Iggy Pop

Nude & Rude: The Best of Iggy Pop
$11.94
There are obviously a few choice tracks missing from this album, but over-all it's great. It's perfect for anyone dipping their toes in the Iggy pool. Plus, Henry friggin' Rollins makes a short appearance on Wild America!!! Yeah? Yeah!

Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed
$15.99
The onstage persona of Jim Osterberg, Iggy Pop, is -- like many other such fictional stage personas (Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne, Criss Angel) -- a marked departure from the actor behind the mask. It is also an unsustainable fiction; in that the excesses and the legends surrounding these characters can lead to public expectations which take on lives of their own. The men behind these WWF-like characters must learn to separate their real lives from the fictional characters they portray, or risk falling down the very rabbit hole they use to scare their audiences.

Iggy or Jim came closer than most. He more-or-less lost himself for a good long while, living the rock & roll lifestyle and indulging in the depravity expected of Iggy rather than leaving him onstage. That Jim has survived to re-emerge in the mid-1990s as a cleaned-up (but scarily ugly) aging rock star is a remarkable and in its own way inspiring story.

Paul Trynka's "Open Up and Bleed" tells the story with balance (neither a fanboy nor a scold), with just the right level of detail (the hundreds of interviews are implied but rarely quoted) and with compulsively readable pacing. It is one of the best musician biographies ever written whether or not you consider the fictional character at the center to be a pioneering genius or a self-destructive idiot. Many greater talents have not survived the cauldron of fame.

Preliminaires
$15.98
Iggy Pop new CD is possible his best. Like Leaonard Cohen, Tom Waits et al these old buggers just keep getting better. The French quarter sound and the use of the New Orleans Funeral Band add to the mood and highlight of Pop's now very gruff voice. Check out the King of the Dogs interactive video on You Tube while your at it.

A Million in Prizes: The Anthology
$21.94

This album is hard to rate-it's the first thing I've ever owned by either Iggy or The Stooges, so not sure if there are any good songs missing from this compilation. I'm giving this album around 7/10 because if you want to explore either Iggy or The Stooges, but aren't sure which to do first, you can kill two birds with one stone on this one. Overall, most of the songs on this cd didn't really leave a big impression on me and I'm having to rely on notes to remember which the better tracks were.

The best tracks:

Real wild child- a cover of the classic Australian song which has been used to mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of Australian rock and roll, namely, Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild one". Just by the way, my first review at this site is for an excellent JOK 3 cd compilation. To mark the 50th anniversary of Australian rock'n'roll last year, Iggy teamed up with Australian rock group Jet to do another version of this song...more in keeping with Iggy's first cover of this song. JOK's version is more rockabilly, as you'd expect from a 50's artist. This Iggy version has synth, bass and a grungy guitar sound. You can hear bits of it in the introduction for the Australian music video show "Rage".

Candy: It's a story based song, featuring The B52's Kate Pierson. I've also written a review of a B52's compilation at this site.

Lust for life: I'm pretty sure that there are two versions of this song...and the version that I like the best isn't on this compilation. The version I speak of is the one used for the British grunge movie "Trainspotting". It seemed to have a crisper and more intense sound/feeling. The version on this compilation has an Elvis live style introduction, a country boogie flavoured guitar sound and an insistent riff. If both versions of this song were on here, I'd be more positive about this title.

I felt the luxury: has a mellow, jazzy, poetic vibe to it. Not that I'd know a beat poet if they button-holed me, but I'm guessing it might have been influenced by this genre of poetry, or maybe Jim Morrison, of The Doors, who was also into poetry and wrote some himself. Has interesting drums, organ and bass guitar.

I wanna be your dog: The first version I heard of this song was in a heavy metal band's cover of punk songs: Slayer's "Undisputed attitude". Loved the menacing guitar sound and mood of that cover. Recently reviewed that Slayer album here too. Anyway, Slayer didn't create any atmosphere that wasn't in the original...it's just as dark and grating as the Slayer version. Love the moody guitar riff in this. Not sure, but I'm guessing that maybe some kind of lagerphone is being used here (instrument utilising bottlecaps). The one note being played on the piano is also very effective. This song is sort of Black Sabbath meets Jingle Bells. Slayer changed some of the lyrics, and the title to "I wanna be your God".

I'm sick of you: bookended by a pretty lead guitar, bass guitar. The middle section is quite driving rock.

Well did you evah!: cute, character based song-a duet with Blondie's Deborah Harry.

Funtime: has a dance beat, simple, stoner lyrics and a grungy guitar sound.

Look away: another narrative based song, with a nice, mellow guitar sound and vocals, as well as interesting drumming. Also mixes a 'hard' guitar sound with 'soft' guitar sound.

Honestly, apart from a few songs, I've forgotten how most of the songs above sound. There are some other songs on this album which remind me of other songs, e.g.

Corruption: not a bad song-bassy and riffy, like INXS "Devil inside". Interesting lyrics.

Kill City: hmmm...the opening riff and chorus vibe is VERY similar to Elton John's classic song "Saturday night's alright for fighting".

Nightclubbing: has a very similar beat, I think, to Gary Glitter's classic "Rock and roll (Part 2)". The introduction to this song also reminded me of what Prince would do with his classic "Raspberry beret".

Skull ring: this is another song that seems to riff on the famous theme to the tv show "Peter Gunn". Other acts to do this include Radio Birdman, Pixies...and other acts whose names escape me at the moment.

Lastly, should mention "China girl". Not sure if Iggy has covered this song which I know for David Bowie's version. The ambience in this song is a little different to the Bowie song. Not sure if it features the xylophone...something weird like that is being used in any case. I like the guitar sound in this song.

Anyway, this seems the compilation to get if Iggy interests you and you also wouldn't mind exploring his earlier work with The Stooges. Even though this isn't really my kind of music and I don't find it particularly memorable, it does have some good songs on it and the songs that aren't particularly good are at least varied and interesting. E.g. some songs here sound like they're from the 1950's, like "1969". Other songs sound like proto-metal (a la Deep Purple and Black Sabbath), like "I wanna be your dog" and "I got a right". And whilst some songs sound mellow, others have more in common with the lo-fi sounds of a band like The Moldy Peaches, e.g. "Raw power" (which reminds me of the Peaches "New York", from an album I also reviewed here not too long ago).

Overall, this compilation has a good variety of songs and a variety of instruments, which doesn't make you feel like you are listening to the same old same old. Maybe a score of 65/100 would be closer to the mark for me, but, like I said, you can explore Iggy's work with The Stooges on this compilation, which bumps up my score.