Iggy Pop Read online

  3. RAW POWER ★★★★★

  Recorded: CBS Studios, Whitfield St, London, 10 September to 6 October 1972; Mixed: October 1972, Western Sound Recorders, LA; Released: CBS, May 1973 (US), June 1973 (UK); Chart peak: - (UK), 182 (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), James Williamson (gtrs), Ron Asheton (bass), Scott Asheton (drums); Producers: James Williamson and Iggy Pop; Mixed: David Bowie; Remix: Iggy Pop at Sony Music Studios, NY 1996.

  Raw Power was a desperate, final assault on the music industry that had proved so impervious to the Stooges’ charms, a last gasp which, the lyrics told us, was irrevocably doomed. Bad-boy guitarist James Williamson brought a new Detroit aggression to the sound, his cranked-up Les Paul sounding more manic, if more conventional, than his predecessor. Ron Asheton, demoted to bass, became one of the instrument’s greatest exponents, even if his comrades cared so little about the rhythm section that they didn’t bother to record them properly. The album followed a strict structure suggested by MainMan supremo Tony Defries, with an uptempo opener (‘Search And Destroy’, ‘Raw Power’) on each side, followed by a ballad (‘Gimme Danger’, ‘I Need Somebody’). Despite Defries’ efforts, the album was a mess, with guitar piled on guitar, screamed, semi-coherent lyrics and those inaudible drums. But it was a magnificent, inspiring mess, its confusion the perfect metaphor for its makers’ increasingly deranged state. In 1996 Iggy remixed the album, meaning that the original Bowie-mixed version, which did so much to launch the UK punk scene, is shamefully unavailable.

  4. METALLIC KO ★★★★

  Recorded: Michigan Palace, 6 October 1973 and 9 February 1974; Released: Skydog Records, September 1976; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), James Williamson (gtr), Ron Asheton (bass), Scott Asheton (drums), Scott Thurston (pno).

  A magnificent ruin. Metallic KO depicts the pathetic but nonetheless grandiose spectre of the Stooges on their doomed last tour, magnificently documenting the expiration of all their energy and ambition: ‘we don’t hate you - we don’t even care.’ Features awesome, powerful renditions of ‘Raw Power’ and ‘Search And Destroy’, inspiring, desperate new songs such as ‘I Got Nothing’, potty-mouthed throwaways like ‘Rich Bitch’ and a brilliantly numbskull ‘Louie Louie’. This recording spooked Iggy Pop for many years, convincing him there was a hex on the Stooges; released as punk exploded in Europe, it would signal his rehabilitation.

  5. THE IDIOT ★★★★★

  Recorded: Chateau d’Herouville, Paris, Musicland, Munich, Hansa 1, Kurfürstendamm, Berlin and Cherokee Studios* LA (for ‘Sister Midnight’), mostly June-July 1976; Released: RCA, March 1977; Chart Peak: 30 (UK); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), David Bowie (Baldwin electric pno, gtr, Arp Axe synth, Roland drum machine), Phil Palmer (gtr, most songs), Carlos Alomar (gtr, ‘Sister Midnight’*), Laurent Thibault, George Murray (bass), Michel Santageli, Dennis Davis (drums); Producer: David Bowie; Engineer: Laurent Thibault; Mixed: Tony Visconti, Laurent Thibault*.

  The Idiot seems an album that is praised rather than treasured, but it ranks as some of Iggy and Bowie’s best and most under-appreciated work, its humour, courage and inventiveness rendering it easily the equal of Bowie’s own Low, for which this album, recorded in Paris, Munich and Berlin, was a dry run. The staging is relentlessly stark and severe, with dark synthesisers and doomy, gothic guitar, but practically every song is a jewel - ‘China Girl’ an affecting ballad that warns away his intended, ‘Dum Dum Boys’ a warped tribute to the Stooges, ‘Nightclubbing’ all deadpan restraint, delivered impossibly slow, but robotically joyous.

  6. LUST FOR LIFE ★★★★★

  Recorded: Hansa Tonstudio 3, Köthenerstrasse, Berlin, June 1977; Released: RCA, September 1977; Chart Peak: 28 (UK), 120 (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Carlos Alomar, Ricky Gardiner (gtr), Tony Sales (bass), Hunt Sales (drums), David Bowie (pno); Producer: David Bowie; Engineers: Edu Meyer, Colin Thurston.

  From its joyous opening groove, now familiar via the movie Trainspotting and a host of commercials, Lust For Life proclaims itself Iggy Pop’s most effervescent, optimistic album - one that saw his collaborator David Bowie at a towering peak in his songwriting - accompanied by a stunningly inventive band. Where The Idiot had been a Bowie-influenced experimental affair, Lust For Life was determinedly an Iggy album, recorded in two weeks of schnapps and cocaine-fuelled sessions at Hansa Tonstudio 3 by the Berlin Wall. The optimism and electricity generated in the sessions is exemplified by the closing fade-out of ‘Success’, where Iggy ad-libs about buying Chinese rugs, while the Sales brothers, singing impromptu backing vocals live, try not to break into hysterics.

  Sadly, much of the optimism dissipated as the album suffered death by cheeseburger in the US, when RCA diverted its pressing plants to churning out Elvis Presley albums after the King passed away on his toilet at Graceland.

  7. KILL CITY ★★★★

  Recorded: Jimmy Webb’s home studio, Encino, LA, plus two tracks recorded at Scott Thurston’s apt, Venice Beach, December* 1974; Released: Bomp, November 1977; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), James Williamson (gtrs), Scott Thurston (gtrs, kbds, bass), Brian Glascock (drums), Hunt and Tony Sales (backing vox, plus drums and bass on ‘Lucky Monkeys’, ‘Mastercharge’); Producer: James Williamson; Engineer: Gary Webb.

  Desperately sad, yet perversely inspiring, Kill City was recorded for a pittance at a home studio at a time when Iggy Pop was a pariah, seemingly doomed to forever wander Los Angeles as a pathetic lost soul. Songs like ‘Kill City’, ‘Beyond The Law’ and ‘I Got Nothing’ unblink ingly documented this life on the edge. Although scrappy in places, thanks to its origins as a demo for Rocket Records, with a subdued mix courtesy of James Williamson - who had, says Iggy Pop, ‘gone Hollywood’ - it’s an affecting, late-period work. According to Creem writer Ben Edmonds, who bankrolled the sessions, the original, lost mix ‘rocked like a mother’.

  8. TV EYE LIVE ★★

  Recorded: Cleveland, 21-22 March, and Chicago, 28 March 1977 (I); Kansas, 26 October 1977 (II); Released: RCA, May 1978; Chart peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), David Bowie (pno, I), Hunt Sales (drums) Tony Sales (bass), Ricky Gardiner, Stacey Heydon (gtr, I and II respectively), Scott Thurston (pno, II); Producer: Iggy Pop.

  An adequate live album that shamelessly flaunts its origins as a contract-filler. Recorded for a pittance, it temporarily solved its maker’s financial problems, but left its purchasers feeling cheated and thus frittered away all the momentum Iggy Pop had built up over the preceding two years.

  9. NEW VALUES ★★★★

  Recorded: Paramount Studios, LA, 1978; Released: Arista, March 1979 (UK), October 1977 (US); Chart peak: 60 (UK), 180 (US); Personnel: Scott Thurston (gtr, kbds), Jackie Clark (bass), Klaus Kruger (drums), James Williamson (gtr, ‘Tell Me A Story’, only); Producer: James Williamson.

  The last successful collaboration between Iggy Pop and ex-Stooge James Williamson, this stripped-down, minimal album is filled with subtle pleasures. Its atmosphere recalls Kill City, the pair ’s last collaboration, but revels in optimism and coherence rather than despair and confusion; ‘Five Foot One’, ‘I’m Bored’ and ‘Endless Sea’ rank among the best Pop songs of any era. Frustratingly, Williamson extracted fine performances from all concerned, yet hampered the album with an MOR mix, which means that otherwise fine material, including ‘Angel’ and ‘Don’t Look Down’, occasionally sounds subdued or cloying.

  10. SOLDIER ★

  Recorded: Rockfield Studios, Wales, July-September 1979; Released: Arista, March 1980; Chart Peak: 125 (US), 62 (UK); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Glen Matlock (bass), Barry Andrews (kbds), Klaus Kruger (drums), Steve New (gtr), Ivan Kral (gtr, kbds); Producer: James Williamson (initial recordings), Pat Moran.

  A mess. Soldier started out seemingly without any masterplan bar the vague idea of uniting Iggy with a bunch of English New-wavers. The singing is generally dreadful, the bass and drums leaden, the songs are a bunch of disparate ideas in search of a theme, while the guitar seems entire
ly missing in action - the result, says bassist Glen Matlock, of an act of self-sabotage by Iggy after an argument with guitarist Steve New. ‘Play It Straight’, directed by Bowie, was intriguing, but inspired a final bust-up between Iggy and long-term collaborator James Williamson.

  11. PARTY ★

  Recorded: Record Plant, NY, August* 1980; Released: Arista, June 1981; Chart peak: 166 (US), - (UK); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Ivan Kral (gtr, kbds), Rob Duprey (gtr), Michael Page (bass), Douglas Bowne (drums); Producers: Thom Panunzio, Tommy Boyce.

  A laughably banal album, deriving from record-company pressure to deliver a crossover hit. Some fans rate the pedestrian, predictable ‘Pumping For Jill’, or ‘Bang Bang’; those two songs certainly sound like classics compared to ‘Happy Man’, a risible attempt at reggae with brain-dead lyrics and an oompah Eurovision brass-band backing courtesy of the Uptown Horns; it’s undoubtedly the worst song ever recorded by Iggy Pop.

  12. ZOMBIE BIRDHOUSE ★★

  Recorded: Blank Tapes, NY, May 1982; Released: Animal Records, September 1982; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Rob Duprey (gtr, kbds), Chris Stein (bass), Clem Burke (drums); Producer: Chris Stein.

  Iggy’s vocals are obviously slurred, his pitching is suspect, much of the material is pretentious and indulgent, bad Kurt Weill knockoffs abound and the arrangements are hit-and-miss. Yet behind the alcohol haze it’s possible to discern the inventive Iggy of The Idiot or Lust For Life: ‘The Horse Song’ is an off-kilter romp, ‘The Ballad Of Cookie McBride’ a bizarre but catchy downhome cowpoke ditty, ‘Platonic’, despite occasionally erratic singing, is dreamy and meditative, and ‘Ordinary Bummer’ is an almost transcendently beautiful ballad, infused with a thrilling defiance worthy of Judy Garland.

  13. BLAH BLAH BLAH ★★★

  Recorded: Mountain Studios, Montreux, May 1986; Released: A&M, November 1986; Chart Peak: 43 (UK), 75 (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), David Bowie (kbds, programming), Kevin Armstrong (gtrs), Steve Jones (gtr, ‘Cry for Love’), Erdal Kizilcay (bass, kbds, programming); Producer: David Bowie.

  ‘Not my favourite album,’ says Pop, ‘but it got me some hits, so maybe it should be.’ Blah Blah Blah was a demonstration of almost stunning efficiency by David Bowie, who extricated his sparring partner from a mire of financial problems and lack of commercial credibility and selflessly donated some of his finest recent songwriting efforts. If you can bear the thought of a happy Iggy Pop, who’s a skilful songwriter (‘Cry For Love’), enjoys sunny vacations (‘Hideaway’) and is the doyenne of office parties (‘The Wild One’), you will love this album.

  14. INSTINCT ★

  Recorded: Sorcerer Sound, NYC, BC Studio Brooklyn (vocals), winter 1987; Released: A&M, June 1988; Chart peak: 61 (UK), 110 (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Steve Jones (gtr), Seamus Beaghen (kbds), Leigh Foxx (bass), Paul Garisto (drums); Producer: Bill Laswell.

  It was hardly a surprise that Iggy would follow up the high-tech sheen of Blah Blah Blah with a guitar-led album harking back to the elemental power of the Stooges. What was a surprise was that the results would be far more bland and studio-bound than its predecessor. Instinct is an album of dull corporate rock that today sounds like a poor imitation of AC/DC or ZZ Top. The drearily predictable guitar riffs and plodding drums are expertly recorded by producer Bill Laswell, but technical proficiency can’t conceal the utter lack of inspiration in the songwriting. The most memorable song on the album, ‘Cold Metal’, is a workmanlike rehash of ‘Raw Power’, with all that song’s tension and quirkiness surgically excised.

  15. BRICK BY BRICK ★★★

  Recorded: Ocean Way and Hollywood Sound, LA, March 1990; Released: Virgin, August 1990; Chart Peak: 50 (UK), 90 (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v, gtrs), Kate Pierson (v on ‘Candy’), Slash (gtr), Duff McKagan (bass), Kenny Aronoff (drums) and others; Producer: Don Was.

  Don Was wanted to craft an album that revealed Jim Osterberg as well as Iggy Pop, augmenting dumb aggression with wit and intelligence. The album is dominated by A-grade sessionmen, which gives it a brisk, businesslike air; the sparkly production showcases Iggy’s considerable abilities as a conventional rock singer and songwriter, although, unsurprisingly, this is pleasant rather than thrilling fare. ‘Candy’, his love song to Betsy Mickelsen, is a conventional ballad with a quirky New Wave edge and it became Iggy’s first US hit single.

  16. AMERICAN CAESAR ★★★★

  Recorded: Kingsway Studios, New Orleans, October-November 1992, Bearsville Studio NYC, February 1993 (‘Louie Louie’, ‘Sickness’, ‘Beside You’); Released: Virgin, September 1993; Chart Peak: 43 (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Eric Schermerhorn (gtr), Hal Cragin (bass), Larry Mullins (drums) plus guests including Henry Rollins and Lisa Germano; Producer: Malcolm Burn.

  An overlooked album that failed to match the chart success of Brick By Brick, American Caesar is a far superior work, the most vital of Iggy’s tenure on Virgin Records. The title track is powered by a weighty guitar riff; it’s skewed and unpredictable, far closer to the spirit of the Stooges than anything on albums like Instinct or Naughty Little Doggie; elsewhere, there’s intriguing experimentation, with ethereal ballads like ‘Jealousy’ and the angry, self-pitying ‘Fuckin’ Alone’. ‘Beside You’, an anthemic ballad dating from Blah Blah Blah demos, and ‘Louie Louie’ were added at the behest of Virgin, and they gave a variety and historical sweep to this album, which, aside from being a couple of songs too long, is generally intriguing and vital.

  17. NAUGHTY LITTLE DOGGIE ★

  Recorded: Track Record, N. Hollywood, LA, 20 June to 1 July 1995; Released: Virgin, March 1996; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: as American Caesar, plus Whitey Kirst (gtr); Producer: Thom Wilson.

  The rehearsal sessions for Naughty Little Doggie were full of experimentation and invention, all of which was apparently abandoned on the recording proper, to make for a dull, meat-and-potatoes rock album. ‘I Wanna Live’ comes closest to being memorable; it’s based on a similar three-chord trick on ‘Real Cool Time’, with none of the latter’s menace or originality.

  18. AVENUE B ★★★

  Recorded: 262 Mott Street, The Theatre, and Hal Cragin’s Studio 12A, New York, May-June 1998; Released: Virgin, September 1999; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Whitey Kirst and Pete Marshall (gtrs), Hal Cragin (bass), Larry Mullins (drums) plus guests including Martin, Medeski, Wood (on drums, Hammond organ and bass); Producer: Don Was.

  An occasionally gripping, brave album depicting the wreckage of Iggy Pop’s emotional life and rocky relationship with his then girlfriend, Alejandra, Avenue B was intended to evoke masterful autumnal releases like Frank Sinatra’s September Of My Years. Sadly, the tasteful jazz backings occasionally veer into MOR blandness, and hardcore fans stayed well away.

  19. BEAT ’EM UP ★★

  Recorded: Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, December 2000; Released: Virgin, July 2001; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), plus the Trolls: Whitey Kirst & Pete Marshall (gtrs), Lloyd ‘Mooseman’ Roberts (bass), Alex Kirst (drums); Producer: Iggy Pop.

  Rather like Instinct, Beat ’Em Up was a transparently predictable retreat to the bonehead rock that Iggy Pop now regarded as his USP. But Beat ’Em Up at least features high-energy performances, a sense of anger and, on the best songs - ‘Mask’, ‘VIP’ - Iggy’s tirades are entertainingly tasteless, like a wino spouting conspiracy theories. Ultimately, though, the endless sub-metal clichés, with riffs recycled from Led Zep’s ‘Kashmir’ or Iron Butterfly’s ‘In A Gadda Da Vida’ seem mind-numbingly repetitive.

  20. SKULL RING ★★

  Recorded: Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, January-February 2003; Released: Virgin, November 2003; Chart Peak: - (UK), - (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v) plus guests including the Stooges (Ron and Scott Asheton), the Trolls, Blink 182, Green Day and Peaches.

  Skull Ring was celebrated for Iggy’s long-awaited reunion with Ron and Scott Asheton; their first four songs together in thirty years are comp
etent but lack the tight sonic focus of their classic work (a fault corrected on ‘You Better Run’, their raucous contribution to the 2005 Jr Kimbrough tribute Sunday Nights). Six songs with the Trolls surpass their work on Beat ’Em Up, while ‘Little Know It All’, a formulaic collaboration with theme-park punks Sum 41, resulted in Iggy’s first appearance in the US rock charts in a decade, peaking at number 35.

  21. THE WEIRDNESS ★★★

  Recorded: Electrical Audio, Chicago, October 2006; Mixed: Abbey Road, London, December 2006; Released: Virgin, March 2007; Chart Peak: n/a (UK), (US); Personnel: Iggy Pop (v), Ron Asheton (gtr), Scott Asheton (drums), Mike Watt (bass), Steve Mackay (tenor sax); Producer: Steve Albini.

  Occasionally workmanlike, intermittently deranged, the reunited Stooges’ first full studio album sparkles with energy and commitment. It fails to capture the monumentality and brutishness of their early work - but then, what album today does? Songs like ‘Trollin’ and ‘Free And Freaky’ are bouncy but predictable, while ‘Greedy Awful People’ evokes, of all people, ’50s rocker Eddie Cochran. Incredibly, though, on the very best songs, in particular the defiantly numbskull ‘Idea Of Fun’, the years simply melt away - its relentless driving powerchords and cynical misanthropy, given the Stooges’ picaresque history, seem bizarrely poignant.