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11-10 Iggy Pop announces Every Loser
03-11 Iggy Pop streams new album
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There's a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the godfather of punk -- every single punk band of the past and present has either
knowinglyor unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop and his late-'60s/early-'70s band, the Stooges. Born on April 21,
1947, in Muskegon, MI,James Newell Osterberg was raised by his parents in a trailer park close to Ann Arbor, in nearby Ypsilanti.
Intrigued by rock & roll (as wellas such non-musical, monotonous, and mechanical sounds as his father's electric razor and the
local automobile assembly plants inDetroit), Osterberg began playing drums and formed ...read more
There's a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the godfather of punk -- every single punk band of the past and present has either
knowinglyor unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop and his late-'60s/early-'70s band, the Stooges. Born on April 21,
1947, in Muskegon, MI,James Newell Osterberg was raised by his parents in a trailer park close to Ann Arbor, in nearby Ypsilanti.
Intrigued by rock & roll (as wellas such non-musical, monotonous, and mechanical sounds as his father's electric razor and the
local automobile assembly plants inDetroit), Osterberg began playing drums and formed his first band, the Iguanas, in the early
'60s. Via the Rolling Stones, Osterbergdiscovered the blues and formed a similarly styled outfit, called the Prime Movers, upon
graduating from high school in 1965. When a briefstint at the University of Michigan didn't work out, he moved to Chicago
instead, where he played drums alongside the city's bluesmen.
His heart remained with rock & roll, however, and shortly after returning to Ann Arbor, Osterberg decided to form a rock band.
This time, hewould leave the drums behind and be the frontman, taking inspiration from the likes of the Velvet Underground's
Lou Reed and the Doors'Jim Morrison. He tried to find musicians who shared his musical vision: to create a band whose music
would be primordial, sexually charged,aggressive, and repetitive (using his early electric razor/car plant memories for reference).
In 1967, he hooked up with an old acquaintancefrom his high school days, guitarist Ron Asheton, who also brought along his
brother, drummer Scott, and bassist Dave Alexander, thusforming the Psychedelic Stooges. Although it would take a while for
their sound to gel -- they experimented with such non-traditionalinstruments as empty oil drums, vacuums, and other objects
before retuning to their respective instruments -- the group fit in perfectly withsuch other high-energy Detroit bands as the MC5,
becoming a local attraction.
It was around this time that the group shortened its name to the Stooges, and Osterberg changed his own stage name to Iggy
Pop. With thename change, Pop became a man possessed on-stage, going into the crowd nightly to confront members of the
audience and working himselfinto such a frenzy that he would be bleeding by the end of the night from various nicks and
scratches. Elektra Records signed the quartet in1968, issuing their self-titled debut a year later and a follow-up effort, Fun
House, in 1970. Although both records sold poorly upon release,they've since become rock classics, and can be pointed to as the
official catalyst for what later became punk rock.
The Stooges were dropped from their record company in 1971 due to the public's disinterest and the group's growing addictions
to harddrugs. Pop's continuous death-defying acts also worried the label, whose decision to drop the band led to the Stooges'
breakup the sameyear. One of the band's more celebrated fans, David Bowie, tracked down Pop and convinced the newly clean
and sober singer to restart hiscareer. Pop enlisted guitarist James Williamson (who was briefly a second guitarist for the Stooges
before their breakup) and, after the pairsigned to Bowie's Mainman management company and relocated to England, eventually
reunited with the Asheton brothers, with Ron movingfrom the six-string guitar to the bass.
Signed by Columbia Records and hoping to follow in Bowie's footsteps toward a major commercial breakthrough, the Stooges
penned anotherpunk classic, the brutally explosive Raw Power. Pop's plan for the Stooges' third release was equally brutal; he
wanted to create a recordthat would be so powerful, so sonically over the top, that it would physically hurt the listener as it
poured forth from the speakers. Althoughthe resulting album wasn't quite that extreme, it came fairly close, with Bowie lending
his own contributions as the album's producer. Onceagain, the album sank without a trace. By 1974, Pop and most of the
Stooges had fallen back into the world of heavy drugs, and with theirstar fading, the band called it quits for a second (and final)
time.
After spending a brief spell homeless on the streets of Hollywood, during which time there was an unsuccessful attempt to form
a band withPop and former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, Iggy Pop checked himself into the Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los
Angeles. During hisstay at the hospital, Pop made an attempt at writing and recording some new tunes with Williamson, but
when no labels expressed interest,the two went their separate ways. (Completed demos of the sessions would surface on the Kill
City release in 1977; they would also appearon the 2005 compilation Penetration, which featured a number of widely circulated
demos, outtakes, and alternate mixes from the RawPower sessions.)
During his hospital stay, another old friend came to visit him: David Bowie, whose career was still in high gear. Bowie offered to
take Pop onthe road with him during his tour in support of Station to Station, and the pair got along so well that they both
moved to Berlin in late 1976,during which time Bowie helped Pop secure a solo record deal with RCA. Bowie had become
interested in European electronic rock(Kraftwerk, Can, etc.) and later admitted that he used Pop as a musical guinea pig on such
releases as The Idiot and Lust for Life (bothissued in 1977 and produced/co-written by Bowie). Both albums sold better than the
singer's previous efforts with the Stooges (particularlyin the U.K., where Pop was looked upon as an icon by the burgeoning punk
rock movement) as Bowie joined Pop on his world tour as akeyboardist. Shortly thereafter, a surprisingly muddy sounding live
album was culled from Pop's most recent tour, titled TV Eye (1977 Live).It was also around this time that Pop severed his ties
with Bowie and struck out on his own.
Signing on with another new label, Arista, Pop reunited once more with James Williamson for 1979's New Values, an album that
touched off astring of releases that were largely inconsistent and musically confused (it appeared as though Pop was trying to
reinvent himself as a newwaver): 1980's Soldier, 1981's Party, and 1982's Zombie Birdhouse. Also in 1982, Pop penned his
autobiography, I Need More, afascinating book of rock & roll excess that chronicled his early years straight up to the then-
present day. Despite the flurry of activity, Popbegan succumbing to his vices once again and stepped out of the spotlight for a
long stretch to sort his life out, during which time Bowiescored a massive hit with a remake of the Pop/Bowie nugget "China Girl"
(recorded earlier on Pop's The Idiot). It wasn't until 1986 that Popresurfaced, signing with a new contract A&M and issuing the
Bowie-produced Blah Blah Blah, which featured his first U.S. hit single (albeit amoderate one), a cover of "Real Wild Child."
1988's Instinct saw Pop try his hand at hard rock/heavy metal, joined by ex-Sex Pistolsguitarist Steve Jones, but it wasn't until
1990's Brick by Brick (his first album for Virgin Records) that Pop fully regained his musicalstrength and focus, resulting in his
first U.S. gold-certified album and Top 20 hit single, "Candy," a surprisingly tuneful duet with the B-52's'Kate Pierson.
Just as in the mid-'70s when Pop was looked up to by a slew of up-and-coming punk bands, history repeated itself in the early
'90s with theemergence of such Stooges disciples from Seattle (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, etc.). Around the same time,
a wide variety of bandscovered Pop and/or Stooges tracks -- Slayer, Duran Duran, Guns N' Roses, R.E.M., and Tom Jones -- while
Pop issued another fine solo set,1993's American Caesar. Although Pop attempted to re-create the Stooges' sound and approach
on his 1996 solo album Naughty LittleDoggie, it wasn't as critically or commercially successful as his previous couple of releases.
But the same year, Pop enjoyed another hitwhen the nearly 20-year-old title track from Lust for Life was used prominently on the
hit movie soundtrack Trainspotting. Throughout thedecade, Pop also tried his hand at acting in movies, scoring bit parts in such
flicks as Cry-Baby, Dead Man, and The Crow II: City ofAngels, plus a recurring role on the TV show The Adventures of Pete &
Pete. Although he wasn't involved in it, the 1998 movie VelvetGoldmine was allegedly based on Bowie and Pop's relationship in
the early '70s (Ewan McGregor's character, Curt Wild, was obviouslypatterned after Stooges-era Pop).
With just about every new rock band listing the Stooges as a major influence by the late '90s, Iggy tentatively began looking
back to theband's legacy. He personally remixed a newly remastered version of Raw Power in 1997, after the long-lost original
master tapes wererediscovered and Pop moved the album closer to his original vision of a total sonic onslaught. Also released
around this time was anotherPop/Stooges-related book, the must-read Please Kill Me: The Oral History of Punk, which recounted
the Stooges' career in great detail(featuring interviews with all the band's surviving members). 1999 was a busy year for Pop as
he was the subject of a VH1 Behind the Musicepisode, and a new solo album was issued, the laid-back Avenue B. But his more
"refined" musical approach was strictly a detour, as provenby his next release, 2001's in-your-face rockfest Beat Em Up.
After abandoning a promised Stooges reunion in the late '90s, Pop finally made good on his pledge in 2003, bringing Ron
Asheton and ScottAsheton aboard to write and record four songs with him for his album Skull Ring, and taking the reconstituted
Stooges on the road for a shortbut riotously received tour (with Mike Watt standing in for the late Dave Alexander on bass, and
with the set dominated by tunes from TheStooges and Fun House). In 2004, Iggy appeared in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and
Cigarettes. After issuing the January 2005 effortPenetration, Pop released the retrospective A Million in Prizes: The Anthology,
which spanned his entire career and included a 37-track CD,a previously unreleased live DVD, and a round of essays about Pop's
legacy that were penned by notables like Bowie and Lou Reed. Popreleased another compilation, Where the Faces Shine, the
following year.
Iggy Pop maintained his profile during the subsequent years by appearing on an album by Praxis, performing several Madonna
songs at theinduction ceremony of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and appearing in TV advertisements for the British insurance
company Swiftcover. Backin Ann Arbor, however, Asheton suffered a fatal heart attack in early 2009, robbing Pop of his best
friend and plunging the Stooges' careerinto instability. Nonetheless, Pop released another solo record, Preliminaires, that May,
taking his inspiration from jazz music and the workof French novelist Michel Houellebecq. In 2010, Pop and the rest of the
Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During agig that year at Carnegie Hall, Pop dove into the audience
and sustained slight injuries when the crowd failed to catch him, prompting him toquit stage-diving. « hide |
Similar Bands: The Stooges, Ramones, Richard Hell, MC5, New York Dolls Contributors: eddie95, TwigTW, tarkus, theacademy, rockandmetaljunkie, Willie, ClichePoser, tom79, Hep Kat, Alex101, archit3uthis, Voivod, Chrysalis76, SandwichBubble, Frippertronics, TwigTW, rockandmetaljunkie,
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