Looking for a place to start? Here are the best Iggy Pop songs of all time. Its lyrics were reputedly inspired by a brawl at an Aussie wedding reception that ended up in a full-scale riot, so it seemed ideal fare for Iggy to put his anarchic stamp upon. A combination of hard luck and a series of soul-destroying business and personal problems found him at a low ebb in , when rookie film director Alex Cox threw Iggy a lifeline, offering him the chance to write and perform the theme for his cult LA film Repo Man , starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. Co-written with guitarist Rob Dupry and featuring Stein on bass and Blondie bandmate Clem Burke on drums, Zombie Birdhouse found Iggy re-engaging with the leftfield experiments of The Idiot and presenting a mouth-wateringly diverse collection of tracks. As the infamous Live Metallic KO album confirms, The Stooges literally split up in a hailstorm of violence early in To be part of that statement felt so wonderful. Pre-order it here.
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2. Down On The Street, Fun House (1970)
Iggy Pop is a lot of things. In any case, here are 10 songs that define the Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop. That dirty garage rock sound that so many bands have tried to copy but never manage to fully capture. Fun House sounds exactly how you think an album fronted by a man who would roll around naked on broken glass would sound. Raw Power was the first Stooges album to include James Williamson as a co-writer and guitarist, and his input is invaluable. By the Stooges had collapsed. Pop had become good friends with David Bowie, tagging along during the Station to Station tour, and eventually moving to Berlin with the Thin White Duke. While there, their collaboration led to Pop recording and releasing two career-defining albums in the space of a year. AKA the Trainspotting song. Lust For Life is the album where Pop figures out the kind of musician he wants to be, a cornerstone where all of his future work is firmly built.
# 9 – Bang Bang
A Machine For Loving. Afraid To Get Close. African Man. Avenue B. Baby 2. Baby It Can't Fall 4. Bang Bang 4.
The Stooges had come off the rails before, but in February they finally split for good. Despite the ignominious nature of their demise, Jim Osterberg — the man behind Iggy Pop — had still not quite reached his rock bottom. He spent the best part of a year couch surfing and relying on the charity of others, including fans, for heroin and quaaludes. An intervention took place when he was arrested for intimidating diners at an LA burger emporium. Records gave Williamson funds to complete and release the album. Despite their narcotic proclivities, David Bowie and Iggy Pop were good for each other. Their counterintuitive logic led them to try to clean up their lifestyles by moving from LA to Berlin, the heroin capital of the world, but they showed a surprising degree of restraint while living there for a while anyway. The 18 months they spent together would turn out to be the most productive period of both their lives. Iggy managed to release two albums in , the first of which — The Idiot, named after the Dostoevsky novel — was a far cry from the Stooges.
