THE RANDOM PULL

The other night I grabbed a totally random album out of the rack without looking and slapped it on. Iggy Pop's The Idiot, his first post-Stooges LP. The last Stooges album (credited to Iggy and the Stooges), Raw Power was a departure from the first two. Rocking, yes, but the first two LPs were just fucking downright feral. Even that departure was mild in comparison to the change between Raw Power, released in 1973, and the industrial dirge of The Idiot released four years later. The latter was produced by David Bowie, and he also played on it, not just snippets. He had so much to do with the overall sound and feel of of it that it might as well be seen as a equal billing collaboration between the two. Bowie was actually formulating the sound that would later be heard on his so-called Berlin trilogy (the LPs Low, Heroes and Lodger). Listening to The Idiot now, it seems way more ahead of its time, something I had not recognized when it came out. Then again, the disappointment I felt when I first heard it was largely because I was hoping for a more Stooges-like album. Hey, it was 1977, punk rock and all of that. Then, this?

I managed to find the five tracks on side one and I do recommend listening to the whole thing, so there's a link to a streaming side two. Also, what seems to be an exhaustive song-by-song article on the LP, with links to related videos. I've not read it or tried any of the YouTube links, but it's there anyway.

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Listen:
Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight mp3 at Olcros (?)
Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing mp3 at In Bed With Dactylo
Iggy Pop - Funtime mp3 at Olcros (?)
Iggy Pop - Baby mp3 at The Rising Storm
Iggy Pop - China Girl mp3 at Olcros(?)
Iggy Pop - The Idiot, side two (streaming) at YouTube Three songs: Dum Dum Boys, Tiny Girl, Mass Production
Visit:
Nightclubbing at Pushing Ahead of the Dame A song by song rundown of The Idiot on a Bowie fan site.