exploremusic

 It’s no secret that among my list of the most compelling and engaging artists ever, is the one born James Newell Osterberg, Jr., 63 years ago today, the 21^st of April 1947. When I met him the first time in ’88, he was a true gentleman.  He looks you in the eye, firmly shakes your hand and there’s a warmth and generosity and trueness.

 Not only that, Iggy Pop is quite clearly the most dynamic performer that has ever graced a rock and roll stage.  

James Osterberg first started calling himself Iggy, after his first band in high school, The Iguanas.   He went on to lead the rock revolutionaries – the true godfathers of punk The Stooges.  

Interestingly, just like the legendary Bon Scott of ACDC, Iggy also began as a drummer.  Then, when Iggy saw The Doors live in 1967 at the University of Michigan, he was amazed by the stage presence of Jim Morrison which inspired him to take his own life performance to altogether new heights.  

Despite Jim Morrison having been busted for exposing himself, albeit in the absence of anyone who can really claim to actually having seen ‘it’, it seems everyone has seen what Iggy’s packing, if perhaps only in photos.  (If you’re so inclined, you might have to undo your ‘safe search’ off Google)

Iggy had more in common with Jim Morrison than his stage antics.  About a year after The Stooges debuted in concert, they got signed to the legendary label Elektra, who when nobody else wanted to know the Doors, had signed them too.

At the break of the seventies, Iggy Pop met David Bowie, who went on to produce the insanely raw and infinitely intense, not to mention my favourite album of the genre ‘Raw Power’.

 After that record Iggy added to his band future member of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers Scott Thurston.

Iggy has had plenty of ups and more downs than most.   The usual pitfalls like drugs.

Bowie was supportive through it all, on and off the road.   The pair relocated to West Berlin to get new perspective and make new albums, ‘Lust for Life’ among them.  Among songs Iggy and David co-wrote – China Girl.   David even played keyboards for Iggy in concert.

 In 1980, Iggy Pop published his autobiography I NEED MORE, co-written with Anne Weher, an Ann Arbor arts patron. The book, which includes a selection of black and white photographs, features a foreword by Andy Warhol. Warhol says that he met Iggy when he was Jim Osterberg, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1966. "I don’t know why he hasn’t made it really big," wrote the one Pop artist about the other. "He is so good."

While drugs would stand in the way of many opportunities, Iggy would eventually fly straight, get clean, and do things that regular folks do, like get a bank account, get married, and get up in the morning without feeling like dying.

In 1985 Iggy even got himself onto mainstream radio, with the Bowie produced ‘Blah Blah Blah’ featuring “Real Wild Child”.  Then came the album ‘Instinct’ which truly rocked, evidently more so than the label had bargained and they dropped him.   I caught two truly unforgettable shows on that tour.

The 90’s began with the album Brick by Brick, Iggy’s first Gold album in America, featuring his first Top 40 Hit ‘Candy’ featuring B52’s singer Kate Pierson.

The thing that REALLY opened up ears to Iggy Pop came in 1995, when his 1977 song Lust For Life became the unofficial them for the film Trainspotting and eventually the music behind countless products and services.  But let’s not hold that against him.  I guy has got bills to pay, hence the subsequent use of Iggy by a British insurance company. Besides which, I’d rather see Iggy than some khaki pant wearing conservative.

Sadly, not long after the original Stooges guitarist was on the road with Iggy doing some of the best shows of his life, it was January 6, 2009, when Iggy’s great friend  Ron Asheton passed away  - heart attack at the age of 60.

Iggy must have been listening to theory of a nickel creed, or something when came with his next album ‘Preliminaires’, inspired by a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq Iggy was approached to provide the soundtrack for a documentary film on Michel and his attempts to make a film from his novel. Iggy’s favourite character from Michel’s novel is a little white dog named Fox. Iggy describes this new release as a "quieter album with some jazz overtones".  Iggy also admits that it’s his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music".      For me, beyond that Iggy-goes to New Orleans stand out track ‘King of the Dogs’, the French vocal left me craving Stooges sounding Iggy.

Speaking of which, what a glorious day, in March 2010 when The Stooges were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which soon thereafter was followed by Iggy’s dive into a crowd, that forget to catch him.  It was a move that had Iggy questioning the benefits of stage diving.

And beyond the music, you’ve gotta love Iggy the film actor.  He has appeared in more than a dozen movies, mainstream and underground, including a favourite ‘Dead Mean’, also featuring Johnny Depp and a very cool soundtrack by Neil Young. 

Iggy himself has been portrayed in film, sort of.  Velvet Goldmine, which I don’t recommend, features Ewan McGregor in the Iggy-inspired role of Curt Wilde.  If you’re a gamer, that’s also Iggy as himself as the DJ of the fictional rock station Liberty Rock Radio 97.7 in Grand Theft Auto IV.

I could go on … another day.

Happy birthday Iggy!!!

 Jeff.