[63] He said that Raw Power is his second favorite Stooges album (after Fun House), calling it "America's greatest contribution to the hard rock scene", to compete with the "Stones, Zeppelins and the Deep Purples".

[64] Mötley Crüe founder Nikki Sixx has cited it as a major influence: "When I was fifteen years old, I remember Iggy and the Stooges' song 'Search and Destroy' reaching out from my speakers to me like my own personal anthem."

[65] Guitarist John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers also praised the record: "When you think about all the ways bands these days try and expand rock and roll, most of them look pretty silly next to Raw Power.

"[68] Ewan McGregor covered "Gimme Danger" for the film Velvet Goldmine, which tells the story of a character based on Bowie's Ziggy Stardust during the 1970s glam rock era.

Additionally, a cover of the album's namesake track "Raw Power" was performed by Romeo Delta in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

In May 2010, Pop, Williamson, Mike Watt, Scott Asheton, and Steve Mackay performed Raw Power in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.

On April 13, 2010, a deluxe version titled Raw Power: The Masters Edition was released, consisting of three CDs, one DVD, one 7" vinyl record, a booklet, and a pack of photo prints.

The release included two LPs (one containing the remastered 1973 Bowie mix and the other containing a remastered version of the 1997 Pop mix) and a sixteen-page commemorative booklet with quotes from the band, pictures of the band from photographer Mick Rock at their infamous King's Cross Cinema show in the summer of 1972, and written pieces by British journalist Kris Needs and rock 'n roll historian Brian J. Bowe.