Iggy Pop

Yes, he's still alive.
*special introductory paragraph!
*The Idiot
*Wild Animal
*Lust For Life
*TV Eye Live
*Kill City (with James Williamson)
*New Values
*Soldier
*Party
*Live San Fran 1981 DVD
*Zombie Birdhouse
*Blah-Blah-Blah
*Lust For Life DVD
*Instinct
*King Biscuit Flower Hour
*Brick By Brick
*American Caesar
*Wild America EP
*Naughty Little Doggie
*Avenue B
*Nuggets
*Beat Em Up
*Skull Ring
*Preliminaires

The Internet is full of resources for alcohol and drug abuse information, from how a certain drug works to famous people with drug problems.


Iggy Pop (born James "Iggy Pop" Osterberg) used to take tons and tons of drugs and sing for The Stooges ("Now I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Nike Commercial") before the band fell apart and he embarked on a remarkably haphazard solo career that jerked unpredictably back and forth between soul music, new wave, punkish rock, basic hard rock, beatnik jazz, novelty music, lounge oh name any genre and chances are I'll pretend he did it. He's still alive and supposedly clean as a whistle though he certainly doesn't look it. How in the hell did this guy outlive Joey Ramone, for Pete's Rose?

Reader Comments

useless_creep@hotmail.com (Steve)
Ya know Prindle, I was thinking the same thing. Not only did Iggy outlive Joey Ramone, but Nick Cave and Lou Reed are still alive and kicking as well. This proves my theory that chain smoking and ingesting drugs and alcohol on a semi-daily basis will extend my lifespan indefinitely. Oh, and about Iggy's solo records- I admit that subconsciously I probably like a lot of this stuff only because it's Iggy, but nevertheless he's written a handful of classic songs. You have to admit, "Lust For Life" is the greatest song specifically written for a Nike commercial since the Beatles' "Revoluton".

The Idiot - RCA 1977.
Rating = 8

Hang out with David Bowie too long and I'll be balderdashed if you don't end up sounding like him! Every track on here was co-written by Osterberg/Jones and it shows in drunkenly funky rhythms, new wave synths, savory soul-influenced tunes and some of the murkiest, most drugged up sounding production on God's Green Acres. Everything sounds slowed down, quivery and recorded with a microphone lodged in a creek outside the studio -- especially "Funtime," which features the sickest, most tuneless backup vocals I think I've ever heard - including anything by Alanis Morissette (she sings lead, not backup). The Igloo (do you like that nickname? I totally made that up just now!) sounds great though, concentrating on the low croony side of his voice instead of the screaming bastard side that he used while playing with The Stooges (Larry, Shemp, Curly Joe). And certainly the songs themselves are enjoyable, although the salsified "Sister Midnight" isn't the kind of music I personally ever ever want to hear again EVER, and the haphazard abortion that is "China Girl" is just screaming out for a more talented early-80s artist to rework it, spruce it up and make a huge radio smash out of it. Perhaps the Joboxers could do this. Or Ebn-Ozn.

Reader Comments

eske@stofanet.dk
I just read your review of the idiot, and I think you are too hard on it. I see it as one of Pop's very best works. It is so dark and wonderfully inspired, and I have a hard time seeing the "soul-shit" you attribute to Bowie. Could you mention a song on that album that is soul?`

The Idiot is a study in murkiness, uncompromised artistic vision and in my view, pure genious. (however, I am a great fan of the 70s Bowie, so that might cloud my judgement a bit...but nevertheless, the album is viewed by many as a very, very strong and influential album).

toddwise@cbgb.net
Four years may seem like a lifetime, but when you're living them it can pass as quickly as a Beef Meximelt from Taco Bell. Iggy Pop has certainly lived life, but it sounds like a lifetime passed in between "Raw Power" and "The Idiot." The former album (and band) totally impaled themselves on the edge and "The Idiot" sounds like the noise a man makes when he finally is able to pull himself off the wrought iron fence surrounding a graveyard. I don't mean "noise" in the Stooges sense: as mentioned, the album features a lot of synths and tempos with as much power as a Volkswagen Beetle. Iggy sounds caged throughout the entire album too, which is great if you're a huge fan of watching a street walking cheetah in a zoo.

Strangely, Bowie was a big supporter of the Stooges-era Iggy and pointed him towards this new direction by taking his attention off smack and filling the syringe with a heaping dose of krautrock instead. While "The Idiot" isn't nearly as important or good as any of Bowie's own Berlin works, it does stand as more of a departure than Dave's transition. That makes "The Idiot" an important record in Iggy's catalog, but doesn't necessarily mean the world has to stand up to notice it. The Stooges were a perfect example of rock's gutter and they screamed to get your attention. "The Idiot" serves as a well-penned autobiography that just finds its way back into the gutter, hoping you've got the inclination and eyesight to see it before the rain takes it towards the sewer drain.

I like this album. It's served my own life in much the same way as "Heros" did, but it is by no means an album that I reach for when trying to paint a picture of Iggy for the uninitiated. After all, you really can't fully appreciate a cheetah until you've seen them in their natural habitat.

diane8645@rogers.com
Mark, is it??? (whoever writes the reviews on this board) YOU are the only idiot I see on this page. ­ Saying those things about how he out-lived Joey Ramone and others is REALLY Crass. Shut up. I am not impressed. :-(

(nine minutes later)

you guys are all morons. I came across this site by mistake. BIG mistake. bugger off. You know NOTHING about Iggy, music in general (calling Blues crap!!) or art. You wouldn't know a good record if it bit you in the face!!! ­You insult the music business, Iggy, Joey Ramone, and everyone else in the punk scene. I really wish you'd shut up. If you had half a brain, you'd be really dangerous- or more stupid. Seeing that you don't, it's a good thing you're left to your kindergarten rambling, along with the morons that agree with you.

Now shuffle off someone and crawl back under that rock you were lying under 100 years ago.

takac@panet.co.yu
Beatles took drugs. Discuss.

Iggy used to say: "Some of the worst people I know dont take drugs".

IGGY outlived becouse HE IS THE REAL THING! Many other heroin 'misfortunes' were just too stupid, I guess. Iggy took drugs, but that had NOTHING to do with the great achievements he manged in 35 years or so. Drugs were there to help him indure. Not to make him look or sound cool! And then - 2\3ds of his career is devoted to overcoming of drugs related problems. So, drugs DONT MATTER! You can take tons of drugs and if you dont have what to say - you'll suck anyway!

God damn Nirvana bullshit!!! How to hell did THAT shit became famous?! Ah, 90's chickenshit conformism I guess... Ah, it was worst decade ever!

'Idiot' is a great record! But what's with that album cover?! Discuss. March 1977 in the year of punk rock - Iggy, the godfather of punk chooses NOT to enjoy the fruits that creative pool raw rock and roll that he created - finally brought to him. Instead, Iggy fellows his path with David Bowie again. Made in Berlin - the record sounded really unlike The Stooges (and punk rock) - it was artistic, grim, synth techno rock stuff (that Bowie mastered at the time). It was suprise. And it was Iggy's redemption.

Following tour brought Iggy fresh and clean, and yet the same - energetic and well concived.Idiot opens with "Sister Midnight" brooding distant sparse song that brings now well known Iggy's vocal maneerism to the fullest. Then we have "Nightclubbing" another artistic contemplation that brings Iggy as we never knew him before. "Funtime" sounds really dark and manic. Then you got "Baby", then (later) commercially succesfull "China Girl", excellent lookback with "Dum Dum Boys", also "Tiny Girls" and cherry on top - "Mass Production". This is really compact album when you listen to it - you can feel one idea, one sound, one feeling that melts with every song. This is the stuff that really brings Rock And Roll to ART.'Idiot' is one of the greatest records outthere. You could recognise so many things to come in it. Also it proves the greatness of Iggy Pop - he could easily become the leader of a new found movement that praised him - but he declined and went his own way with this great, great record.

slb23@shaw.ca
I got this on vinyl for $10, import, made in the London by RCA International. With lyrics on back of sleeve.

Some words to describe this album:

dark, mechanical, demented, fun, industrial
(make of them what you will)

Now, i might have to explain the last two (fun, industrial). In fact, I will.

Fun: that is what i describe listening to "Funtime" (you're probably thinking "way to go captain obvious"). But really, i get a kick out of listening to it. Especially the way iggy sings the line "Last night i was down in the lab / Talking to Dracula and his crew".

Industrial: no, not in the NIN sense. It is how i describe "Mass Production". (which, now that i think about it, is also damn obvious. damn.) The clunking rhythm and such of the beat, the synths making machine-like high pitched whining sounds.

Unfortunetly my copy doesn not include the list of musicians on the sleeve, but I can assume that David Bowie played some guitar and synths. And this was around the time of Bowie recording Low, so I can assume that at least a few musicians that appeared on that album were on The Idiot too.

If you (dear reader) have not heard this album, and want a clue to what it sounds like, I say this: it sounds like Bowie's "Heroes". dark, gritty, etc. So if you like that album and Iggy Pop, then I strongly suggest you pick up The Idiot.

vitol@tiscali.co.uk
The Idiot is a great album compared to some of Iggy's later works but as we all know being under Bowie's tutelage doesn't work every time(Blah Blah Blah anyone?).

This time however it does, and regardless of whether that makes him a caged animal or not you have to factor in that Iggy had been on the endagered species list previously so we are lucky to be able to see him at the zoo.

The album is full of meloncholic disonance and nihilistic but wearily delivered existential angst that could have only come from living in the heroin capital of Europe cut in half by a wall with a Checkpoint Charlie.

walter.derochebrune@home.nl
I am no native speaker of English, so please don't take ill my possible grammar mistakes.

I disagree with those who don't like the album because it was made in collaboration with Bowie. Just the fact Bowie, who says there's nothing American in him, wrote songs for the album and produced it as well, makes it great. I'm from the European Continent, so I know the atmosphere of the album very well, a reason I like the album.

PLease don't get me wrong: this is no anti American rhetoric or something, I only find it great when listening to The Idiot I hear music that's familiar with me because I know Berlin and the atmosphere there.

Add your thoughts?


Wild Animal - D.I.R. 1977.
Rating = 8

One of nearly 9,999,999,999,999 Iggy Plop live bootlegs that you're bound to find at your local hardware store behind the Phillips Head Screwdrivers (or behind the clerk Phillip giving head and screwing his driver) , Wild Animal is a well-recorded joyride through Ig's back catalog. The Stooges tracks are a lot more "Entertainment!"y than the original versions, with silly keyboard lines and the bored rage replaced with spirited vocalizing, but they're still great songs. I could do without "Sister Midnight," though, and the slow gospelly "Turn Blue" is the worst song that any human being has ever recorded.

Reader Comments

takac@panet.co.yu
Got out of money, huh Iggy?! Whatever. Nice record, with a way better sound quality than "TV Eye". Starts with "Raw Power" that has keyboards more upfront and less guitar power to back it up.Then, you can easily skip "1969" and go to the beautyfull versions of "Turn Blue" and "Sister Midnight". "I Need Somebody" sounds decant and has nice keyboards. "Search 'n' destroy" and "T.V. eye" both start weak and lousy but they both kinda develop into their Stooges form. "Dirt" is again a highlight of this live performance (Yeah, just like on "TV Eye"). "Funtime" sounds great with backing vocals upfront... "Gimme danger" features some spacey keyboards and the song shows Iggy at the top singing form. Albums peak I reckon. "No fun" and "I wanna be your dog" are good but doesnt belong here. Indeed. Oh, how I hate the people that are too lazy to look up the press or net and find something they'll like. Or people that are just too damn stupid to develop any kind of musical taste. They oughta die. Die motherfuckers! The fact is that I HATE BEST OF COLLECTIONS and these live albums are really great stuff for somebody who has to start from somewhere...I'm glad Iggy has just one best of. And what a lame one, huh?!

Quarryface@aol.com
I think you need to listen to Turn Blue with a more open mind. After numerous listenings I've come to find it a high point on Lust for Life - it seems to be a one-off in Iggy's output and my interpretation is, it's a tragic ballad. The absence of lyrics on the album sleeve suggests it might have been a stream-of-thought improvisation, or perhaps the lyrics were too unacceptable for their day - uncoded references to sex and drugs - to be printed. Imagine the singer is on death row for a crime committed whilst on drugs and the full depth of the emotional swing from "rolling along in a black Eldorado" to "will [the lights] turn blue on me?" becomes apparent.

Actually, I've no idea what Iggy was singing about and my wife finds what she calls the baby noises unbearable: but it's a very poetic and original ballad and shows off the extent of Iggy's creative range.

Add your thoughts?


Lust For Life - Arista 1978.
Rating = 7

This one's much tighter, brighter and rockier than The Idiot, starting off with a quadruple-crusher of just AWESOME upbeat rock songs with great, varied drumming and supra-interesting guitar lines, including the classics "The Passenger" and Trainspotting theme song "Lust For Life." After that though, the record inexplicably drags into a major lull with a collection of half-written, half-boring little rock and ballad tunes - including "Turn Blue," the worst song that any human being has ever recorded. Ends on a high note though, with the keyboard/guitar rockin' anthem "Fall In Love With Me."

The mix is oodles above his first solo effort (though, some might argue, less interesting), and Iggy sounds great in every song. Plus, though David Bowie co-wrote most of the songs, the album sounds much less like a Bowie album than The Idiot did. Less of that soul crap.

My fianc‚e just read me a knock-knock joke that was so bad, I feel compelled to repeat it here:

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Skeleton.
Skeleton who?
Knock Knock
Who's there?
I had my skin put back on. I'm not a skeleton anymore.

See, why can't America's Funnypeople come up with more jokes that intelligibible?

Reader Comments

drazy@gatecity.com
Anyone wanting to understand what the fuss is about Iggy need only purchase the first three Stooges releases and call it a day. I'd think that James Osterberg would be the first to admit that none of his solo efforts even come close to demonstrating why he is so revered in rock music. Iggy bled for your sins, motherfucker, and in his prime was more menacing than anything on Earth.

So leave it to one David Bowie to try and show the world that you can take a boy out of a Midwestern trailer park and turn him into an art anti-hero. Sounds impossible on paper, but thanks to Iggy's brief divorce from chemicals, it almost works with Lust For Life.

The opener, the title track, features one of the most memorable drum patterns in rock history and thankfully made Iggy some serious cash flow some twenty years after it was initially released. "The Passenger" also ranks as one of Iggy's best songs ever and has been covered by countless bands over the years, but none has ever topped the original found on this release. And I'd take exception to Prindle's description of "Turn Blue" as "the worst song that any human being has ever recorded." I believe Iggy thoughout this confessional/o.d. apology letter and find it to be one of the best songs he's ever done in his solo career. It ain't The Stooges, mind you, but it ain't the worst song ever recorded. That distinction would have to go to Michael Bolton's "Said I Loved You (But I Lied) from the worst album ever made Time Love And Tenderness. Up it a notch to eight or leave it at a seven if you've just heard Lust For Life for the hundred-thousandth time on one of those cruise commercials where yuppy families who've never been near a trailer park swim with stingrays.

Hiptone@aol.com
At least get the Label right. It was RCA and not ARISTA. I know that Triangle looks a lot like a Dog when it's spinning at 33.3 and your burnt to a crisp!

takac@panet.co.yu
Just six months after "Idiot" and the following tour - thinking: "Hey, lets keep on the monye flowing, man..." - Iggy and David went back to Berlin and assembled the same band for another hit record. Recorded in "Hansa By The Wall" in just 13 days, algedly written in a day and a half - "Lust..." is another great success!

Less meddled by Bowie, this record brings Iggy as a composer, songwriter and a vital singer. "Lust for Life" is more positive record. Also, its significantly lighter than "Idiot" - bringing Iggy's most famous songs ever : 'The Passenger' and "Lust For Life" (as heard on "Trainspotting"). Alas, "Turn Blue" brings one of most bizzare songs outthere by Iggy. But it's a great song! Other songs are less memorable but they are equally good and they all promise great cocert potential.

1977 was a marvelous year and a GREAT comeback for Iggy Pop. He had three studio and one live record out!!! Any other RNR auteur would fall off his feet and drool - but not Iggy Pop. He could do this forever! And thats why he's legend! And that's what's Rock-album-tour-album-tour-album-tour-etc.N' - drugs-alcohol-grupies-Roll all about!

walter.derochebrune@home.nl
Calm down Drazy, someone who disagrees with you isn't necessarily a motherfucker, to begin with.

Lust for Life is my absolutely favourite album by James Newell Osterberg. It was given to me by my aunt for my fourteenth birthday in 1977. It was one of the LP's I grew up with, together with LP's by Bowie, Blondie, Patti Smith, Nina Hagen, Kraftwerk and Jona Lewie.

As far as the opener of the title-track is concerned, I totally agree with Drazy: marvellous!

Iggy isn't the best song-writer. According to me his best songs were written by others, one of the reasons Lust for Life is my absolutely favourite Iggy album. (I like it even better than The Stooges records.) Nevertheless I like Iggy's only own composed song of the record: Sixteen. Though the lyrics are rather half-grown, it's very harmonious.

I like all the songs of the album but my favourites are The Passenger and Turn Blue.

What I find so wonderful about The Passenger is the fact one can write a great song by using only three chords!

I'm a poor rythm-guitarist but fortunately I can play The Passenger rather well, though the way I play it differs from the way Iggy's guitarists do it. Never mind. After all they are professionals, thus better, I'm only an amateur.

My second favourite song is Turn Blue. Mark, I disagree with you when you claim Turn Blue is "the worst song that any human being has ever recorded". Remember the song is very moving: Iggy is desperate, crying for his mother. I think everybody knows that emotions, emotions so well expressed in this song.

tomplotkin@sbcglobal.net
Turn Blue is not the worst song recorded by anybody ever. Let's stick to major artists, and here are some candidates, off the top of my head:

Mick Jagger's Let's Work

The Who's Don;t Let Go the Coat (horrific syntax from the supposedly literate Pete)

Low Budget by The Kinks

Shakedown Street by the Grateful Dead

Lou Reed's Andy's Chest (Gay man pretends to be straight pretending to be gay, etc.)

PiL -- Fodderstomp or whatever the last cut on the first Public Image album was called

All of Pink Floyd's The Final Cut -- bad musical theater, and hey, remember when Ronald Reagan was going to blow up the world? Funny how that didn't work out, and I still haven't hurt any of those No-Nukes people apologizing now that it looks like the first bomb'll get tossed from "the developing world," not the evil western white man....

Add your thoughts?


TV Eye Live - RCA 1978.
Rating = 8

Even the sludgiest, most ear-numbing mix in the world (which is exactly what you'll find here) can't kill a collection of songs this good. Eight greights: three from the first two Stooges albums, four solo songs of love and one old Stooges classic - a song that may actually be the very first high-speed punk rock song ever - the awe-inspirationaling "I Got A Right." The Idiot songs don't sound quite as good without the snazzy keys ("Funtime" just isn't "Funtime" without those two organ notes!) and the mix is really, truly atrocious, smushing all of the instruments into one big pile of hair on the barber shop floor of monophonic sound.

Which reminds me: I passed a barber shop yesterday that had a sign up reading "We Replace Watch Batteries." Talk about diluting your brand - sheesh! No wonder America's economy is up Shitz Creeque without a Fiddle-Faddle!

Reader Comments

mikharras@hotmail.com (Mike Harras)
I basically agree with your review. I almost couldn't listen to it the first time around because of the sound quality (like it was off an old er t.v.)"Nightclubbing" is my favourite track.

takac@panet.co.yu
Live 1977 on "Lust For Life" tour starts with always mighty "TV Eye" which makes me wonder Why?! Becouse I thought he was all about new stuff at the time...Whatever. "Funtime" sounds way better live! Or at least equally good! "Sixteen" has lower quality of sound, but it still sounds great. Specially with that spacey synths. "I got a right" really doesnt belong to this gig. Its punk rock alright but Iggy wasn about punk rock at the time. He was about spacey keyboards and grim atmosphere. "Lust for life" features nice bass lines and rhytm that isnt totally same an on record. And it has backing vovals on refrain. "Dirt" - well now youre taklin'!!! This is the albums highlight! And Iggy's overall triumph! The song, the feeling, the atmosphere, the red light on dark stage...Uh, it makes me shiver!! The album ends with a decant wersion of "Nightclubbing" and a redundant "I wanna be your dog". Overall - This is a great evidence of a best year in Iggy's life 1977 when he had 3 albums in stores, godlike authority and integrity. Iggy on the top of the world. A peak.

walter.derochebrune@home.nl
This is my absolutely favourite live Iggy album (my second favourite is 'Sister Midnight'/'Wild Animal').

In 1979, while having an interview with a leading Dutch rock magazine, Iggy said the album was just recorded with a simple tape-recorder. The parts of the two gigs 'TV Eye' contains weren't record to put them on record.

Once recorded it was decided to put them on record in order to meet the obligations towards RCA, so after having released the album Iggy was free to choose another record-company.

According to me the album contains the best (live) version of 'I Got a Right' Iggy has ever recorded.

I've read somewhere 'Gimme some Skin' is Iggy's own favourite Stooges song but elsewhere I've read it's 'I Got a Right'. The lyrics of 'I Got a Right' are at any rate more mature than on 'Gimme some Skin' - am I moralizing?

Add your thoughts?


* Kill City (With James Williamson) - Bomp 1978. *
Rating = 10

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the best album of Iggy's solo career would be the one he recorded with the old Iggy And The Stooges guitarist. What's surprising, though, is how little the record has in common with Raw Power. What it sounds like is a classic Rolling Stones album. Lots of gorgeous slide guitar, heavy emphasis on keyboards and pianos (which, if you've never seen one, is kind of an acoustic keyboard) and such unexpected accoutrements as saxophone, harmonica, congas and something called a "guiro," which I'm pretty sure is Mexican for "gonorrhea."

And the riffs? Oh! The riffs. But what would you expect from James Williamson? He wrote "Search And Destroy," for crying out loudness! The songs are Stonesy, but not generic. James wasn't just serving as a conduit for the musical Gods as Keith Richards has claimed to be in more recent burnt-out years; he was writing killerass guitar rock melodies for you to sing in your head over and over again while injecting a drug called "heroine" into your arm, so that you will have a female hero coursing through your body, ready to take on any bad guys.

And NO DAVID BOWIE!!!!! That means no awful soul music - just great guitar rock (even the slower ones are great guitar slower ones) with nice instrumental toppings on the cake of your life. There isn't a bad song on here, or one that doesn't reveal more and more coolness with each listen. The mix is a bit on the bassy, "drums are way too quiet" side, but it kinda serves the songs well, believe it or not, as does a strange decision to put Iggy's voice behind the music through a heavy, bassy reverb effect. Check it out - in "Sell Your Love," the background singers are louder than he is!!!!

So in conclusion, if you love late-60s/early-70s Stones and that killer first New York Dolls album, Kill City is right up your Katin' alley!

Reader Comments

lidbjork@algonet.se (Henrik Lidbj”rk)
I just bought this one cheap on vinyl. Had borrowed it from a friend a long time ago, and remembered it as pretty good. And it is! Not as good as Raw Power with the Stooges, but it beats Fun House. I happen to be a huge Stones fan (esp. late '60s/early '70s), too, and this album is indeed like Iggy's Exile. Even the production is a bit Exilish, but still very much Iggy.

drazy@gatecity.com
Way overrated. Not deserving of a ten by any means no matter how much smack is running through your veins. I think the story centers around Igg being fucked out of his skull and James Williamson being relatively clean, trying to get Osterberg motivated. At least that's what a recent Williamson interview stated, who's now making a good living in the rockin' world of computers, riffin' on streams of code. What's going on with the timing of this thing? Weren't we supposed to believe that Iggy's sober at this point? Well he sounds completely wasted on this one and maybe that's why (according to Williamson again) Iggy tried to block this album's release entirely. Seems as though it went against the grain of his "I'm happy and clean" press releases that landed him on such gigs like Dinah Shore's daytime talk show during this period. Hey, I love the mix, love the guitar work, and it's an important document in Iggy's career, but it's nowhere near a ten. The more I think about it, there's nothing past the Stooges that's deserving of that.

Matthew.Brandabur@colorado.edu
mark prindle may be crazy like a dog, but he's right about this. i have always recognized this weird bootleg by creepy gregg shaw as the ig's best work. annoyingly, the Rest of the World doesn't see this. that's why there's mark prindle. gaW!

takac@panet.co.yu
In the great list of overlooked records - this one (with at least 3 more by Iggy) comes at top ten! Recorded in 1975 during Iggy's rehab this record is just 10 hits at one place. Every single song on it could be massive hit single if the promotion was done visely! It's a shame that Iggy and James couldnt make agreement about it. At the end - James didnt do nothing with it (besides earning some quick cash) and Iggy hated it.How badly they misjudged it?! Just listen to the "Sell your Love"! or to "Kill City" or to "Johanna" or "I got Nothing"... Every song is like... radio friendly sneaky greasy pop hardboiled erectininducing hitsingle oriented rock tune!!! All of these songs are just the one you beg for when you hear the Iggy Pop bootleg with 1000000th version of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" or something!!! Iggy and the Stooges 2003 reunion?! How about Iggy and Williamson 2006 reunion?!?!?!?! That'd be somethin'!!! I LOVE this record... and now there's movie with the same name...Will people never learn?! You cant name your comic or movie if IGGY POP has the record with that name already!!! Damn, lousy, greedy, inbred ignorants! Whats next?! "Fun House"?!?!?! What Hooper?! Tobe?! Who's that...sonds like nice bloke to me...

Add your thoughts?


New Values - Arista 1979.
Rating = 9

Another great collection of awesome little tunes - but with a power pop mix! Don't be fooled by the dry, crisp drums and higher-end, slightly chorused, lightly distorted guitar tones into thinking this is a Knack album. It's just high-energy Stonesy rock and roll captured on tape as "new wave" power pop. But then, so was Tattoo You and that sold like wildcakes - and check out the back cover of this record - it's Tattoo You without the tattoos!!!! Making it just.ahh. You, I suppose.

Songish? Catchy as hell chord-driven guitar lines. Simple riffs played in a stripped down manner. Mostly just guitars, bass, drums and Iggy. Unless you count all those songs with pianos and such, but they're not THICK pianos, see. They're too punk rocky to be Bob Seger, Billy Joel or The Idiot. And they have cool titles like "I'm Bored," "Billy Is A Runaway" and Iggy's autobiographical (and autofuckingreatical) "Five Foot One." Did he mention he's short? He's short.

I'm finished. Just know that New Values is one of the most consistent, least pretentious Iggy productions ever -- with terricirf bomgs to pop! Kinda sounds like the first Pretenders album too. But unlike Chrissy Hynde, Iggy Pop is so butt-ugly he makes you want to vomit just looking at his disgusting face.

Oh excuse me, that was a typo. I meant "JUST like Chrissy Hynde."

"Brass In Pocket"? More like "ASS in Ray Davies' EYESOCKET," if you ask me!!!!!

Reader Comments

medward7@nycap.rr.com (Mark Edwards)
Glad to see you rated this one so highly. Gee, no one has posted any comments about this album yet. I don't know how it compares to other ones by Iggy. I don't know any other Iggy Pop albums; just this one, because one of my friends in high school got us all into it, and also there was this pre-MTV video show on cable (the name escapes me at the moment - the theme song was Led Zeppelin's "Carouselambra") that played videos of "Five Foot One" and "I'm Bored". BTW, they also played videos of Stray Cats "Stray Cat Strut", The Sports "Who Listens to the Radio" and other diverse offerings - Does anyone else out there remember that show?

Anyway, this is a pretty great record of its kind. This is from the classic era of late 70s punk/new wave/power pop or whatever it was (Clash, Elvis, Pretenders, Nick Lowe, Jim Carroll, et al.), but with more guitar leads. It also sounds similar to Lou Reed's Legendary Hearts. It also sounds similar to some of the Stones' rockers in the Some Girls through Tattoo You period.

People should buy this record. Guitar riff-based, garage rock, funny and cool rock star lyrics, like the Stones of that time in Some Girls, with other songs copping the punk-era nihilistic pose of that time. I could do without some of the songs. But the point is the great songs, which people should want to have for their CD mixes and so forth: "New Values," "I'm Bored", "Five Foot One", "Girls" (my favorite song on the record: smokin' tasty guitar lead, sexy, decadent lyrics and vocal delivery -good party song, good driving song when you're going out for the evening, mix with Tom Waits' "Going out West".).

I agree with you about the similarities to Tattoo You and Pretenders (one of the greatest rock and roll records ever, IMNSHO). BTW, it is for that very reason that I disagree with your rating of Rolling Stones Tattoo You, and your comment that it is "overrated". But I'll get into that over at the site for that record.

Anyway, you have a great site here. Thanks for taking the time to write it and run it, for the enjoyment of all us music lovers.

drazy@gatecity.com
Practically everyone thinks that just because James Williamson sat behind the board on this one that he is also responsible for the amazing guitar riffs that abound on this, the truly last great Iggy solo album. In reality, it's Scotty Thurston that's manning the six string and he is one of the main reasons why this release such a joy. I'd give anything to come up with a chord progression as cool as the title track whereas my wife would give anything to see just how big Iggy's wiener is.

It's an album that just dumbfounds me: Williamson couldn't get Osterberg to write shit during the weekends away from the funny farm sessions known to you and me as Kill City, but some future Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers session player like Thurston could get Iggy to write some of his most memorable tunes (some have been mentioned before, but let's not forget "The Endless Sea," another jewel in Iggy's Burger King crown). Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked him around some.

Recently rereleased by RCA's ghetto value-line subsidiary Buddah records with boner tracks and well worth the minimal investment. This should be the fifth Iggy Pop album in your collection, right after Metallic K.O. and the three proper Stooges releases.

aostevenson@earthlink.net (Alex Stevenson)
i purchased this vinyl LP over 20 years ago and still enjoy it. i was and still am the only person i know who has it. i also saw Iggy in 1981 at the Ritz in New York City and he played most of these songs. what a show! i missed at least one day of school and could not hear well for a few more. it's a fun record, similar to Tattoo You and Some Girls. but i never got the chance to see mick and the stones at a small club in Greenwich Village.

blackdogg60@yahoo.com
say what you want about Iggy Pop.....Punk or poseur?/ who knows..

All I want is the original lyrics to "Billy Is a Runaway"..can't find 'em anywhere..not on any copy of any vinyl/vynil/CD/DVD/Bootleg//anysuchnonsense.

I wonder.......

Thanks all.

takac@panet.co.yu
'New Values' came out in 1979 bringing James Williamson as a producer and Iggy Pop as hard rock oriented social observer...When I remember of this record - I think of "Tell Me A Story" which is a great album opener ("What must I do to take a holiday...") ... Then, you have "I'm Bored" ("I'm a chairman of a board..."). And a great (live) song - "Five Foot One". "How Do you fix a Broken Heart" was nice. And "Billy is a Runaway" too... But then, you have "African Man" and "Girls" - the songs that really predict Iggy's shitty ventures in future... oh, man those songs suck! Whatever! This album was the start of 'Arista' era that was kinda bringing Iggy to his old rutine but this time instead of Henry he took large quantity of Vodka to keep his wheels rollin' Also, on tour he had Glen Metlock on bass. I saw the video for "5ft1" yesterday and I couldnt see the difference between 'Sex Pistols Glen' and 'Iggy Pop Glen' - he always looks and plays absolutelly same, even on Sex Pistols reunion tour! Then again, them bassists all look the same to me! Always skinny, meek, whiny, washed up, dried up... always pale, with eyesockets down to the knees - they all look like betty fords rehab escapees...

markbul@comcast.net
I got hooked on IgGy the first time I heard ' 5 Foot 1' on the radio -WBCN in Boston. Then I heard 'I'm Bored' and bought the 8 track and played it over and over till it wore out...Ya no shit. Man I love that record....I got the LP and cassette and now the CD. I play in the car, at work , out at the pool , at the beach, and in my head all the time.

I'd get into why I like and love each song and why. But Man this thing is great. If you have any friends that have never listened to iGgY or what ever....Buy it for them for a gift. They'll call you in a week and tell how much they like it. I've done............Nobody Rocks like IgGy! Nobody !!!! he is a ass kicking, gut pounding , hard driving demented madman on stage! He goes all out ( Ballz 2 the wall ). & Anyone who has never saw him live and could have is a freaking idiot. Not the ""IDIOT"". ROCK ON IgGy Dudes. " I NEED MORE '

Add your thoughts?


Soldier - Arista 1980.
Rating = 7

This record is all over the place. I don't like to call an album "schizophrenic," because it's grammatically not really what you think it is, but surely this one is at least "bipolar" or "manic depressive" or something. Or just "retarded."

See, much the same way that a mental patient vacillates wildly between my panties, these songs vacillate unpredictably between all sorts of genres (all obviously played by the same limited band though): there's the circus music of "Loco Mosquito," minor key acoustic easternisms of "Ambition," the catchy, wonderful Tom Petty-esque soaring vocalisms of "Knocking 'Em Down (In The City)," which must feature the widest singing range of any song Pop has ever done - then there's weird novelty rock like "Dog Food" and "I'm A Conservative," the silly light metal of "I Snub You," almost Flipper-esque avant-fudge-dudge of "Play It Safe" and "Get Up And Get Out," the sensitive adult pop "Take Care Of Me," the oddly rhythmed herk-jerk non-melodic "Mr. Dynamite" - Christ, I'm about to enter a mental institution of stupidity just describing the record.

Sorry folx - I can't describe the record's overall sound because there ISN'T one. It's as if Piggy Bop is just throwing spaghetti against my wall to see some ticks. The mix is similar to the last one, but with much quieter guitars (unfortunately for me). Kinda new wavey power poppy like an early Cars album. Interesting? Hep yes. But are the songs good? Most of them are, sure. Some of them seem to lose their way halfway,though, or maybe it just takes that long for it to realize that they're joke songs written during a smack-induced stupor. DON'T KNOW. DON'T CARE.

Reader Comments

greg@bpsun.hu (Greg Spencer)
Prindle is usually spot-on in his selections of an artists' best material, but he's way off the mark with Iggy. For Prindle to rate Soldier behind such a dog as Avenue B shows that he hadn't given these albums enough listening. Soldier includes several of Iggy's most enduring tunes: 'Get Up and Get Out', 'Dogfood', 'I'm a Conservative', 'Knockin' 'em Down (in the City)', 'Take Care of Me', 'I Need More'. They're practically all good, if not great, and I'm not bothered by the variety of styles. I've never even considered that point, actually. If a guy can dabble in different genres, and pull it off, more power to him. Also, it sucks that Prindle dismisses 'I Snub You' as 'silly, light metal'. It's one of my favorite songs on the album, not least because of its great lyrics. In classic Iggy tradition, the words are frank and vivid, not obscured in metaphor or another poetic device. Listen to this song when you've been wronged in a relationship. Iggy's the man.

drazy@gatecity.com
Gotta agree with both of you: Soldier is miles ahead of Avenue B at the same time Soldier jumps around so much I can't listen to it all in one sitting. Unless I'm fucked up on smack like Iggy was when he recorded it.

takac@panet.co.yu
Weird record. Starts with "Loco Mosquito" the song I cant describe. Plainly weird! Its a shame that Iggy abandoned James Williamson. He really gave Iggy that specific power and strenght. Second song is acoustic semi ballad "Ambition" and its a good song, "Take Care Of Me" is a rocker without its edge. It has that nice "Kill City" feeling but lacks energy. "Get Up & Get Out" is lame song in level with "Girls" from "New Values". Nice sax theme though. "Play It Safe" has great keyboards a great intro ("Say Ta") and a nice refrain ("What do we have in common" "I wanna be a Criminal"). "I'm a Conservative" brings Iggy's ballad introspection and a redeeming lookback but continues with blissfull guitar riff and "Hello my friends! Is every body happy?!" . Great song!!! "Dog Food" passes unnoticed. "I Need More" is a nice song that is more known as title of Iggys biography book, isnt it?! "Knocking 'em Down In The City" is nice rocking and kicking song that could make you feel really good for about 3 minutes with its verse "If you cant change situationg - go ahead knock 'em down". "Mr. Dynamite" has dark overtone and recognisable Iggy's phrasing...Great piano and thrumphet parts. And a nice rhytm. I bet it sounds great live! "I Snub You" is another rocker. Great song to end a record. Allthough Iggy could go on forever. "Soldier" is totally uncommercial record that'll make Iggy make some efforts for his next record that really smashed...me. PS They say that Simple Minds guys participated on this record! How?! Where?! NO Sod Knows!

markbul@comcast.net
I like this record. I love {New Values) and found it to be a great follow up from IgGys early Solo stuff. ""Loco Mosquito"" is a wacked out Circus tune if you ask me. But ask anybody that bought this when it came out.>> If they can sing the first 30 words or so to that song & I bet they can. It is a toe tapper and it sticks in your head,,, At the first listen you are like??...What the hell is this?.. But, baby It grows on you and then it sticks to you like an old piece of chewed up gum. ::Dog Food:: is pure IgGy and thats all i can say. IgGy kicking you in the left nut and then puking in your new car,>>>,So COOL......."I'm a Conservative" and "Knocking'em Down in the City" are cool and you gotta love the all the words...Along with " I Need More"...."Mr Dynamite"Is a slow one at the start but wides out and the Band is tight as grandmas shoes. It should go on forever. Jim Morrison would have enjoyed wiping it out to this one.. " I Snub You"" is just what it says a killer shot and quick and it does the trick. Killer!! Like I said if you like ( NEW Values ) the you should Like """SOLDIER""" I did and I do ! ...

Add your thoughts?


Party - Arista 1981.
Rating = 6

This is a novelty record. You'd have to be fucked out of your mind on chewing tobacco to believe differently. Every song sounds like a joke - like a goodtime dumb party anthem to be featured in an episode of Square Pegs. (Am I dating myself?) For crying out loud, how seriously could anybody take an album that features "The Uptown Horns" on four tracks, as well as flaccid originals called "Rock And Roll Party" and "Houston Is Hot Tonight" and cheeky covers of "Time Won't Let Me" and (chagrin!) "Sea Of Love"?!?!?!? This is the guy who used to dive through broken glass and slice himself up on stage? I suppose it's for the best that Darby Crash died when he did. Lest we be waking up tomorrow to hear him serenading us with "Rock And Roll Heaven."

Am I dating myself again?

Nah, I just jack myself off every once in a while, it's nothing serious.

Reader Comments

Billsangry@aol.com
Downright silly.

Denniswe6ster@aol.com
Iggy sounds just like Ric Ocasek on Pumpin' for Jill. Most of the album fails to leave any real impression on me but the second side is scattered with a few good Cars songs. Obviously influenced by Can and Yoko Ono. Don't listen to me - I'm fucked out of my mind on chewing tobacco.

pedroandino@msn.com
it is just like a combination of sugar and salt! party is so damn odd! just most 1981 albums that are like a party but also either a weird adventure or a sloppy quest or a lost classic that will be cherished time and time again! like moving pictures! an epic! the elder! a bad flop! plesant dreams! an oddball bubblegum record! a salsa record that you never hear! and genesis abacab! iggy got so wasted with sweets and cocaine to fuck up the album with so much weirdness that you will be seeing a stoner film!

takac@panet.co.yu
As "Arista" deal came to end, label wanted a commercial record and Iggy's cooperation with Ivan Kral was getting better and better. This record came out in summer of 1981 just in time to shout at deaf ears...Seems like a cosmic misfortune of bad timing - but this is a great record that went overlooked just like "Kill City". Hits such is "Pumpin' For Jill" (I cant belive it was'nt top 10) or "Bang Bang" (its so good and so simple - that it helps you to see the great difference between artists that make music and musicians that make shit and sell it as art), "Pleasure", "RNR Party", "Houston Is Hot Tonight"...All equally good. And I dont understand why it didnt sell good?! Bucouse this is really most commercial and admisable record by mr. Pop everybody could like this record! The punk rockers and sumo wrestlers and Utah rednecks and London subway workers...

Add your thoughts?


Live San Fran 1981 DVD - Music Video Distributors 2005
Rating = 7

People That Iggy Pop Has Now Outlived: Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Ronald Reagan, George Harrison, Jeff Buckley, Keith Richards, Don Knotts, a little boy being born tomorrow who will live to be 95, Steve McQueen, Courtney Love, Walt Disney, Freddie Mercury, my great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Ben Orr, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Murry Wilson, the President of the United States in the year 10,004, Jam Master Jay, John Belushi, Chris Farley, the current fat guy on Saturday Night Live whose name I don't know and who isn't funny and has no talent at all, and John F. Kennedy. What is he, on Steroids Of Life?

Like Chuck Negron, Iggy Pop should be dead. Maybe he never had to live in an orphanage or battle Cory Wells and Danny Hutton for the chance to release "One" as a single, but he should still be dead, even though his dick never exploded and he didn't pass out and smash his face through a glass table. But Iggy Pop, like Chuck Negron, whose suicide was only prevented by a weak pipe breaking and who was tormented as a child for being a bedwetter, is a survivor. Yes, this former leader of The Stooges is well aware that, like Chuck Negron, who grew up without a father and slept with Terry Kath's girlfriend, he should be dead. But Godd had other plans!

This DVD, a popular new video medium that many youth refer to as "Digital Video Discs," is nothing more, less or equal to a digital transfer of a Target Video videocassette of Iggy Pop and his band performing live in San Francisco on the Party tour of 1981. Not the best album in his catalog perhaps, but when are you ever again going to get the chance to hear novelty crap like "Eggs On Plate" and "Houston Is Hot Tonight" live onstage? Plus, just historically speaking, this disc reeks of drug- and sex-mauled decadence of the yuckiest kind (in a good way! Like "Yucky! This rules! I can taste the vomit rising in the back of my throat!"). Iggy is MISSING A FRONT TOOTH (!!!) and performs the entire show in a miniskirt, stockings and garters. His band is no more sensical, with one guy wearing an ape mask or something half the time, and the others dressed in gaudy late-'70s fashions as Clem "Elvis Ramone" Burke speed-dials the amphetamine drums in the background. Quite a sight to see! And three lead guitarists for you and me!

Iggy's quivering vocal delivery belies a still-lingering love for David "Pretentiousness = Art" Bowie, but his act and persona are just so bizarre to watch -- over the course of one hour, he goes from jumping and dancing maniacally all over the place to standing dead still in front of the microphone and glaring like a sick old man defiantly trying to stay awake and fight off the chills. And he only has like half of the grossass face wrinkles he has now! All thanks to Oil Of Olay! (and being 24 years younger) Way to go, Noxzema!

For the bean-counters out there, let me stress you up that the DVD contains the following amounts of songs from the following albums:

1 The Stooges
1 Funhouse
1 The Idiot
2 Lust For Life
2 Soldier
5 Party

The only sad thing is that this was filmed too early in his career for him to perform "(Candy Candy) Candy (I Can't Let You Go)" or "(Home Boy) Home (Boy, Everybody Needs A Home)" because those songs would have made this disc a terrific gift for all the people with the worst musical taste in the world. Otherwise, buy it, watch it, and write about it in your dairy!

Oh okay, if you're going to keep begging, here is the first verse and chorus of "Milkman," a hilarious "Weird Al" Yankovic-like parody of The Beatles' "Taxman" that I wrote when I was in the fifth grade (all you British readers out there, this is equivalent to your "Ninth Form"):

"I am a milkman, I bring you your milk
And with the money you give me, you buy all my silk
'Cuz I'm the milkman
Yea-eah, I'm the milkman"

Sure it sucks, but have you heard Living In The Material World?

There's this dude at Music Video Distributors - let's call him "Clint" - who sends me promo DVDs for review. And he also handles promos for another company called "Eclectic Video" that releases old exploitation movies and Chinese pink movies (yeah - more like "pinkLESS movies," if you ask anybody whose ever seen a vaginer!) and wouldn't you know it? He sent me a copy of SS Experiment! (Or, as it's called on the title screen, SS Experiment Sex Camp). I watched it while drunk on 4 vodka shots and let me tell you something - it was a BiTCH of a great Nazi Sexploitation KKKlassiKKK!

Granted, I was about 3,000 sheets to the wind, but as best I recall, the film took place in a medical camp in Nazi Germany where the staff was training young captured women to serve as sexual outlets for the best of the German Nazi Soldiers. Most of the women took to the task like a porn star whore slut douche (you know Jews, and how sexually excited they get during periods of racial genocide), and those who didn't were knocked out and burned alive in a frighteningly fake-looking furnace of flames. But there's MORE!

One of the German Nazi soldiers falls in love with a prisoner and decides to help her escape. HOWEVER, he is tricked into taking part in a special experiment for the head mean guy. HOWEVER, the head mean guy has broken balls and is planning to REMOVE the good German Nazi's testicles in a difficult operation. The surgeon with the beard doesn't want to perform it, as he is tired of killing perfectly good Jewish women with his failed "ovary transplant" operations. HOWEVER, the head mean guy knows that Mr. Beard is actually a Jew in hiding, so he has that over him. HOWEVER, so the good German Nazi tries to have sex with his Jew woman after lying in bed for two weeks post-operation, and get this -- he exclaims in rising tones: "I CAN'T MAKE LOVE TO YOU!!!!!" He then runs to the head mean guy and screams, "YOU TURNED ME INTO A FREAK!" and it's all uphill from there.

Spoiler: Everybody dies.

Did I love it? Well, it had boobs and pyoobs so yeah. Perhaps you haven't yet caught the "exploitation/sexploitation/cult" films bug yet, and would like more information. Well, I'm obsessed with the fuckers (specifically sexploitation and grotesque horror films) so count on me here. First of all, from the looks of it, Eclectic Video has a TON of great material like this. Once you buy up their entire catalog, check out Something Weird -- they have a ton of fantastic sexploitation movies like The Pigkeeper's Daughter, Dracula The Dirty Old Man and Take Me Naked - many of them available as lengthy double- and triple-feature DVDs! I buy them constantly and watch one two or three times a week while imbibing. You should too, especially if you're over the age of 13! For great exploitation horror and sex art films, Blue Underground is the one to watch. Emanuelle In America, The Night Train Murders, Fight For Your Life - all huge "grindhouse" classics, all yours today. For dupes of ULTRA-unrereleased rarities, Vomit Bag Video has some amazing stuff, and I think there's a site called Shocking Video that does too, though that might not be the name. At any rate, for more info before you buy, read the SHIT out of the books Sleazoid Express, Incredibly Strange Films, Grindhouse, Mondo Macabro, Eros In Hell, Eaten Alive, Killing For Culture and Immoral Tales. Next thing you know, you'll be stocking up on sleazy crap from Jess Franco, Doris Wishman, Russ Meyer, Joe Sarno, David F. Friedman, Tinto Brass and Joe D'Amato - just like Ol' Prind! (Don't fucking outbid me on ebay though, pricks. Those movies are MINE MINE MINE! ALL DAY LONG! CAPATALIST SUCK! CAPATALIST SUCK! CAPATALIST SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

THEY REALLY SUCK!

Reader Comments

bill_go@hotmail.com
Iggy actually has outlived Don Knotts now. Maybe you should change your name to Mark Cleo or something.

And I give Horatio Sanz three years 'til he croaks.

banksbrad@hotmail.com
Great page,

one error on the San Fran Live in 1981... Its Digital Versitle Disk, not Digital Video Disk.

;)

OSLANE@student.gvsu.edu
also check revengeismydestiny.com for other great exploitation films

when did iggy lose his tooth? I saw a performance of his on the Tomorrow show and he's got a missing tooth there too and that was in 1980 I think.

Add your thoughts?


Zombie Birdhouse - Animal 1982.
Rating = 7

If Farty was a goodtime novelty record, I'm supposing you can call this one a badtime novelty record. Most of the songs are dark in nature, but they're presented in such a quirky, demented way that you get the feeling that Iggy is conspiring with the evil Inca Gods to laugh at your fate as they curse you to whatever the hell those stupidass fake Gods might curse you to (sorry for my perceived intolerance but I am a deeply religious man who firmly believes that the only true God is, of course, whoever kikes worship).

Just look at these song titles - just LOOK at them! "Run Like A Villain"? "The Villagers"? "Angry Hills"? "Life Of Work"? "Eat Or Be Eaten"? "Street Crazies"? Firmp! And musically? Well, it kinda sounds like Devo's rockiest materials, excepting that there is a claim on the back cover that "There are no synthesizers on this record," meaning that they must have been putting their guitars and keyboards through some wackass weird effects, because all them shakity fuzzy creepy noises sure SOUND like synthesizers! Heck, even some guy thinks so! Iggy's voice is in odd form too, ranging from an idiotic Southern accent in "The Ballad Of Cookie McBride" to a WAY-too-loud, out-of-tune "emotional" deliver in "Ordinary Bummer" to Nick Cave-ish screaming near the end of the so-experimental-it-hardly-even-exists "Watching The News" and in the rhythmic masterfuckup "Street Crazies."

Something smells like it's burning, do you smell that? That troubles me. I hope my ball hair isn't on fire again.

What?

Oh, like you've never jammed your dick in a light bulb hole before?

Reader Comments

Billsangry@aol.com
I kind of like this one. "Run Like a Villain" is pretty good.

Michael.Chapman@swantafe.wa.edu.au
What have you guys been taking???? This is the Zenith of Iggy Pop's career in my opinion. Blah Blah Blah comes second. Or is that Soldier...or Party?

takac@panet.co.yu
Described only as "Iggy's another excuse for tour" as if rock and roll band tours were paradise on wheels. Thats not true. Bands hate doing tours. Becouse you are constantly tired, and all you see (wherever you are) are: ...bus, hotel, venue, bar, venue, hotel, bus... in that exact order. So, if Iggy puts out a record just as an excuse for tour - he's a REAL HERO! And then, no doubt that Iggy's most powerfull stuff - is his live performance. So this way or another -Iggy is a real hero that knows Rock And Roll better that almost everybody on scene...Aw, fuck! Where was I going with this.."Zombie Birdhouse was an excuse for "Breaking Point" tour. Album was made with ('Blondie' mastermind) Chris Stein, but without Ivan Kral that almost made Iggy become "Pop" again. Along with Dawid Bowie and James Williamson - Ivan Kral was really great artist behind Iggy's solo ventures. "Run Like Willain" is a good opener and promises great fun. Made with rhytm machine. I loved that growl at the beginning. Nice song. "The villagers" is a great song of Iggy clearly reaching for some inspiration outside of the RNR framevork. The song itself starts as sparse distant detached cold post punk song that features some half ass Patty Smith roaming around the subject. "Angry hills" has great little rhytm machine intro, lame verse, superb bridge to a neat little refrain. Backing vocals are good too. "Life of work" starts totally Suicide-style and develops into a Iggy's "Holy Macarony" introspection with nice backing vocals. "The ballad of Cookie McBride" is plain old CRAP. It starts one way and then goes totally another way... "Ordinary bummer" has its moments, but ist hard to remember them. "Eat or be eaten" has nice guitar intro and a nice pace. But Iggy's lyrics (as on the rest of the album) highly diminish its value. Overall - its a nice synth-pop song. "Bulldozer" features some nice guitars and Iggy mumbling stuff that'd put to shame 90% of those nutcases that shout obscenities on the streets. "Platonic" Is an albums peak - great ballad that really doesnt belong here. "The horse song" makes me think : "What to Fuck were You On?!", its just irresponsible! "Watching the news" reaches towards bands such are Suicide and Birthday Party. "Street crazies" has many flaws, for instance Iggy tries to rap and be into all that Pop Group (the band) stuff. Nice try. "Pain and suffering" (CD Bonus) is another experiment, I dont get it. All in all - makes you think how to hell could Iggy dismiss "Kill City" as "unfinished thing" and still put out THIS record that sound like demo of a demo that could be a great demo for another Iggy's "Bowiesque dark wave" album. Overall - its a totally underrated album! Comparing to Iggy's earlier works this is pure blasphemy. But then again -he tried to think out of the frame and I apreciate the effort to go outthere and do something completelly "outthere". Whatever. Buy this album rather than ... say: new Gorillaz album. Or any Nirvana CD.

dryrdiam@netzero.net
A GIANT CLAM!!!!!

Add your thoughts?


Blah-Blah-Blah - A&M 1986.
Rating = 7

Did the record company accidentally mislabel a David Bowie album or something? Sheesh. This doesn't sound like Iggy! It's COMPLETELY overproduced mid-80s radio-ready cornball pop rock filled with synths, really loud fake drums and Iggy doing his finest low-end crooning Bowie impression in hits like "Real Wild Child" and shits like "Baby, It Can't Fall" (which sounds WAY too much like Huey Lewis' "Heart And Soul" to be on an Iggy Pop album). Actually, the musical accompaniment on a lot of this reminds me of late-period Robert Plant. But that might just be because I just reviewed Robert Plant. Hard to say. Regardless, most of these songs are actually very solid, catchy radio-friendly tunes. You just have to get past the laughable Let's Dance-style production.

Or do you? Honestly, I can't imagine any Iggy fan not screaming "TRAVESTY!" when they hear this record. It is almost the anti-Iggy. It's not really even ROCK music. It's 80s pop rock. No loud guitars, no screaming, no insanity. Just, again, a very odd, slick attempt to cash in on the 80s success of David Bowie (who, shocker of shocker, produced this record and co-wrote several songs!). In conclusion, let me go get a Cola.

Reader Comments

Billsangry@aol.com
This was out to be a moneymaker from the start. It's comparable to Alice Cooper's album Trash. Radio ready crapola..

hunter_ed@evilemail.com
You sir, have a way with the lingo. I think the idiot and l4l and Blah Blah Blah should have been marketed as Iggy and Bowie products. Of them, the first two are probably Igs best. Your summary of the first two is fine, except for where you crap on certain songs. (Agreed on Turn Blue, tho.) Kill City has some great stuff on there, even if some of the tunes are re-hashed takes on some unreleased Stooge stuff. "The boys are ready to break your nose and take your car." Love most of it. Some of the instro stuff could have been left off. Your review of New Values is as good a review of that record as I've ever read. I think Soldier IS "retarded" as you implied. Not so much for the songs, but the recording is so castrated and mucky. Some of the tunes are neat though. Party is a sign of things to come. He shows off more of his crooning but puts ballads alongside such poop as Happy Man and it just won't fly. Some critic said he'd bet that it took longer for Ig to get the Uptown horns on the phone than it did for him to write the lyrics. I LOVE Zombie Birdhouse. Apart from Street Crazies and Watching the News, I think he had a good idea. I think the guitar sound is as tasteless as Asheton's was on the first Stooge LP. More later.

(five seconds later)

I gotta disagree with your take on Blah Blah Blah. What you wrote about it would be more fitting as a review of Party. At least BBB is consistent. Yeah, it sounds like a bowie project, but the singing is pretty. He made no bones about wanting to get rich and BBB probably set him on the path to his current wealth. Not many Ig fans agree with me on this, but I stand by my opinion that it is full of sweet little ballads. Instinct is kinda weak. The vocals sound better than most Ig records, but the sound doesn't really vary. Example, when I listen to Funhouse, I hear something new each time. There are layers there. With Instinct, I love the songs and the riffs, but on repeat playings, there are no new revelations. Brick By Brick is the start of a real downer for Ig. It is where he starts to have maybe two or three decent tunes and nothing more. Buttown and Rock and Roll play like Spinal Tap wrote 'em. The problem is, it sure doesn't sound like Ig is kidding. American Caesar is more of the same. Crap. One or two goodies, but no more. NLD has Pussy Walk, which is a funny little ditty. Avenue B is a good album, but that doesn't mean I want to hear it ever again. Beat 'em up follows up on the trend set by BxB and NLD and US CAESAR, but with a few more worthy tunes.

takac@panet.co.yu
I might taking a piss all over Iggy's career saying this but I'm sure there are greater things to burn in hell for. So : BLAH BLAH BLAH is my favourite album by Iggy Pop. After the pause he took inbetween 1983 and 1986 - it was time for another "Idiot"! He couldnt afford a mediocre album! This time he composed songs with Steve Jones and that fact alone promised something wicked! Ofcourse, the 80's couldnt be worst time for something the real Iggy would do - wild and heavy. So, Iggy didnt dare to make another Stoogesy record or another 'Idiot' alike record! Iggy made a visest decision outthere and went by the book. He made an album that combines the 80's sweetnes and Iggy's introspection and social commentary. And if Bowie liked it who am I to wank around the fact that this record ROCKS!!! "Cry For Love" is definitelly Iggy's peak that he still didnt quite reached..."Real Wild Child" is a great single. But personally every song on the album is equally good! "Isolation" is so good it makes me think about all the directions Iggy could take during his career, but he never had courage to leave Stooges iconography behind. "Shades" makes me really freeze over the fact that such a stupid lyrics could sound so GOOD when done right! . "Hideaway" is such a hit that you can really wonder why this guy chooses to be poor rocker instead of filthy rich pop star?! "Winners and Loosers" is another memorable anthem... All in all - this album, with his state of art production and kick ass songs - really brought Iggy Pop back into mainstream. He never came back to that level of acceptance after this album. And also, who cares if this album didnt influence the bands as much as The Stooges or "Idiot" did?! Its not always about being first and original! More often - its about using the existing rules in the right way that allows you to be accepted and apreciated at the same time. Iggy could make millions with the records like this, but he chose to stick with being a stooge... Which is good, but not as good as leaving the past behind. "Blah Blah Blah" is my favourite record by Iggy. And if somebody asks me about Iggy I'll always play this record.

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Lust For Life DVD - ABC Entertainment 2008
Rating = 7

Hey, is this Clint from Music Video Distributors? Great! This is famous worldwide music reviewer Mark Prindle, and I just had a few questions about the new Iggy Pop DVD you sent me. Since you're not actually there, I'll just leave them here on your voicemail and you can get back to me as soon as you're available.

Okay, so I see right away that the disc was actually filmed in 1986 for a German TV station or something. My first question is simple: why didn't you subtitle the German narration!? I can't understand a word the guy says! And my wife is half-German so, as a quarter-German by marriage, you'd think I'd catch exactly every fourth word. No such luck. However, I did notice that nowhere in the film does he say the word "umweltverschmutzung" (or "environmental pollution").

My second question regards Iggy Pop himself. He seems like an extremely friendly and charismatic young guy, yet no matter how much I adjust my tracking, I can't get his face to stop resembling that of a 75-year-old man. Is it possible that you accidentally sent me a rehearsal disc with Don Knotts filling in?

Thirdly, I notice that the DVD begins with a live 1986 performance of "Lust For Life." Is Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines aware of this unauthorized use of their advertising jingle? Please let me know because I already called the FBI.

Fourthly and finally, you know that part where Iggy explains that at age 9 he got obsessed with industrial hums and factory noises so he started playing drums, and then he played in The Iguanas from age 14 to 18 before joining The Prime Movers in college, until he got bored with college and quit to move to Chicago and investigate blues music, after which he moved back to Detroit with new bluesy knowledge and formed The Stooges? I'm just curious if you know that part.

Fifthly, how did you score a 1986 interview with Ron Asheton!? That guy died like two months ago! What, did you revive his corpse and then put him in a time machine back to 1986 and have him grow a mustache and wear a Members Only jacket so he'd fit in and nobody would realize he was from the future, and a zombie? Well, I'm onto you, if that's what you did.

Sixthly and in conclusion, you know that bit where the interviewer pulls out a tape recorder and plays "No Fun" for Iggy Pop in 1986 to get his reaction? Am I nuts or is that bit really stupid?

Seventhly and first of all, why did the filmmakers keep throwing in stock footage of artists that have nothing to do with The Stooges? Like that bit where Iggy says he went to Chicago to study the blues, and then there's like two minutes of some generic blues song and pictures of black people. Or when Ron says "Yeah, we liked the first Jimi Hendrix album," and then there's like 10 minutes of "Are You Experienced?" and stills of Jimi Hendrix on the screen. Were they just trying to fill space? Because I could've sent them a picture of my dick to fill like 15 inches of it.

Eighthly, the footage of Iggy on that 1977 Canadian talk show is hilarious! I love when he tells the middle-aged host, "What sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is in fact the brilliant work of a genius. Me!" And how he keeps calling the host "Sir," and the guy says, "You don't have to call me 'Sir,' and Iggy cracks up and says, "I can't remember your name!" My question is this: Can you get me on that show?

Ninthly, how about that old video of "Funtime" with David Bowie on piano? Or those 1986 performances of "China Girl," "Some Weird Sin," "TV Eye" and "Real Wild Child"? How about those? No, I'm serious.

Tenthly, and in conclusion, isn't it bizarre when Ron Asheton says that he resents Iggy for letting heroin break up The Stooges before they had a chance to reach their peak, seemingly forgetting that they reached not one but two GIGANTIC peaks out of a mere three records!? What the hell did he want? A long steady decline filled with The Weirdness-level throwaway albums? I must respectfully disagree with you on this point, the late Mr. Ron Asheton.

My eleventh question is this: was I supposed to wait for a beep or something? I've been talking over a dial tone for like 15 minutes now.

Reader Comments

tufffta tufffta
Hey, Mark,

regarding Lust For Life DVD - ABC Entertainment 2008:

"Okay, so I see right away that the disc was actually filmed in 1986 for a German TV station or something. My first question is simple: why didn't you subtitle the German narration!? I can't understand a word the guy says! And my wife is half-German so, as a quarter-German by marriage, you'd think I'd catch exactly every fourth word. No such luck. However, I did notice that nowhere in the film does he say the word "umweltverschmutzung" (or "environmental pollution")."

MY first question is: are you THAT stupid? Can't you tell German from Dutch, considering your wife is "half-German"? Sometimes being too sarcastical is not the best way, for you can show your own ineptitude.

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Instinct - A&M 1988.
Rating = 8

The first Iggy Pop song I ever heard was "Real Wild Child," so I immediately had an incorrect impression of the man and his personality. But then a couple of years later when I was really into the Ramones, I read up on Iggy and said, "Wow! The Stooges sound interesting!" Then the video for "Cold Metal" came out and a big ol' American smile grew on my face as I watched this wrinkly old corpse contorting around to this catchy midtempo guitar tune. Since that time, I have bought and sold this album three times.

But third time's the charm because now I love it!!!! The guitar, played by former Sex Pistol Steve Jones, is antiseptic, bassless, neatly distorted riffage of the sort heard in the Beastie Boys' "You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Convert to Buddhism." The riffs are just that very simple as well - almost all the songs revolve around simple little bar chord riffs but HEY! So did the stuff on the first two Stooges albums, and those are classix! I'm willing to acknowledge the fact that Bill Laswell's production plants the record firmly in the mid-80s just as Bowie had done with Blah-Blah-Blah but at least this one has loud guitars! Plus the Poppy is back to his Iggy self, only crooning during one or two tracks while sneering and joking his way through all the others (a bit too much in the horrendously bad "Squarehead," actually - if you ever wondered what the Monkees' "Gonna Buy Me A Dog" would sound like by a former punk rocker who isn't Micky Dolenz, you're in luck!).

As evidenced by my high score, I like this critically despised album quite a bit. Not every song is simple bar chord action - there's plenty of Billy Idol-style intrigue and keyboard backup to be found in the likes of "High On You," "Tom Tom" and "Easy Rider," for example. Although certainly the guitar is still the focus, I suppose. Never mind. I hope Iggy demanded that this be the case, after the non-guitar abortion that was/ware Blac-Blach-Baldl.

Reader Comments

takac@panet.co.yu
Well he couldnt make it with that neat short hair and gentle melodies...He HAD to throw himself back to the raw rock and roll chaos that he likes so much...Iggy recruited Steve Jones, but this time the guy was on recording sesions but thats kinda evident isnt it?! Recorded in just 3 weeks. Album sounds like LA hard rock of late eighties - to support that thought Iggy recruited Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks (...oh, man...) for a forthcoming tour. Acctually - the record from that tour "Cold Metal" brings us Iggy Pop totally new and fresh. Its not quite metal, but its clearly leaving the past behind - its not chaotic barrage of riffs and furious solos at all! The title song is mighty opener with strong riffs backed by some piano smashing. "High On You" is great song that gets way better live. Superb verse and a refrain that gets better with Steve Jones's half-ass guitar solo... "Strong girl" has some nice rhytm and forgettable generic guitar riffs. "Tom tom" has synth in it. Nice song that' a little above of being a filler. "Easy rider" is albums peak. Best song inhere. Great live! "Power & freedom" Superb! Great live too! "Lowdown" depends greatly on piano. I love Iggy's deep grumpy vocal inhere!!! Masterfull refrain! Could end up on "Blah Blah Blah" easily! "Instinct" has some great moments. It would be better opener than 'Cold Metal" but no matter. Good song! "Tuff baby" Good too. Guitar is mighty and solid as rocks being thrown at you. "Squarehead" this is an OK song. A hippie concession. Overall - this album is most consistent Iggy's work (side by side with "Idiot"). What ever happened to Steve?!

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King Biscuit Flower Hour - King Biscuit 1988.
Rating = 9

Like Instinct, but raw! And don't think I'm being facetious, because 70% of that album is recreated here in a filthy, messy, distorted live manner COMPLETELY unlike the sterile production on the studio album. Even "Squarehead" sounds like a good little rock tune! Plus there are TEN (!)!)!)!)!)!) other fantasmagoric tunes from throughout Jiggy's career, including six Stooges tunes, two from Kill City, "Five Foot One" and one from Blah-Blah-Blah made ROUGH. The rest of his career? Ah screw it. This hain't no David Bowie concert. It's Old Man Pop playing Old Man Rock! And yes his voice gives out near the end and his stage banter is awfully questionable ("Aw I wish I could come out there and get my ass fucked. but I guess I gotta sing some more songs), but the songs and the way they are presented just KICK ASP!

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do mean "application service provider." Iggy was big on b-to-b.

Reader Comments

edh@statenet.com (Ed Hunter)
Is this one comparable to the Live At The Channel-Boston 1988 semi-bootleg?

If so, it's sort of a mixed bag. Agreed that the songs from Instinct come off much more mean live. Some of them are actually really great. Too bad they sound so dead on the record. I think Iggy should have left Johanna alone. That guy trying to do the backup vocals just didn't cut it. But, as far as live stuff goes, the Boston 1988 is pretty damn good.

Poppyjudge@aol.com
This is easily Iggy's best touring band since he used Sonic's Rendezvous Band minus Scott Morgan to back him for a Euro tour in '78. Anybody know of any recordings of this tour by the way? Anyways, his Instinct band featured former Hanoi Rocks guitar slinger Andy McCoy (and I love those off backing vocals of his), former UK Subs bassist Alvin Gibbs and Steve Garristo who went on to play with Johnny Thunders and a few other notables. This is a good concert. Also worth checking out is Live At The Ritz from this same tour.

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Brick By Brick - Virgin 1990.
Rating = 7

Starting on this record and continuing to present-day, Iggy has been exploiting this "honesty" thing, pretending that he's "stuck to his guns" and suffered for his art throughout his career. Early days? Sure. But come on, how the hell honest was shit like Party, Blah-Blah-Blah and even Instinct? Anyway, this particular record sounds honest (and self-congratulatory) enough, with lots of guitarists like Slash who play their instruments in an honest rock and roll manner, with acousticness and blues-influenced solos and truthful bent notes and all the stuff that Steve Jones didn't do on the last studio album. And certainly the lyrics are "honest" with such "honest"ly stupid titles as "Butt Town," "I Won't Crap Out" and "Pussy Power" (three of the best songs on the album, ridiculously enough). But how honest is that hilariously washed-out, airbrushed close-up of Iggy's face on the back? You know, the one where he looks about 25 years old, wrinkle- and mole-free? Who are youse trying to be fooling? What am I, a dumb guy?

Yes. Yes I am. But let's continue. This album was a big hit for Iggy, with both "Home" and "Candy" (not necessarily two of the finest songs on here) getting lots of radio play, helping to sell the album to rich spoiled kids who normally wouldn't buy an Iggy Pop album if it came with a free protractor (and as a former young person, believe you me when I tell you I know the importance of a protractor to today's youth). And a lot of the songs are really catchy and well-played, absolutely, but the unbearable earnestness of songs like "The Undefeated," "Main Street Eyes" and the title track just make you wanna shake the guy and scream, "Quit using your addiction recovery as a marketing tool!"

To which he would probably respond by whipping out his marketing tool and spraying you with jets and jets of drug-free liquid piss.

Or solid piss. Look I don't know piss.

Reader Comments

takac@panet.co.yu
Iggy had a neat little song for Walter Hill's movie "Black Rain" called "Livin at the Edge Of The Night". I really loved that one. Its totally "Blah Blah Blah" dropout. Video? Video was lame. And then, I really cant belive that Iggy didnt do THE DOORS movie! "Brick by Brick" ? Whattahellisthisman?!? Well reaching his peak LA hard rock and roll offered Iggy another chance to play it safe and addopt the main thing that's on. So this time instead of looking for David Bowie, Iggy reached to the Guns And Roses and took the best of it - Slash and Duff .. all along with 'Virgin' records (they were the one that paid for best Iggy Pop production ever, I guess). So Iggy was about to be IN again (and again...). But what about the record?! Well it has two monster hits!!! "Home" that is really good. And "Candy" that proved that even heartles lawyers, uptight happy hour yuppies and your parents along with your grandparents can like Iggy Pop. "Candy" is real counterpoint to EVERY THING Iggy Pop standed for...Good sond, though. "Main Street Eyes" I love this song. It has this fine melody and Iggy's vocal at his best... Superb! "I Wont Crap Out" is a nice effort. Good song. "Neon Forest" could be a big hit in Iggy Pop fans circle, but they'we all felt ditracted by "Everything New Kids On The Block" craze that was on at the day. No wonder that the verse "America Takes Drugs in a psychic defense" was featured in that book called "Traispotting". "Starry Night" is great acoustic song that gives Iggy much needed room to reach out of the wall of noise that often hides his great voice abillity. "Something Wild" ...I love this song becouse it reminds me of The Cult in the beginning of the song. "Pussy Power" is a crap in level with almost every sexist\antisexist shit Iggy wrote since "Girls" and "Get Up & Get Out". "...Rock And Roll" is a generic rocker that is easily forgotten. "The Undefeeted" is a nice semi-anthem that doesnt really belong to Iggy's catalogue. "Butttown" is a nice developed rocker that could easily belong to "Instinct". "Moonlight Lady" is a ballad. And a nice one. "Brick By Brick" (song) brings Iggy dealing with his personal feelings about the life and such stuff...and just when you think "Ah, he HAS feeligs" Iggy says "So, Get Of My Dick...". Overall - this is the last album by Iggy Pop as I know it. His later work is significantly different. As "living tough life" is different than "singing about living tough life". Not that I blame him. Hats down!

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American Caesar - Virgin 1993.
Rating = 8

Fife! Now this is honesty. If you ever need to keep your kids off drugs, just show them the cover of this album. NOBODY wants to wind up looking like this man does with his shirt off. Bleah!

As for the album, Bleah!

Nah, just joshing your ants there. I like this album quite a large badger. I was sleeping on the couch with my arm dangling off the couch and resting on my puppy dog who was sleeping on the floor and I kept waking up and hearing little bits of this CD and thinking, "Wow! That's a nice song!" before finally I hit this song called "Sickness" that was so great that it actually made me wake up entirely, which was quite a shame because the next song was "Boogie Boy," which is a miserable piece of shit that I would rather have slept through. But that's not for you to know.

This album is messy and erratic and beautiful, shiny and evil, scratchy, jangly, jiggly - lots of guitars, mistakes included, distortion, NOT cleaned up in post-production, reminiscent of Neil Young's noisier material, where the guitars all mesh together into a beautifully ugly drone of distorted sound while you sit there and go, "Wow." And by "you," I mean "Wow." Plus, the CD is as long as Ronald McDonald's meat patty (over 70 minutes! Just like The Hamburglar's cock!), yet only disgusts when Iggy's voice is too loud in the mix (thus, quiet parts like the verses to "Fuckin' Alone" and "Social Life" don't work out quite as well as hoped - especially because lyrics like "Maybe you need new tits" don't hit the ears quite as neatly as "No fun, my babe, no fun"). The songs are split between raucous grunge-esque rock and rollers ("Plastic and Concrete" is punk rock! And IT rules! Don't you love Information Technology? IT rules!) and predictable but catchy balladry - "Highway Song" is even a country-tinged number! Iggy, lest we know you! But most are worth your listening dime, because he's taking the reality-based television programming of Brick By Brick and Road Rules to create one of the most crazyassed and noisy records of his solo career.

What rules to me about this album is that he really COULD have played it safe after the success of Brick By Brick and "Candy," but he didn't. This is not the sort of record that gets radio play. There's way too much cussing and the mix is NOT major label genericism, even by grunge standards. Many kudos go to everybody involved. There's some chaff in them thar parts (I don't even know what "chaff" is, but music critics seem to use the word a lot and I want to feel like I'm part of their team so I feel it's best that I use it too), but so much to enjoy through acoustic jangly-jingles and all-out fudgepackers that anybody with a heart filled with dirt needs to rip this out - the UGLIEST album in Iggy's catalog - turn it up to 90 on their CD machine and smoke a fatty.

And by "smoke a fatty," I of course mean "gun down an overweight person."

Reader Comments

CassBray1@aol.com (Rich)
I have seen iggy numerous times beginning with 'instinct' tour(86).Circus of power and jane's addiction opening.Pier nyc.Anyway,best show(my opinion)was 'American Ceasar' midtown concert hall.Shows at irving plaza we're fine,also.I am intrested in any/all iggy,kinks,stones cd(s).please contact rich at CassBray1@aol.com thanks,in advance.As always,rich

takac@panet.co.yu
Well, after "Brick By Brick" all Iggy's albums mix in my head...It was the stuff that didnt stood up too well. It was "just another Iggy record" over which I never felt any distress... "American Caesar" addopts "Brick By Brick" maneer but cuts away the expensive production (or it spends a lot of money to look cheap). Nice acoustic blues rock tunes are the real peaks. Although "Wild America" was a semi-hit at the time - "Jelousy" is the song that bought me totally. "Mixing Colours" doesn quite stick to me. "Hate" is an instant Iggy moulded classic. Great jamming oportunities, so I'm sure they used it a lot live. "Its Our Love" is unlikely Iggy ballad. And a GREAT one! Skillfully produced also! "Plastic & Concrete" is a punk rocking kicker. "Fuckin' Alone" another peak of this record. Truly great introspection. "Highway song" is some kind of acoustic RNR classic that reaches towards contry rhytm. Good one. "Beside you" shold be an album's closing song. Its a nice mid tempo ballad. "Sickness" goes for some Pixies/ Frank Black style of alternative pop record. "Boogie boy" ... yeah OK we're rollin'... "Perforation problems" brings us some feedback behing rogh guitar riff... "Social life" is another acoustic semi blues ballad. Superb!!! "Louie Louie" is a filler. And waht a filler!!! Great version. Really uplifting Iggy style. Great. "Caesar" is some spoken word stuff that I dont dig quite well. Hmmmm, what was Henry Rollins duty on this album?! Overall - this is a great record that brings you classic Iggy. Alas, it doesnt do much for His career devlopment.

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Wild America EP - Virgin 1993.
Rating = 8

I don't know about Richard Branson, but I sure wasn't a virgin in 1993!!! Heh heh heh.

No wait, I was. FUCK!!!!

But whether or not you have cast your Nature's Fishing Rod into the sweet healing nectar of the Lake of Womanhood, this EP is a darn fine introduction to the late-period range and entertainment value of Iggy "James Pop" Osterberg. Out of four tracks contained herein, THREE of them are unavailable elsewhere!!!! That's 58%! And the range is spectmarkable. You of course know the sleazy rockin' title track because American Caesar was the first album in history to be purchased by every living organism on the planet, including the mongoose (which is surprising because those guys HATED Brick By Brick). Then "Credit Card" is catchy high-speed punk rock, "Come Back Tomorrow" is a dark torture torcher with notes, and "My Angel" is a '50s-style love ballad, presumably about Michael Landon, the only living angel we've got left since John Travolta started making snuff films again. That's four different approaches to the r'n'r dream! Have a hankerin' for some Stiggy Nop, but already own all his albums? Then buy this EP! And voila! EVERYbody's happy!

And by "happy," I of course mean "gay" (a synonym for happy).

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Naughty Little Doggie - Virgin 1996.
Rating = 9

Forty minutes??? Aw come on! The last one was over SEVENTY minutes!!! Talk about a lazyass! This is fuckin ridiculous!!! Who hired this fuckin guy??? You believe this fuckin guy????

Nevertheless, I can't get over how good a rock and roll album this is. It's tightly played but it sounds like they had a lot of fun, and every single riff and vocal melody on here is wonderfully catchy. They'd have to be for me to get past lyrics as disgustingly stupid as those in "Pussy Walk." And they are! It's just great simple guitar rock - with FANTASTIC guitarwork by the same guy that played on the last one. Like Bad Company's debut updated for a 1996 audience that didn't have any interest in it. Iggy sounds excited, not pretentious. The ballads are pretty and the rockers rock. And it doesn't go on any longer than it needs to. 40 minutes is perfect for this one. In an innocent, innocent, innocent world indeed!

Isn't it interesting that I love all the wrong Iggy Pop albums?

Isn't it interesting that a stinky yellow mucus keeps dripping out of my dog's penis sheath?

Reader Comments

openmindedonly@mail.com (darren finizio)
i really immedately liked this since i first heard it...critics didnt care for it,though,wich is ashame because it really builds on the raw/spacial vibe of "caesar" wich has much more fat in my opinion...its a funny thing with alot of old timers:if they would just loosen up and find special musicians and understandable producers,producers who know how to keep things relatively live sounding,they could really make some heavy duty sales...most people i know who like iggy like the stooges "funhouse" more than anything else...iggy has to find a way to make an album thats gutteral,spacial and soulful at the same time...this and caesar are the best we're gonna get for some time perhaps...i suppose inspiration isnt easily duplicated ...anything that comes after this album sounds like iggys devolving,save the avenue b thing wich i admire.

takac@panet.co.yu
Iggy's another record in the 90's. "I wanna live" first and the best!!! Where did he hide this song so long. It really belongs to "Party" BIG TIME!!! "I wanna live a little bit longer" Grat stuff! "Better than a Pepsi, cooler than MTV". Bravo!!! "Pussy walk" is rocking driving kinda sexist oddity. "Innocent world" starts a really good. Has great lyrics and unbelivably handsome guitar riff. Great song!!! "Knucklehead" brings Iggy to safer and looser waters of generic rock and roll. "To belong" mid tempo stuff. Nice song. "Keep on believing" is headbanging beer slobbing hit. "Outta my head" opens with the driving rhytm and a bass line. Iggy gives his standard performance. "Shoeshine girl" is an acoustic blues ballad. "Heart is saved" is punk rock song. "Look away" 's a nice closer. Gentle guitar. Smooth vocals....Overall - good record, doesnt bring any thing new to Iggy's path, but it doesnt take away from it either.

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Avenue B - Virgin 1999.
Rating = 9

Iggy Poop goes Leonard Cohen! Poetry! Jazz music! Serious melancholy! I like it though. Several of these songs are just Iggy reading what appear to be diary entries over a minor-chord keyboard/strings backdrop. These pieces, along with the dark photos of old man Iggy walking around his crappy NYC apartment hall in his pajamas, do a much better job of creating a grimy, dreary city mood than the trite Lou Reed descriptions he used on Brick By Brick. Pus, musically, this is unlike anything Iggy has ever done - not only does the Igjig himself play guitar on nearly every track, but jazz/soul trio Medeski, Martin & Wood guest plays on a bunch o' tunes, giving the whole CD a feeling of "beat". The guitar rockers "Corruption" and "Shakin' All Over" (yes, a cover of course) seem sort of out of place on this singer/songwriter confessional record of lazy jazzy sadness, but they're very welcome, especially to big guitar rock fans like mine me!

So that's Iggy Plop for you - over 50 and still churning out uncommercial, unsuccessful records for a legion of. actually I don't even know who besides me buys his records. Jesus, do you think I'm the only one? That puts a lot of pressure on me!

Aaaaaah!

Oh no!!!

.

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Reader Comments

TVEye70@aol.com
Just plain silly. I wouldn't mind Iggy trying introspective folk jazz if he actually did it well, but this is just embarassing. His voice kinda works well, but this is merely a boring, pointless excursion into such a genre. (I will admit, "Nazi Girlfriend" was cool in concert.) 3/10. Highlight is the "Shakin' All Over" cover, sadly.

takac@panet.co.yu
You Dont Know Shit!!!" that's what I said to all of the scumbag rummies that shouted "Blasphemy" when listenning to this album. Made "In the winter of my 50th year" this is a excess really. I dont think Iggy ment any thing with this but to make something off the wall, off key, well...off. "Nazi Girl" is a nice little ballad. Who in the world would make ballad about having a Nazi Girlfriend?!?! Yeah, Iggy! And who in the world wouldnt appreciate "Avenue B" ?! Filistine! "Miss Argentina" guitar laden guitar. Kinda stolen verse melody, but ...Maybe it is a cover! "Afraid to get close" gets us into "Shakin' all over" the song that doesnt belong here. Allthough its good one. "Long distance" another moody relaxed suave delightfull track. "Corruption" only single I think. Well - This song REALLY doesnt belong here! "She called me daddy" is poetry bit that brings us to a nice jazzy "Felt the luxury". "Espanol" You rollin'?! "Motorcycle" Smooth track. Love song. "Facade" is a great closer. Such a positive ending for a broody album. Best song inhere! So pay attention you boozin' slobs. Overall - this is the best record by Iggy in the 90's.

markbul@comcast.net (White Boy in Boston)
Get a your girl and a bottle - no 2 or 3 of red wine hit the couch or the floor.Light some candles.... Then put this CD in and jump all over your girl.This has a couple rock-in tunes but is mostly a somber IgGy feeling a little down, bent or kicked and that happens to dogs allot if their in the wrong yard or if they did something wrong,,,,But I can dig ( Feel ) and what he is going through and like the way he spit's it out. He even brakes it up with a rocking tune in Spanish.... I like this Cd. it is diff, for IgGy but so what....... . That's what it is suppose to be different. Different day -diff chick- diff car- diff town -diff tunes.....IgGy has the right to do what ever he wants this time....He came back with Beat Em Up and SKuLLRING. and soon a new Cd with the STOOGES !! For all you people who want to hear TV Eye and 1969 over and over......Yes, I like those song but to tell you I like or Love all his songs...So if he wants to sing " I think I love you " by the Partridge Family.. I'll laugh and listen and even buy the fuckin thing....I Dig ALL THAT IS IgGY !! So keep it up IgG-mundo -I am !!!

steve.cseplo@facilities.gatech.edu
Avenue B a nine out of ten? You gotta' be kidding me. This is without a doubt the worst offering Iggy has ever unleashed on the public. Every last song shows potential but that potential goes completely unrealized. Take "Shakin' All Over" for instance. It revs up, goes cruising down the runway, reaches rotation velocity and takes to the air, only to stall, crash and burn. The Who never saw the song this way and with good reason. But I suppose that you have to give an artist at least one opportunity to record some really terrible music and release it. This certainly fills that bill. So grab a six pack, take out your bong or other favorite inebriant, get wasted, put this on, turn up the volume, then repeat again and again, this really sucks big time, this really sucks big time, this really sucks big time....

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Nuggets - Jungle 1999.
Rating = 8

Wow! Fantastic bootleg. So good it made me start the review with the word "Wow!" Two CDs and twenty-five rare tracks, including a full ELEVEN original Iggy Pop compositions that you have likely never heard ("Fire Engine," "Warrior Tribe," "Mule Skinner," "Woman Dream," "Rock Action," "Modern Guy," "Love Bone," "The Winter Of My Discontent," "Puppet World," "Hassles" and "Flesh And Blood"). Some of these are live and somewhat jammy and underwritten, probably left unfinished because he was too drugged up to turn them into studio-ready songs. But many of them are really cool! Electronic drone punk stuff like Suicide. There are also lots of wonderful live cover tunes, including the Animals' "I'm Crying," The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," The Velvet Underground's "Waiting For My Man," Sly Stone's "Family Affair" and that catchy old song "I'm Alright," which Iggy claims is by Bo Diddley but I've only ever heard the Rolling Stones' cover version so I don't know for sure. If you're an Igster completist, this album is ESSENTIAL. Most of it sticks around '80-82, but there's also a cool unreleased hard rock tune from the Brick By Brick tour and two of the most awesome (and fastest!) non-LP Stooges tracks ever, "Gimme Some Skin" and "I Got A Right." Hunt this down. I imagine it's a bootleg, but HUNT IT DOWN! So many interesting rarities in one place is a rare thing indeed!

Best moment: The first half of a slow, boring ballad cover tune called "One For My Baby" -- Ig has to spend an entire four minutes trying to convince the audience to shut up so he can sing his stupid ballad. It's HILARIOUS!

In CAPS! So it's like I'm YELLING IT AT YOU!

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Beat Em Up - Virgin 2001.
Rating = 7

I dig the Ig, and the Ig is back to loud guitar rock! This lengthy album (74 mins) relies completely upon VERY heavy, thickly produced chord-driven rock. More like "grunge" rock than punk rock, with some cock rock-style leads and midtempo pounding, but disappointing in the "originality" department. There just aren't enough great songs on here. A good deal of them rely upon just two or three chords and one repeated, simple little note twirl or something, and often these chord sequences are either old and predictable or just DUMB.

But that's just the bad. And that's what you'll hear from every serious music critic. So let me tell you what I DO like about it. First of all, almost half of these songs are pretty great (especially "Ugliness," with its car horn solo!) ,and in conclusion Iggy just has a great voice and presence so he's fun to listen to, especially when he's being funny ("V.I.P." and the bonus track) or just WEIRD (his echoed howls in "Howl" tear my asshole a new asshole! Which leaves me with an asshole INSIDE my asshole! So I get enjoy the delightful feeling of release that only comes with an orgasm or nice steamy turd, and then I get to feel it a SECOND time as the turd passes through my outer asshole! And then I get to feel it a THIRD time when I rub the turd all over my cock until I squirt jism all over myself!).

Signed,
Roland Fratzl

Reader Comments

Sukr12345@aol.com
I beg to differ Marky Darling. This is some of the most visceral and daring music Iggy has recorded in recent memory. Far more emotional and rage-driven than that dreck called "Naughty little doggie". I'd describe the musical tone as post-punk neo metal with subtle punk influences. I haven't been this happy with an Iggy album since The Idiot.

foland_ratzl@hotmail.com (Roland Fratzl)
HA HA HA.

Been reading some of my pages eh? I gotta hand it to ya Mark, you won this round of the gross-out sweepstakes, but I'LL BE BACK.

"I will give you a new body, and these will be your Sweeps. Now, find and destroy the Matrix of Leadership."

"Destroy the Matrix..."

blackdogg60@yahoo.com
Heer Meister james osterburg has and will continue to entertain and ROCk long after som many longhairs. (see" "st. James, II-V, chpt. 4-6)

NOSTERDAMMUS predicted the "Igg"'s rise in 1647..

"..ende so IT shall..
A MAn called from a Reptile
Shall rocike they Earth"

okay. I made that up.

takac@panet.co.yu
Made to be played at ridiculously high volume. Starts pretty powerfull. "Mask" is a great earnumbing song. "Which Mask Are You" is direct nod to B.S. Slipknot teenage craze. Thats how its done! "L.O.S.T." features some metal guitar grinding with "In The Garden Of Evil" chant in refrain... What does That mean?! "Howl" starts with loads of feedback guitar and Iggy's nature love calls (very simmilar to ones of peccarry). Earnimbing. "Footbal" is (oddly enough) a nice acoustic ballad. Nice power pop refrain. "Savior" features unbelivably heavenfull and simple guitar riff. And what a refrain!!! "Beat 'Em Up" bashes our brains with THAT guitar. So un-Iggyesque!!! "Talking Snake" is a ballad that you apreciate very mich after the "Beat 'em Up". And a great song!! "The jerk" features some cool guitar riff and vise guy Iggy. "Death Is Certain" Filler. "Go For The Throat" Spoken Word ear bashing filler. "Weasels" Starts with some nice guitar riffs and stays there. "Drink New Blood" Neat guitar fiffs.Driving song. "It's All Shit" Yeah. "Ugliness" Nice scream. Eh... "V.I.P." Is a odd song that doesnt really belong to Iggy. Its really odd. Overall - This is a proclamation of war to all of us that declined possibillity of Iggy's new resurection. And it worked becouse he did resurect for "Skull Ring" and The Stooges revival tour two years later...

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Skull Ring - Virgin 2003
Rating = 8

I don't know why I'm so often called upon to make this point to patients in the waiting area, but Iggy Pop is NOT a brain surgeon. He is not suddenly going to release a brilliant, intelligent "comeback" release, and people who gave up on him after Lust For Life are NOT going to find any reason to come back at this point in his career. He's just the rocker guy. The smelly bearded hairy hippy wrinkly horrific gross Iguana - the same thing Jim Morrison would probably be if he weren't in Paris writing poetry today. If you like big dumb loud guitar ROCK, you're going to like most of what he releases; if you're looking for some decadent Bowie-inspired glam drug chic thing, you're going to be disappointed by great big racketmakers like Caesar Salad, How Much Is That Doggy In The Window? and this brand new one, Skink Bug.

First things now, the big news is that Iggy recorded four songs with The Stooges for the first time since 1975. But see, there's a problem automatically -- there's no James Williamson on this album. It's just the Asheton brothers. That in and of itself wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if not for the fact that the songs are - quite purposely, I'm fairly certain - dumbed down to the absolute Dumbest DUMB macho hard rock chord nonsense you'll have ever heard in your life once you hear them. The songs are unbelievably repetitive and simplistic, without the charming drugged-out electric weirdo vibe of "No Fun," "1970," "Down In The Street" and all those other great hits they sang All Those Years Ago (which would be a GREAT song title if Ringo ever decides to record a tribute to George Harrison). But hey - it's only four songs, and two of them are actually pretty enjoyable. Neither of them are entitled "Little Electric Chair," by the way.

But Jiggymeister didn't stop at a Stooges reunion in this latest attempt to earn some retirement money! Rekindling the guest artist flame that took Brick By Brick to the bank and invested it in a hedge fund, Iggy also performs a couple of slicked-up clean sharp bouncy Ramonesy/Evercleary new-punk numbers with Green Day (one grate, one grating), a targeted-to-radio instant hit single with Sum 41 (predictable and unadventurous, but catchy enough as far as these things go), two tracks with Peaches (one lyrically repulsive but funny and featuring an awesome guitar swooping noise, one simplistic to the point of amateurish and BAD) and, in an obvious attempt to ride the waves of others' success, six songs with the household name millionaires "The Trolls," who are famous and on TV every day on every channel at the same time.

But opinions are like assholes -- the younger you are, the cuter yours is. GODDAMMIT!!! I TOLD WILLIAM GATES NOT TO LET POPULAR AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENTERTAINER MICHAEL JACKSON DESIGN THE LATEST BUILD OF AUTOCORRECT!

But enough hilarious pedophilia jokes. Let's get past my personal opinions about which songs on here are great fun exciting loud raw rock and roll (13 of the 17 tracks, if you count the unlisted "Nervous Exhaustion," which you should because it RULES!!!) and not mention the four that suck doodlebug johnson ("Little Electric SHIT," "LoseSHIT," "Rock SHIT" and "SupermarkSHIT"). Instead let's just chalk it up as another Iggy Pop record. He's not looking for artistic growth - he tried that with Avenue B, and I was the only person in the closest five galaxies (both external AND internal) that liked it. He's a rocker! A 56-year-old rocker! Raw! Dirty! Filthy! Loud! Not slick! (except on the Green Day and Sum 41 songs) Lots of chords (and a note or twoo) that are clearly played by human beings with real fingers, shoving it fast and punky, slow and sludgy, midtempoey and early-Aerosmithy -- but always fraught with light competence!

As for the lyrics: "I got a brown girl/Her titties are mine/Great big titties (titties)/Big brown titties/I love those titties (you love 'em)/I love those titties/I love those titties" and "Here comes the leader/He's a mighty mighty leader/He's got a penis/A mighty mighty penis/There's gonna be an attack" and "Standing on the poop deck of a wreck/Waiting for the tugboat of respect" and "Miami Beach to Malibu/Hot weather makes 'em wanna screw" and "Big tits high ass/Long legs flat stomach" and "Now I'm just one of the joes on the corner/I guess I ought to stay home and watch the porno" and "Every night is a hee hawing mule/When there's blood on your cool" are all parts of really good Emily Dickinson poems, but I unfortunately don't have a lyrics sheet for this new Iggy Pop CD.

Reader Comments

edh@statenet.com (Ed Hunter)
After buying the import of the latest from Iggy (the US release date was too far off for me to wait) I read a review that said that this was both a great and awful comeback record. While I disagree on the specifics cited by the critic, I have to go along with the overall sentiment. The great songs are with the Asheton Brothers, the good ones are with the Trolls, although there are a couple of stinkers there too. The novelty songs are those with Green Day and the possible radio hit with Sum 41. The truly awful songs would have to be the solo acoustic number, which I couldn't even make it through to the first chorus, the two with Peaches and one or two real bad ones with the Trolls. This one makes me hold out hope that the rumors of a new Stooges album come to fruition. It's worth it, if you're of the opinion that Iggy has put out several steaming piles of crap for the past dozen years or so.

cretin4life@yahoo.com
||| Someone Needs to Put This Streetwalkin' Cheetah in a Bag With a Brick in it and Throw Him Into the Lake: A Skull Ring Review |||

Iggy isn't really the Godfather of Punk, he's more like the Dick Clark of punk. Trying to appear young forever, this scrawny schyster has somehow constantly been passing himself off as an elder statesman of rock for something like 25 years now. Like Dick Clark, he doesn't really care what kind of product he is responsible for, as long as it will sell.

Skull Ring is kind of like a zombie that walks among us: From a distance it looks like Iggy, it sounds kind of like the Stooges, but on closer inspection it's nothing more than the horribly reanimated corpse of what once was alive. And the smell? Phew! Is he coming for our teenage daughters? No, he's coming for our $16.

Unlike a zombie, however, Iggy CANNOT BE STOPPED. His reputation has grown so disproportionately large over the years that any transgression he commits (i.e. "VIP" from Beat 'Em Up) is overlooked by his rabid fanbase, and why not? People (and critics) have been excusing his piece of shit solo albums for twenty-five years. Now, I'll admit that I wasn't even alive 25 years ago, so this custom of letting Iggy off the hook seems strange and alien to me. Why is he encouraged to keep going? Why is he encouraged to bare his veiny, geriatric torso? How can people buy Avenue B and then buy Beat 'Em Up and not sense that they're being made a fucking fool of?

Skull Ring is one of the least stimulating albums I have the misfortune of owning. It's so bad that I'm afraid it will make my other records bad just by virtue of its proximity. But I, the consumer, am not really the one being hurt here. No, the real victims are the poor Asheton brothers, exploited to help out on a couple of songs. To tell you the truth, I'd rather they made money by continuing to sell their songs to SUV commercials. The songs with the Ashetons are terrible. The songs with Sum 41 are terrible. The Trolls? Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Who makes these songs so terrible? I'll give you a hint: His horrible, disgusting hand is featured prominently on the album cover. I don't think there's another other singer on the face of the earth who has had so many talented people trying to help him make good music and has had such a lousy track record. I think it's these people--Ron and Scott Asheton, Bowie, James Williamson, the Sales brothers, that girl from the Go Gos--who need to band together to put this horrible, ego-bloated schlock monster that they created out of its misery.

ImWolfen42@aol.com (Nancy)
I certainly wouldn't kick him outta Bed..........

crab.stick@talktalk.net
The Stooges songs on Skull Ring are pretty darn good. Sadly they are far superior to the new Stooges record - 'The Weirdness' - which is just dull r.o.c.k.

The rest of Skull Ring is reasonable Iggy fare. Loud and grumpy.

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Preliminaires - Astralwerks 2009
Rating = 5

Like David Peel's legendary 1984 LP, Preliminaires is Iggy Pop's way of saying "I read a book. Doyeeeeee." Apparently he read Michel Houellebecq's La Possibilité d'une île and decided, "Say, you know what would make me look deep? To record a bunch of jazz songs and claim they're based on this French book. Because the French are deep." Listen, I love Iggy Pop like a mother meerkat loves her own little camera thing tied around her neck, but the dude (or, alternately, "guy") has been recording rock and roll albums for the last four decades so maybe we shouldn't be too surprised when his "French jazz" debut turns out to be the worst solo album he's ever released.

The biggest problem is that it sounds lazy! Iggy is singing in his early '80s low David Bowie voice, which is fine, but the CD has twelve songs and here, let me describe them for you:

A. Two of the twelve songs are simply remixes of other songs on the album.
B. One is an acoustic blues song with a SINGLE riff, that includes the lyrics "She's gonna get him with that ass" and "They're gonna fuck to death now."
C. One is a cover of a 1940s French jazz standard.
D. One is a cover of an Antonio Carlos Jobim bossanova.
E. One is a cover of a Louis Armstrong song, apparently with some new lyrics. (It sounds like Tom Waits, quite frankly, and the lyrics are really dumb)
F. One is apparently a recitation from the book. I love that one though, because it's about how doggies are the greatest creatures ever. THEY ARE!!!

That leaves five actual bonafide Iggy Pop song compositions: a new waver, a couple of ballads, a rock song and a Gary Glitter beat. In other words, it's not a "French jazz" album; it's a song with three French songs (two of which are the same song) and a few jazz songs. The beats (both electronic and real) would've been hip in the '90s, but that was decades ago. It's a diverse CD, but it's also corny, pretentious and not very good. The songs employ violins, horns, sax, organ, iano and acoustic guitar. Notice that our "iano" has no "p" in it. We don't play Beethoven in your toilet, do we?

You know what's real? What's real is how hard it is to write a review when you are alcoholized. I figured I'd be fine since I slept so late today, but no such duck. I'll rephrase: I love Iggy Pop. Remember: I even loved Avenue B, which most people hated. But this CD feels extremely lazy, and he too often gears his vibe towards music that holds no appeal for me personally. Perhaps you are a fan of dark piano triplets, a French woman whispering sexy vocals, and a violin-driven ballad. If so, go listen to Serge Gainsbourg ASSHOLE and stop ruining my Iggy Pop with your literature. Me, I'd rather hear Iggy rocking out -- as long as it's not that rotten last Stooges album he did. That was rotten. The Weirdness? Yeah, more like The

Go ahead and buy it because you should own every Iggy Pop album, but don't be surprised if you find yourself going, "So...... you thought this was good!?" The songs hit a lot of different styles without presenting a lot of exciting new ideas.

Also, Iggy Pop is probably a complete douchebag. If he's not though, he might be a nice guy. And if that's the case, then (*does little dance*)

Look, I was busy all day today. Sometimes that's what happens. You're busy all day, so you decide to wait on writing a review until after you're drunk. Then your review turns out like this: BRILLIANT AND WINNING AWARDS FROM EVERY JOURNALISTIC GROUP IN THE COUNTRY.

Here's a lyric from this album that I like: "You can convince the world that you're some kind of superstar/When an asshole is all you are." Isn't that a good lyric? Unfortunately, somewhere on the album there is a saxophone solo, which negates this lyric.

Tracks 4, 6 and 10 appeal to me personally. Their titles are "Je Sais Que Tu Sais," "Nice To Be Dead" and "A Machine For Loving." The latter is the recitation about how dogs are the best things ever. I agree 500 times. Doggies are such wonderful little creatures. Presumably I'd feel the same way about children if they didn't constantly shit and drool all over the place and grow up to be retarded drug-addicted serial killers. Do you realize that 98% of children born in 2008 are now autistic and/or serial killers? I asked The Children Agency(TM) and they confirmed this startling fact. No wonder I stick with dogs -- they're covered in fur and eat human poop!

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