- THURSDAY JAM: Why does the sun shine? (4/4/24)
- FRIDAY JAM: A rovin’ a rovin’ a rovin’ I’ll go (12/1/23)1
- SATURDAY JAM: You feel the turning of the world, so soft and slow (11/11/23)
- SUNDAY JAM: Hello, Darkness, my old friend (11/5/23)
- FRIDAY JAM: Plowin’ straight ahead, come what may (10/27/23)1
- WEDNESDAY JAM: Some folks say there ain't no bears in Arkansas (10/25/23)1
- FRIDAY JAM: I took a drive today... (10/20/23)
THURSDAY JAM: Happy 75th to the remarkable James Osterberg Jr.
Iggy Pop turns 75 today, and I'm shocked about that fact.
No, I'm not shocked that James Newell Osterberg Jr. was born 75 years ago today in Muskegon, Mich. That part adds up.
I mean, the first Stooges record was released 53 years ago in 1969, and doing the math, 22 years old seems like the perfect age to have written a song called "I Wanna Be Your Dog."
What mystifies me is that Iggy is here to celebrate with us after three quarters of a century.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about it, but a guy like this — who spent years addicted to heroin and was known to have cut open his chest on stage – isn't really the one you expect to make it to 75.
Think about it, a lot of the people with whom you might associate Iggy – David Bowie, Lou Reed, other original Stooges Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander – are all dead. The four original Ramones – all of them Iggy's junior and definitely inspired by the Stooges – are also deceased.
And yet Iggy is still standing. Apparently he has a constitution that rivals Keith Richards. God bless them both for it.
But I have a theory about Iggy. After he adopted the Iggy persona at some point in the late '60s, I think it kind of took over him, dominated his life for a good 15, 20 years. Life in the Stooges and Iggy's early solo years was a wild, stupid, loud, drug-addled mess. And he seemed to thrive on that.
Somewhere along the way, Iggy Pop took over. James Osterberg was Iggy Pop 24 hours a day, never relaxing, always that crazy guy.
Based on my reading of Iggy's biography several years ago, I think this was the case for quite some time. But somewhere along the way, he discovered James Osterberg again.
Now, Iggy is not who he is. Somewhere along the way, I think James learned to control Iggy. Now it's kind of a mask he can put on and take off.
Consider this story from Marc Maron:
It's like he knows when he needs to be Iggy Pop, but it's just a part he plays at this point.
That might bother some people, but I think it's pretty cool. I don't want to believe that Iggy Pop is stoned and screaming all the time any more than I want to believe that Alice Cooper sleeps in a coffin. I hope they go home to well-adjust lives with nicely-manicured lawns and Volvos in the garage. They've earned it.
But how did we get here anyway? Isn't this supposed to be about music?
I'm of the opinion that the 1970s were the best decade for albums. Sure the Beatles were broken up by then, but I could pretty easily start a list of the best albums ever made just by listing stuff from the 1970s – London Calling, Dark Side of the Moon, Born to Run, Blood on the Tracks, Exile on Main Street, Songs in the Key of Life, Moondance, This Year's Model, Rumours, John Prine, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, After the Gold Rush, Led Zeppelin IV, All Things Must Pass, Maggot Brain, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Band on the Run, Damn the Torpedos, Who's Next, Deja Vu, Red-Headed Stranger, Workingman's Dead, etc.
And even 20-ish albums deep, I've yet to name "Lust for Life," which is easily Iggy's masterpiece in my book.
The record has basically a perfect Side A in my book, including the title track, "Sixteen," "Some Weird Sin," "The Passenger" (the best Iggy song, IMO) and "Tonight."
But I'm not leaving you with any of those – but seriously, check them out if you don't know them.
Instead, here's "Success," a light and funny number that stands in contrast to the rather brooding remainder of the album.
Seriously, the echos of the background singers just kill me every time. It only fuels my penchant for wanting to sing harmony on all my favorite records.
Be good out there, people. Don't do anything Iggy wouldn't do. (wink)
- -- Posted by ridgerunner54 on Mon, Apr 25, 2022, at 4:25 PM
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