Twenty minutes of mindfulness, twenty sit-ups against the tummy, a cup ofyogurt with nuts for breakfast and then a swim in natural water. At the age of75, Iggy Pop knows better than anyone what it takes to stay in shape. On stagehe still rocks practically as hard as fifty years ago, although stage divingis no longer an option for him. “The chances are that I will be damaged byit,” said the older and wiser singer on the occasion of his penultimate,relatively quiet album Free (2019).
That rest was relative, as Iggy Pop now appears on his new album _Every Loser_again almost as fanatically as in the early years (1967-’73) with his proto-punk band The Stooges. The rebellious, ‘fuck!’ shouting, fearless rocker isback in 2023 in songs like ‘Frenzy’ and ‘Neo Punk’. In ‘Modern Day Rip Off’,next to the hectic guitars and the pounding rhythm, you can hear such atypical Stooges piano: one chord repeated endlessly to give the music anirresistible drive. “I’m gonna blow up a church”, the singer fulminates in’All the Way Down’. On his upcoming tour, it will fit effortlessly between ‘IWanna Be Your Dog’ and ‘Lust For Life’, the songs with which Iggy Pop made aname for himself as the godfather of punk.
Wildeman from Detroit
The musician known as James Newell Osterberg Jr. was born in Muskegon,Michigan, initially saw a future as a drummer. The Stooges took him frombehind the drums and pushed him forward as the singer who soon developed intothe biggest wild man in the booming Ann Arbor and Detroit rock scene of thelate 1960s. Iggy smeared herself with peanut butter, rolled through shards ofglass and confronted the audience. Guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer (andbrother) Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander played their primitive rock& roll with true contempt for death. The two albums The Stooges released onthe Elektra label in 1969 and 1970 are the blueprint for everything that cameto be called punk after that.
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David Bowie saved the quickly burnt-out Iggy Pop from the ruins of TheStooges, which was about to collapse from drugs and mayhem. Bowie produced thealbum rawpower which resulted in songs with eternal value with ‘Search andDestroy’ and ‘Gimme Danger’. Later, Bowie would again bring his friend Iggyout of anonymity with the ‘Berlin’ albums The Idiot and Lust For Life(both 1977). In the rich solo career that followed, Iggy Pop was often joinedby admirers who produced albums with and for him: Blondie’s Chris Stein on_Zombie Birdhouse_ Bill Laswell op Instinct Don Was up Brick By Brick andJosh Homme on Post Pop Depression (2016) which was followed by an impressivetour with members of Homme’s band Queens Of The Stone Age.
It is always special to see Iggy Pop raging across the stage like a tornado> from the first seconds
Meanwhile, the blood was crawling where it couldn’t go and The Stooges werere-established in 2003, with bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose)succeeding Dave Alexander, who died in 1975. While this later incarnation ofThe Stooges never officially disbanded, the deaths of Ron Asheton in 2009 andScott Asheton in 2014 ended the influential group’s classic line-up. Many rockgroups with punk antecedents are indebted to their pioneering work, from SexPistols to Viagra Boys and from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Måneskin.
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With his bare chest, flowing hair and ostentatious display of muscle, Iggy Popremained the epitome of rock music machismo. On the calendar of the tire brandPirelli, photographed by fellow musician Bryan Adams, he appeared half-nakedagain in 2022, covered with a layer of silver paint. At festivals it is alwaysa special sensation to see Iggy Pop raging across the stage like a tornadofrom the first seconds of his show. His macho appearance has become a bitcrazy nowadays: young women who see the half-undressed seventies on stage forthe first time can be caught in a spontaneous laughing fit, I know fromexperience.
Stuck rock clichés
Iggy Pop has tried more than once to get out of the rock clichés entrenched.In 1990 he threw himself with duet partner Debbie Harry on the musical tune’Well, Did You Evah’ by Cole Porter. In 2009 he allowed himself for the jazz-oriented and partly sung in French album Preliminaries inspired by MichelHouellebecq’s novel La Possibility d ‘une île. On the predominantlyfrancophone Apres (2012) Iggy Pop ventured into great chansons such as ‘LaJavanaise’ (Serge Gainsbourg) and ‘La Via en Rose’ (Édith Piaf). Remarkablyenough, the album was only a success in Germany.
Although he discovered his qualities as a crooner later in life, Iggy Pop wasable to resist the temptation to make an entire album of songs from The GreatAmerican Songbook. He did interpret Free the poem ‘Do Not Go Gently IntoThat Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas. Listeners of the BBC6 radio program knowthat he has a pleasant speaking voice Iggy Confidential. Since 2013, Pop hasbeen showing a selection of his favorite music every week, from James Brown toFela Kuti and from Ella Fitzgerald to the young Japanese/American girl bandThe Linda Lindas.
The artistic and commercial success of his collaboration with Josh Homme andQueens Of The Stone Age must have made Iggy Pop realize that the public stillprefers to see him rock at the age of 75. In the music sheet Mojo he said:“A special part of my creative brain ignites at the opportunity to makeconfrontational rock music.”