Iggy Pop
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James Newell Osterberg, Jr. (born on April 21, 1947 in Muskegon, Michigan), better known by his stage name Iggy Pop, is an American punk rock singer and occasional actor. Although he has had only limited commercial success, Pop is considered one of the most important innovators of punk rock and related styles. He is sometimes referred to by the nicknames "the Godfather of Punk" and "the Rock Iguana", and is widely acknowledged as one of the most dynamic stage performers of rock.
Pop was the lead singer of The Stooges, a late 1960s/early 1970s band that was highly influential in the development of hard rock. The Stooges became infamous for their live performances in which Pop leapt off the stage (thus inventing the "stage dive"), smeared raw meat and on one occasion peanut butter over his chest and cut himself with broken bottles. Many subsequent performers have imitated Pop’s antics.
Although he would never regain the vitality of his days with the Stooges, Pop has had varying degrees of success in his 25 years as a solo artist. His best-known songs include "Lust for Life", "I'm Bored" and "The Passenger" (the latter based on a poem written by Jim Morrison).
A film about Pop's life and career titled The Passenger is currently in production.
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History
1947 to 1967: early career
Born in Muskegon, Michigan, he began his musical career as a drummer in different high school bands in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One band was the Iguanas, where he acquired the name Iggy. After exploring local blues-style bands he eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like The Doors, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges and called himself Iggy Stooge, then Iggy Pop. The band was composed of Pop on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Asheton's brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. After almost two years they made their debut in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1968 to 1975: The Stooges era
One year after their debut, and now dubbed the Stooges, the band were signed to Elektra Records in 1968. The Stooges' first two albums, The Stooges and Fun House, sold poorly, although they had a lasting influence on the burgeoning punk rock movement. Shortly after the new members joined the band broke up because of Pop's growing heroin addiction.
David Bowie salvaged Pop's career by producing an album with him in England. With James Williamson signed on as guitarist, the search began for a rhythm section. However, since neither Iggy nor Bowie were satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite The Stooges. It would not be a true reunion, in that Dave Alexander would not play on the album. He had become a full-on alcoholic, unable to play on the record; he died in 1975. Also, Ron Asheton was grudgingly moved from guitar to bass to make way for Williamson to play guitar. The recording sessions produced the punk rock landmark Raw Power, in 1973. After its release a new member was added to the band and Bowie continued his support, but Pop's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album Metallic K.O.. Drug abuse put his career on hold for a couple of years.
1976 to 1978: Bowie and Berlin
After the second breakup of the Stooges, Pop made some recordings with James Williamson, but these weren't released until 1977 (as Kill City). The record was credited jointly to Pop and Williamson. Pop was unable to control his various drug habits, however, and checked himself into a mental institute to try and clean up. David Bowie was one of his few visitors there, and he continued to support Pop. In 1976, "when I wasn't doing much" as Pop euphemistically put it, Bowie took Pop along as his companion on the Station to Station tour. This was Pop's first exposure to large-scale professional touring and he was impressed, particularly with Bowie's work rate.
Bowie and Pop relocated to Berlin to wean themselves off their addictions (Bowie was existing solely on milk, cocaine, and peppers). Pop signed to RCA and Bowie helped write and produce The Idiot and Lust For Life (both 1977), Pop's two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, the latter with another team of brothers, Hunt and Tony Sales. Among songs they wrote together were "China Girl" and "Tonight", both of which Bowie performed on his own albums later on. Bowie also played keyboards in Pop's live performances, some of which are featured on the album TV Eye (1978), and helped Pop focus on his career. Pop offered backing vocals on Bowie's Low
1979 to 1981: the Arista albums
Pop was unhappy with RCA, however. He later admitted that he'd made TV Eye as a quick way of fulfilling his RCA contract and moving on elsewhere. This was Arista Records for which he released New Values in 1979. This album was something of a Stooges reunion, with James Williamson producing and latter-day Stooge Scott Thurston playing guitar and keyboards. Not surpisingly, the album's style veered back to the guitar sound of the Stooges. Although highly regarded by many Iggy fans -- some preferring it to the Bowie albums -- New Values was not a success, despite some strong material including "I'm Bored" and "Five Foot One".
The album was moderately successful in Australia, however, and this led to Pop's first visit there to promote it. While in Melbourne, Iggy made a memorable appearance on the ABC's nationwide pop show Countdown. During his anarchic performance of "I'm Bored", Iggy made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was miming, and he even tried to grab the teenage girls in the audience. An obviously 'wired' Iggy was also interviewed by host Ian Meldrum, an exchange which was frequently punctuated by Iggy jumping up and down on his chair and making loud exclamations of "G'day mate" in a mock Australian accent. Iggy's Countdown appearance is widely considered one of the highlights of the show's history and it cemented his popularity with Australian punk fans; since then he has often toured there.
While in Australia Pop was also the guest on a live late-night commercial TV interview show on the Ten Network. Iggy's wit and intelligence and his articulate manner confounded the panel of journalists, whose main purpose was asking about his drug use. It is not known whether a recording of this interview exists but the famous Countdown appearance has often been re-screened in Australia.
During the recording of Soldier (1980), Pop and Williamson quarrelled over production - the latter, apparently wanted a big, Phil Spector type sound - and Williamson was fired. David Bowie appeared on the song Play It Safe on backing vocals with Simple Minds. The album and its follow-up Party (1981) were both commercial failures, and Pop was dropped from Arista. His drug habit varied in intensity, but remained.
The 1980s
In 1982, Pop released what would be his final album for some time, Zombie Birdhouse, on Chris Stein's Animal label, with Stein himself producing. Commercially, the album was no improvement on his Arista works.
In 1983, Pop's fortunes changed. David Bowie recorded a version of the song "China Girl', which had originally appeared on The Idiot. Bowie's version was a worldwide hit single and as co-writer of the song, Pop received substantial royalties. In 1984, Bowie recorded another old Pop-Bowie song, Tonight, bringing more royalty money to Pop, who for the first time was financially secure, at least for the short term. This enabled Pop to take a three-year break, during which he overcame his heroin addiction, took acting classes and got married.
In 1985, Pop recorded some demos with guitarist Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols. He played these demos to David Bowie, who was sufficiently impressed to offer to produce an album for Pop: 1986's New Wave-influenced Blah Blah Blah, featuring the single "Real Wild Child", a cover of "Wild One (Real Wild Child)", originally co-written and recorded by Australian rock'n'roll pioneer Johnny O'Keefe in 1959. The single was a Top 10 hit in the UK and was also successful around the world, especially in Australia, where for the last twenty years it has been used as the theme music for the ABC's late-night music video show Rage. It remains Pop's solitary brush with major commercial success.
The follow-up, 'Instinct' (1988), was a complete turn around in musical direction, however. Its stripped-back, guitar-based sound leaned further towards the sound of the Stooges than any Pop solo album to date. His record label, which had most likely been expecting another Blah Blah Blah, dropped him.
The 1990s
In 1990 Pop recorded Brick by Brick, produced by Don Was, with members of Guns N' Roses and The B-52s appearing as guests, as well as backup vocals by many local Hollywood groups, some of whom would be recruited for his band to tour and perform on his Kiss My Blood video (1991).
In 1995, Pop found himself famous again when his 1977 song "Lust For Life" was featured prominently in the film Trainspotting. A new video was recorded for the song, with clips from the film and studio footage of Iggy dancing with one of its stars, Ewen Bremner (who played Danny "Spud" Murphy). The song has also been used in TV commercials for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and as the theme music to The Jim Rome Show, a sports talk show.
In 1995 he also released Naughty Little Doggie with Whitey Kirst returning on guitar, releasing the single "I Wanna Live". He co-produced 1999's Avenue B with Don Was releasing the single "Corruption", and produced 2001's Beat 'Em Up, which gave birth to the Trolls, releasing the single "Football" featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex.
In 1997 he remixed Raw Power to give it a rougher, more hard-edged sound; fans had complained for years that Bowie's production was too slick and generic. Pop testified that on the new mix, "everything's still in the red."
Recent career
Pop's latest album, 2003's Skull Ring, features collaborations with Sum 41, Green Day and the Trolls, as well as the Asheton brothers, reuniting the surviving Stooges for the first time since 1974. He also made a guest appearance in electroclash artist Peaches's song "Kick It."
Pop also appeared as a guest vocalist on the track "Rolodex Propaganda" by At The Drive-In.
Also in 2003, having enjoyed working with Ron and Scott Asheton on Skull Ring, Iggy reformed the Stooges with bassist Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen) filling in for the late Dave Alexander, and Fun House saxophonist Steve MacKay rejoining the lineup. They have been touring regularly since 2004 and are reported to be planning a new studio album with Rick Rubin producing.
In 2004 the first full-length biography of Iggy was published by Omnibus Press. Gimme Danger - The Story of Iggy Pop was written by William Burroughs and Iggy collaborator Joe Ambrose, and features interviews with those close to Iggy such as Ron Asheton, Mick Rock, Bill Laswell, Victor Bockris, and Bob Gruen.
In 2005, Iggy appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and The Roots' ?uestlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone.
In early 2006, Iggy and the Stooges headlined Australia's Big Day Out. The Stooges are currently at work on a new album, tentatively due out in 2007. It will feature tracks produced by Steve Albini and Jack White of the White Stripes.[1]
Film career
Pop has had a limited career as an actor. He has appeared in sixteen movies, including Sid and Nancy, The Color of Money, Hardware (voice only), The Crow: City of Angels, The Rugrats Movie, Snow Day, Coffee and Cigarettes, Somewhere in California, Cry-Baby, Dead Man and Atolladero, a Spanish science fiction Western in which he also sings the main theme.
He has been featured in five television series, including Miami Vice, Tales from the Crypt, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in which he played Yelgrun.
Although Pop had nothing to do with the movie, Ewan McGregor's sexually ambiguous, drug-fuelled character in Velvet Goldmine is considered by most critics to be modelled on him. Likewise, the character of Rock Head in the Sid and Nancy (in which Pop plays a different character) is almost certainly based on Pop.
Pop has been profiled in four rockumentaries and has had songs on eighteen soundtracks, including Crocodile Dundee and Trainspotting.
A bio-pic of Pop is in the works with Elijah Wood taking on the major role. The film has a working title of The Passenger and is due to begin filming in late 2006.
Influence
Pop earned a place in punk rock history by popularizing many of the stage routines that are now commonplace among musicians: he was among the first to stage dive and "crowd walk," for example. Some of his stage antics have yet to have been topped by even the most "outrageous" of contemporary bands: among other things, in his prime he was known to cut himself and roll around in peanut butter on stage, and is rumoured to have once received oral sex from a fan in front of an audience.
Although Pop has never had a Top 10 album or best-selling single, his impact on rock music is widely acknowledged; among the famous musicians who have claimed him as an influence are The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and Nirvana.
The song "Punk Rock" on the album Come On Die Young by Mogwai is also a tribute to Pop, as it samples a speech that Pop gave on punk rock from an interview on CBC.
During that interview, Peter Gzowski asked Iggy to clarify music labeled as "punk rock." Iggy, as some have now dubbed "the Grandfather of Punk," sat upright in his chair, to emphasize the points he made below, as the basis for his opinion of the term used to describe his music, in what some could view as a defiant response, respectful of the interviewer, before "punk rock" became a well-known genre.
Pop ended his speech (or tirade) in indignant repose, after which he defended the use of "punk" to describe those who use such a term to describe music, and the fan base behind the movement. He praised punk artists, including himself, whose music fall into that genre.
In the following, he describes the use of the term by those who attempt to label "punk" with a common disaffected brush, attempting to appeal to the interviewer, while providing a definition.
- I'll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and, uh... and, uh... heartless manipulators, about music... that takes up the energies, and the bodies, and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds, of young men, who give what they have to it, and give everything they have to it. And it's a... it's a term that's based on contempt; it's a term that's based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism, and, everything that's rotten about rock 'n' roll.
- I don't know Johnny Rotten... but I'm sure, I'm sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did. You see, what, what sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise... is in fact... the brilliant music of a genius... myself. And that music is so powerful, that it's quite beyond my control. And, ah... when I'm in the grips of it, I don't feel pleasure and I don't feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Have you ever, have you ever felt like that? When you just, when you just, you couldn't feel anything, and you didn't want to either. You know, like that? Do you understand what I'm saying, sir?
The Iggy and the Stooges song "Search and Destroy" was covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the compilation The Beavis and Butthead Experience album, and by the band Emanuel for the Tony Hawk's American Wasteland soundtrack; the song "Raw Power" was covered by Guns N' Roses for the ill-fated The Spaghetti Incident? album. David Bowie covered the song "China Girl" for Let's Dance album, "Tonight" and "Neighbourhood Treat" for Tonight album and "Bang Bang" for Never Let Me Down album. "The Passenger" was covered by Siouxie & The Banshees on album Through The Looking Glass. The Stooges song "1969" was covered by cult gothic band The Sisters of Mercy on the album Some Girls Wander By Mistake. Iggy's solo album The Idiot is the landmark for post-punk as genre.
Discography
With the Stooges
Solo
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Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||||
| US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK | ||||
| 1985 | "Real Wild Child" | - | - | - | #10 | Blah-Blah-Blah | |
| 1989 | "Livin' on the Edge of the Night" | - | #16 | - | - | Black Rain [Soundtrack] | |
| 1990 | "Home" | - | #2 | - | - | Brick by Brick | |
| 1990 | "Candy" (with Kate Pierson) | #28 | #5 | #30 | - | Brick by Brick | |
External links
- Essays by Iggy's biographer, Joe Ambrose, on Iggy, Chelsea Hotel, Punk Rock, William Burroughs
- Iggy Pop discography
- Iggy Pop homepage
- {{{2|{{{name|Iggy Pop}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Template:Allmusicguide
- Template:Memoryalphacs:Iggy Pop
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