Iggy Pop 1

 

 

After the Stooges broke up in early 1974, and before his first post-Stooges tracks were finally released by Bomp! Records as Kill City under the name Iggy Pop and James Williamson, Iggy Pop continued the collaboration with David Bowie that he had begun on Raw Power with his first two solo albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life.  Both are ranked 5 stars by Allmusic; the latter album includes what is probably Iggy Pop’s best known song, “Lust for Life” (it is sometimes mistaken for a Stooges song).  He was working fast, with all three of these albums released in 1977; all told, Allmusic lists a remarkable 26 solo albums in the Iggy Pop name, not counting the Stooges albums or Kill City. 

 

 

 

In his Allmusic review of Lust for Life – featuring a smiling Iggy Pop on the front cover (unlike the fierce persona he presented on the Stooges album covers) – Mark Deming writes:  “On The Idiot, Iggy Pop looked deep inside himself, trying to figure out how his life and his art had gone wrong in the past.  But on Lust for Life, released less than a year later, Iggy decided it was time to kick up his heels, as he traded in the midtempo introspection of his first album and began rocking hard again.  Musically, Lust for Life is a more aggressive set than The Idiot, largely thanks to drummer Hunt Sales and his bassist brother Tony Sales.  The Sales [brothers] proved they were a world-class rhythm section, laying out power and spirit on the rollicking title cut [‘Lust for Life’], the tough groove of ‘Tonight’, and the lean neo-punk assault of ‘Neighborhood Threat’; and with guitarists Ricky Gardiner and Carlos Alomar at their side, they made for a tough, wiry rock & roll band – a far cry from the primal stomp of the Stooges, but capable of kicking Iggy back into high gear. . . .  On Lust for Life, Iggy Pop managed to channel the aggressive power of his work with the Stooges with the intelligence and perception of The Idiot, and the result was the best of both worlds; smart, funny, edgy, and hard-rocking, Lust for Life is the best album of Iggy Pop’s solo career.” 

 

 

Repo Man (1984) – not at all the same movie as the rather odious Repo Men – would be my current candidate for the “greatest movie ever made” (as I have been telling Peggy for the past year) that I never get tired of watching.  The story is a wicked mixture of science fiction, action movie, and sight gags, with a wild array of mostly unknown character actors, and Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez as the stars. 

 

The soundtrack album, Repo Man: Music from the Original Motion Picture collects a variety of punk rock classics plus others made especially for the film.  The opening theme music, “Repo Man Theme” (a gut-busting, guitar-driven instrumental that is the best music of all, though it is not on the album) and the title song, “Repo Man” (performed over the ending credits, which crawl downward rather than upward) are by Iggy Pop, while the score is performed by L.A. punk stalwarts the Plugz.  I have watched Repo Man a few times with subtitles; that has helped me follow the stream-of-consciousness lyrics in the Iggy Pop song and pick up on some of the other fine points of the movie.  For instance, Dr. J. Frank Parnell is mumbling “Oh My Darling, Clementine” to himself in the opening scene, where he warns the doomed motorcycle cop when he asked about the trunk:  “Oh . . . you don’t want to look in there”. 

 

 

Iggy Pop’s solo career is uneven by all accounts (even his own).  I remember the Village Voice review of my personal favorite among his solo albums, Brick by Brick (1990) stating that this was “Iggy Pop’s best album since . . . well, since the last time you cared”.  The album features a stellar duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, “Candy” – as Iggy Pop’s only song to hit the Top 40, “Candy” remained on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts for 17 weeks, reaching the Top 5.  Both singers have spoken parts during the song, and Pierson’s Georgia twang is a true delight. 

 

The B-52’s hail from the fertile music center of Athens, Georgia whence came R.E.M., Pylon, and other fine bands.  Wikipedia notes that “Athens was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country, beginning in the 1970’s”.  I had an appraisal job there in the early 1980’s and remember well the wealth of record stores and the local radio station that had a “psychedelic lunch” program around the noon hour. 

 

 

Iggy Pop’s album Brick by Brick has several vulgar songs where (for a change) the crude language actually enhances their enjoyment.  They include “Butt Town”, “Pussy Power”, and “I Won’t Crap Out”.  “Starry Night” has verse after verse of putdowns of the Hollywood scenesters and hangers-on that always make me smile when I hear them:  “I don’t care about your city / Or your fat income / I don’t care about your Vanity Fair / Or your f--king sitcom”; “Take your building and your income / And shove it up your ass / Take your building and your income / And stuff it with your cash”; and “Which country is the strongest? / Who plays the best guitar? / Who f--king cares / Under the stars”. 

 

“Neon Forest” comes off like a rocking Neil Young number – in fact, that’s who I thought it was for years when the song would come to mind.  The song features the great verse:  “You can get a weird prize for being adored / You can join the in crowd for being a whore / Although you are lonely you wish for a fence / America takes drugs in psychic defense”.  And then there is the defiant “The Undefeated” that has an “uh oh” undercurrent to the chorus:  “We’re the undefeated / We got what they want / We’re so f--king spoiled / Life is just a bag of pot / We’re the undefeated / TV in the shade / Girls at all our parties / We have really got it made”. 

 

Writing for Allmusic, Mark Deming notes:  “Brick by Brick refined Iggy [Pop]’s gifts without watering them down, adding a polish that focused his talents rather than blurring them.  Working with a mixture of L.A. session heavyweights (Waddy Wachtel, David Lindley) and rock stars paying their respects (Slash and Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses, Kate Pierson from the B-52’s), Brick by Brick leans to tough, guitar-based hard rock, leavened with a few more pop-oriented tunes that still speak of a hard-nosed lyrical approach.  But the triumph here is Iggy’s; he’s rarely sung better on record, finding a middle ground between precision and abandon that honors both and surrenders to neither, and as a lyricist he reached a new level of maturity that proved he could expand his boundaries without losing touch with his roots. . . .  Smart, tough, and impressive on all counts, Brick by Brick was Iggy Pop’s strongest work since Lust for Life, and marked a new high point in his career as a songwriter.” 

 

 

Iggy Pop began working with the Stooges again on his 2003 album, Skull Ring that also featured several younger artists:  Green Day, the Trolls, Sum 41, and Peaches.  The Stooges toured extensively between 2003 and 2008 with founding members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), and Scott Asheton (drums), along with (at Ron Asheton’s suggestion) new bandmember Mike Watt (bass guitar), formerly of Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and guest musician Steve Mackay (saxophone), who had performed on the Fun House album.  During these tours, the Stooges released an album of all new material, The Weirdness (2007).  Also, Elektra Records reissued the band’s first two albums, The Stooges and Fun House in deluxe 2-CD packages in 2005. 

 

 

 

Against the odds, Iggy Pop turns 70 next month, and his music is as vital as ever.  His most recent album, Post Pop Depression (2016), ranks 4 stars from Allmusic; Mark Deming writes:  “When it was announced that Iggy Pop would be collaborating with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, the music press buzzed with anticipation about the project.  What would the proto-punk icon and the snarky hard rock smart guy come up with?  The surprise answer is 2016’s Post Pop Depression, in many respects an unwitting but loving tribute to Pop’s friend and collaborator David Bowie.  Post Pop Depression arrived two months after Bowie’s death, and was completed before his health problems became common knowledge.  More than anything, though, this music evokes the sound and feel of Pop’s first two solo albums.  1977’s The Idiot and Lust for Life were cut with Bowie in Germany as Pop struggled to make sense of his life and career after the Stooges collapsed.  With the reunited Stooges gone following the deaths of Ron [Asheton] and Scott Asheton, Post Pop Depression finds Pop returning to the work he made in 1977, in ways that count the most.  Post Pop Depression is smart and thoughtful, intelligent without being pretentious, and full of bold but introspective thinking.”