Dec 14

James Osterberg

JAMES OSTERBERG
 
 
James Osterberg,  known professionally as Iggy Pop (born April 21, 1947), is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor.  He was the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, and is well known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.  In 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
See Also: 
●    Iggy Pop
●    Iggy Stooge 
●    Iggy
 
 

In 1965, Michael Erlewine and his brother formed a blues band called the Prime Movers; original bandmembers were Michael Erlewine (lead singer, harmonica), Dan Erlewine (lead guitar), Robert Sheff (keyboards), Robert Vinopal (bass), and Michael “Spider” Wynn (drums).  After Wynn left the band, he was replaced by James Osterberg.  A few years later, Osterberg began performing as Iggy Pop; and under this name, he founded the proto-punk band the Stooges.  His nickname was due to Osterberg’s serving as the drummer for another Michigan band called the Iguanas.   

 

(March 2014/2)

 

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In 1972, Kim Fowley recorded some songs by the proto-punk band the Modern Lovers, building on previous recordings that had been produced by John Cale.  As Wikipedia reports:  “These included re-recordings of ‘She Cracked’, ‘Astral Plane’, ‘I’m Straight’, ‘Girlfriend’ and two versions of ‘Roadrunner’, as well as the songs ‘Walk Up The Street’, ‘Dance With Me’ and the a capella ‘Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste’.  [Bandleader Jonathan] Richman also credited James Osterberg (Iggy Pop) as co-writer on ‘I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms’ as a way of acknowledging that the song borrows a Stooges guitar riff.” 

 

The recordings were first released on Kim Fowley’s short-lived Mohawk Records (a subsidiary of Bomp! Records) in 1981 under the title The Original Modern Lovers.   

 

(January 2015/1)

 

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Some months back, I included a story on the Prime Movers, yet another Michigan band, which numbered among its members Michael Erlewine, the man who started All Music Guide (now Allmusic), along with All Movie Guide and All Game Guide; and James Osterberg, better known today as Iggy Pop. He started out as a drummer, as he was for this band; and the other bandmembers started calling him “Iggy” because he had previously been the drummer for a band called the Iguanas, this month’s Under Appreciated Rock Band. The band name also gave Greg Shaw the name for his long series of Stooges albums, The Iguana Chronicles.
 
The Iguanas has taken first place among the least likely UARB or UARA of them all, even beating out the Rip Chords and Wendy Waldman, who was just the second rocker that I wrote about. One would think, with Iggy Pop’s unparalleled punk credentials, that every aspect of his musical life would have been examined in detail in Wikipedia long before now. But not even the band that gave him his name is there. Amazing. To cap it off, the Iguanas band that Iggy Pop was in is listed in Allmusic after another band called the Iguanas, from New Orleans; and they are the third Iguanas band in the Discogs list.  
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The Iguanas were formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan (home of the University of Michigan) in 1963 by James Osterberg (drums) and Jim McLaughlin (guitar); they were still in junior high when they first played together at a talent show. In an interview just before the release in early December 2016 of his new book, Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges, Iggy Pop told Rolling Stone: “We practiced playing ‘What’d I Say’ by Ray Charles and something called ‘Let There Be Drums’ by Sandy Nelson, which was my idea because it was a drum solo, right?”  
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In the spring of 1965, the Iguanas put out their first single, a cover of the Bo Diddley song “Mona” on their own Forte Records label. At the same recording session, the first ever James Osterberg original song was recorded, “Again and Again”.
 
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James Osterberg left the Iguanas in 1966 to join the Prime Movers; the Iguanas then hired a new drummer and played some dates in Boston and New York. When they were unable to land a record deal with Columbia Records, the band broke up in 1967.  
(December 2016)

Last edited: March 22, 2021