Live and Dangerous!

THEY INVENTED the word *Punk* for a punk like Iggy Pop, who went to war with society by going to war on himself. He cut and he bled, he banged up and he sped, and he always wanted more, more, more. Iggy was bored. Bored enough to rant and rave; bored enough to stick his head down and have a good look into his grave.
When they fully map our DNA, they'll splice and paste, and they'll take out Iggy Pop cells. Because Pop cells are diseased as far as any normal society is concerned. They don't bode well for order and clean living. They're not neat. They don't fit. But for some, the Pop cell is an essential part of any life worth living.
It screams at us not to believe the hype, that life is never like in the magazines. And sometimes it just screams and screams and grunts and coughs and roars and is ugly and all that. It's the five foot one man gone berserk; raging against the machine. And it has no answers. No, all it has is its rage. Which is enough or at least is better than apathy. Because the thing about the Pop cell is that it is constantly bored because it has such a lust for life.
Henry Rollins, a man known for his own hyperactive stage shows, recently told us during his great gig at the Olympia, that Iggy - 46 years of him and all - simply blew The Rollins Band off the stage for sheer orgasmic wildcat intensity. So, go see him at Féile if you ever wondered where Punk got its name, or more importantly, where it got its energy! Now, down to brass facts . . .
PRIMAL HOWLS
James Jewel Osterberg was born April 21st, 1947 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He got his 'Iggy' from a group he used to play with, The Iguanas, and his 'Pop' from a local drug addict; Jim Popp. A talented drummer, he did session jobs for Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and The Shrangri-Las, among others.
In 1967 he formed The Psychedelic Stooges, with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton. In October of that year they made their debut performance at an Ann Arbour Hallowe'en Party. It was a fitting way to start what was to be a pretty scary ride. Over the following months, their standard set would last no longer than twenty-five minutes, with Iggy's 'raw wails from the bottom of the guts' style performances gaining immediate notoriety.
They were in essence a classic punk band, as Iggy describes: *We weren't interested in anything like writing a song or making a chord change. I didn't bother with anything like that until I had a recording contract; once I had the contract I thought I'd better really learn how to write some songs - so I did. Our early music was flowing and very conceptual. We'd have just one given song, called 'Wind Up', or I'd change the title to 'Asthma Attack', or 'Good-bye Bozos', or I don't know, 'Jesus Loves The Stooges'. So, la de da, that's how we started out.*
Their early musical style is best explained by guitarist Ron Asheton. *Usually we got up there and jammed one riff and built into an energy freak-out, until finally we'd broken a guitar or one of my hands would be twice as big as the other and my guitar would be covered in blood.*
However, no matter how the music sounded, it was still Iggy who was the centre of attention, as radical journalist, John Sinclair explains: *Iggy had gone beyond performance - to the point where it was really some kind of psychodrama. It exceeded conventional theatre. He might do anything. That was his act. He didn't know what he was going to do when he got up there on stage.
*It was exciting. I'd just watch him and think, 'Wow! This guy will stop at nothing. This isn't just a show - he's out of his mind!' . . . I remember when he started taunting the crowd with broken bottles . . . I think he'd got to where he didn't really have any respect for the audience. So he'd do things to see what would get a response.*
In 1969 - having shortened their name to The Stooges - they were signed to Elektra, given a $25,000 advance and sent to New York to record their debut, a hefty five songs in tow. A two-day song-writing binge brought forth *Not Right* and *Real Cool Time*, and gave them the courage to march studio-ward. Ex-Velvet, John Cale was their choice to produce and also added his trademark electric viola drone to the ten minute long We Will Fall, which managed to give the album a respectable length.
Recorded in four days and released in August 1969, *The Stooges* (Elektra) was met with public and critical indifference, reaching No. 106 in the US charts. It's a gritty, three-cord thrash of an album, good, though not great.
The 1970 release, *Funhouse* (Elektra), is a whole other beast. This is quite simply one of the greatest, most dangerous, invigorating, thrilling and awesome masterpieces in the history of rock 'n' roll. From the opening *Down On The Street* to the final free-form freakout of *L.A. Blues* it gives crunching riffs and primal howls a new dimension. Beyond compare, everyone should own a copy of this album.
REAL BLOOD
Iggy Pop performances were becoming crazier by the day. One of his most famous stunts was his walking-on-the-audience miracle, at the 1970 Cincinnati Pop Festival. He tried to replicate this one at New York's Electric Circus in 1971, with damaging consequences. As he stepped off the stage, the non-plussed New Yorkers made space for him with 'that asshole's not walking on us'-type frowns. After an eight foot fall, he hit the ground.
In June 1971 Elektra dropped them because of their lack of commercial success- but also because of incidents such as Pop demanding $400 off Elektra president, Jac Holzman, so that he could have enough cocaine to see him through a four night stand at New York's Ungano venue. On getting news of being dropped, Pop decided to break up the band.
In 1972, having met David Bowie, Pop decided to relocate to London, where he reformed the band. They released *Raw Power* (Columbia) in April 1973. There are some good songs on this album - *Search And Destroy* being one of them - but it is so crappily produced and mixed and so muted in overall sound that it really doesn't stand up beside the bombs unleashed on Funhouse.
Apart from lots of bootlegs, there are three other official Stooges albums that I know of. Cassette recorded bottles and all, *Metallic K.O.* (New Rose) finds them playing their last violent concert; *Rubber Legs* (New Rose) gathers together some non-album material; while *No Fun* (Elektra) is a compilation.
Iggy Pop's solo career has had more downs than ups. It started off well with his 1977 debut *The Idiot* (Virgin). It contains *Nightclubbing* - a track that Grace Jones would make famous - and China Girl, which was co-written with Bowie and would later become a hit for him. It's a strong album and in my opinion his best solo effort.
His next best, *Lust for Life* (Virgin), was also released in 1977. This contains the out-and-out classic *The Passenger*, which was inspired by a poem by Jim Morrison. The title track is pretty good too, as is *Neighbourhood Threat*.
1979's *New Values* (Arista) is moderately good, with tracks like *I'm Bored* - *I'm bored/I'm the chairman of the bored* - *Don't Look Down*, and a sort of anthem for the small man, *Five Foot One*, being well worth a listen. 1980's *Soldier* (Arista) is dreary, with only *Mr Dynamite* managing to raise its head above the mediocrity. 1981's *Party* (Arista) fares no better; if this is punk then I'm a skunk. Disco, more like it. In fact, *Bang Bang* became a popular US dance hit. *Pop Songs* (Arista) is a reasonable compilation from this mundane Arista period.
The 1980s were to be an arid period. I haven't heard 1982's *Zombie Birdhouse* (Animal) but 1986's *Blah Blah Blah* (A...M) and 1988's *Instruct* (A...M) were generally given a lukewarm reception. However, 1990's *Brick By Brick* (Virgin) is not at all bad. It's a fairly straightforward rock album - G...R's Slash plays on four of the tracks, co-writing one - but what lifts it above the average is the strikingly honest lyrics and the verve with which they are delivered.
Pop punches hard at the trendies, socialites and hypocrites on songs like *Butt Town* and *Main Street Eyes*. He makes it clear that they won't drag him down, that he still has a lust and love for life, on songs like *Home* and *Brick By Brick*. And on *I Won't Crap Out* he lays down what perhaps has been the motto for his life: *If you want to stir up real mud/You had better pay with real blood*. It's his best since the *The Idiot*/*Lust For Life* period and bodes well for the future.
LAST CATEGORY
Iggy Pop has always had a taste for the movies. In 1967 he appeared naked with Nico on a snow-covered field as part of some obscure film. In 1984 he sang the title song on the Alex Cox movie, *Repo Man*, while the next year he appeared in another Cox movie, *Sid And Nancy*. In 1987 he cameod in Paul Newman's *The Colour Of Money*. In 1990 he starred in John Water's movie *Cry Baby*. Over the years he has also appeared on TV programmes such as *Shannon's Deal*, *Tales From The Crypt* and *Miami Vice*.
Live, Iggy Pop has never lost that Stooges type energy and high entertainment ethics. In 1975 he described his art of performance thus: *There are basically three kinds of people who 'perform'. There are those who do it naturally, those who desperately want to possess that ability but don't have that touch, and there are those who want to and don't give a damn either way. I'm part of the last category.*
Even in 1979 his shows were being banned in Britain, although admittedly this was because he had ex-Pistols Glen Matlock in the band. (Some venues refused to lift their ban on the Sex Pistols - dead or alive.) And in 1993, as our own Liam 'he blew everyone else away' Fay and the great hunk Henry Rollins, will readily admit, he is still a man who would give a wild buck goat a good run for his money.
Catch him at Féile - if you can!