William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

Anyone seen this? Willam S. Burroughs - A Man Within there's a brief segment where Iggy attributes the inspiration for Gimme Some Skin to Naked Lunch - followed by a clip from '73 or so with James and Iggy playing live. The clip is only 5 seconds or so - sound not synced - B&W but interesting in that it shows James (with the Keith Richard rooster do) playing what appears to be a Fender jaguar - or Jazzmaster while wearing that weird black outfit with the diamond shape revealing his chest and gut.

"Typhoid Mary, she's got soul
sucks all night, on an old asshole
whip it on out, whip it on in
give it to me honey, you gotta gimme some skin

Billy Billy Lee, aint no fool
all the junkies think he's cool"

I would like to see that.

Burroughs - what a man, from Beat all the way to Punk.

woody wrote:

I would like to see that.

Burroughs - what a man, from Beat all the way to Punk.

I liked it. I recommend it. It sums his life up pretty well

Fascinating stuff - I never really paid much attention to the lyrics of Gimme Some Skin, kind of assumed it was just one of those where Iggy made it up on the spot with whatever filth came into his head while he was in front of the mic!

any idea where the Stooges footage is from? is it the Ivan Kral stuff?

Sounds like it.

Yeah it's ivan kral footage when they playing cock in my pocket

'Gimme some skin' and 'I'm sick of you' are really unpleasant lyrically. Good music but really nasty/grotesque vox. Nasty as in "objectionable" as opposed to "cool".

= = edit = =

To answer your question Sizeable Bulge, no, I do mean the lyrics of "I'm sick of you". I think they're horrible, some quite unpleasant sentiments, albeit probably expressed in a time of great torpor/anaesthetization and pain. However the fact is that some tunes just have nasty lyrics though and one just leaves them behind if they don't float your boat. Nick Cave expressed some relevant points here about this once in an interview where he openly talked about his 'range' of songs going from love songs to hate songs.

Some of Pop's lyrics are great realist/romantic styled poetry in my opinion i.e. 'Search and Destroy', 'I Got Nothing', 'Consolation Prizes', 'Kill City' etc. Some are definitely way darker than others, but some tunes from the 71 - 74 period are lyrically plain awful and I can't listen to them anymore. I find I have become less tolerant of the cussing/sleazy tunes the older I have got as well. Impactful f'sure and of a time, but they just don't do it for me aesthetically anymore as examples of lyrics.

23rd Express wrote:

'Gimme some skin' and 'I'm sick of you' are really unpleasant lyrically. Good music but really nasty/grotesque vox. Nasty as in "objectionable" as opposed to "cool".

I get your point about "Gimme Some Skin", but maybe you're confusing "I'm Sick Of You" with "Rich Bitch", which contains the phrase "I'm sick of you" in the chorus.

Radiobirdman73 wrote:

"Typhoid Mary, she's got soul
sucks all night, on an old asshole
whip it on out, whip it on in
give it to me honey, you gotta gimme some skin

Billy Billy Lee, aint no fool
all the junkies think he's cool"

Gimme Some Skin -

"Better believe it, I ain't no fool,
All the junkies think it's cool.
Why don’t you show them? Show them my rights!
Baby! Baby! Baby! Gonna have mine!"


Billy Billy Lee, aint no fool
all the junkies think he's cool"

Doojiman121 wrote:

Radiobirdman73 wrote:

"Typhoid Mary, she's got soul
sucks all night, on an old asshole
whip it on out, whip it on in
give it to me honey, you gotta gimme some skin

Billy Billy Lee, aint no fool
all the junkies think he's cool"

Gimme Some Skin -

"Better believe it, I ain't no fool,
All the junkies think it's cool.
Why don’t you show them? Show them my rights!
Baby! Baby! Baby! Gonna have mine!"


Billy Billy Lee, aint no fool
all the junkies think he's cool"

I think you may have "show them my rights" correct but I'm not sold on the rest. Credit though, for taking a stab at a nearly inscrutable vocal.

Also I'm pretty sure he's singing "all the junk that you think is cool" and not "all the junkies think he's cool".

23rd Express wrote:

'Gimme some skin' and 'I'm sick of you' are really unpleasant lyrically. Good music but really nasty/grotesque vox. Nasty as in "objectionable" as opposed to "cool".

= = edit = =

To answer your question Sizeable Bulge, no, I do mean the lyrics of "I'm sick of you". I think they're horrible, some quite unpleasant sentiments, albeit probably expressed in a time of great torpor/anaesthetization and pain. However the fact is that some tunes just have nasty lyrics though and one just leaves them behind if they don't float your boat. Nick Cave expressed some relevant points here about this once in an interview where he openly talked about his 'range' of songs going from love songs to hate songs.

Some of Pop's lyrics are great realist/romantic styled poetry in my opinion i.e. 'Search and Destroy', 'I Got Nothing', 'Consolation Prizes', 'Kill City' etc. Some are definitely way darker than others, but some tunes from the 71 - 74 period are lyrically plain awful and I can't listen to them anymore. I find I have become less tolerant of the cussing/sleazy tunes the older I have got as well. Impactful f'sure and of a time, but they just don't do it for me aesthetically anymore as examples of lyrics.

While I don't admire the sentiments expressed in Sick of You, I can understand them.

I meet people all the time, to do with music, be it friends (male or female), or women who I've had fbuddy type things going with.

All the time people move on, for a variety of reasons. I find it hard to understand (and no it's not just because I'm some sort of arsehole and don't know it! ), but I know other people find the same thing happens to them too.

So I think Iggy is both expressing the need of someone to just move on from someone lock stock and barrel, and lyrically I feel he's taking the cue from the Stones, from songs like 'Under My Thumb', 'Play With Fire' etc etc. I.e., arrogant, and arguably mysogyinist lyrics at worst, but also continuing the male rock bravura of people like Jagger, Lou, 'they cheat me, so I'll treat 'em like dirt' ethos.

Iggy has, down the years, treated his women pretty badly here and there, seems pretty much fact given it's not just something that's been alluded to in some trash digging biography...the fair and balanced ones cover that too. My feelings on all this, is people like Bowie, Jagger, Lou etc etc...they're no saints, they're human, and prone to arrogance and a feeling they can get away with what they like in their position. In their defence, there will also be a lot of men in desk jobs, driving trucks or whatever "then" and now, who behave just as badly when they can get away with it. And they'll feel driven to it (not trying to blame either 'party' here, male or female) by the experiences they've had with women or life in general.

I should stress the 'here and there' bit above too. I don't think Iggy or any other rock star (or men in general) I've alluded to is / are all bad. But ultimately I do judge musicians by their music, not their private lives behind the scenes.

I agree that Iggy has done some very poetic lyrics aside from the ones discussed here of course. My point in all this is, Iggy's lyrics are him, for better or worse. If you expect to find you agree with your musical hero on a lot, you could be disappointed (I've read about so many skeletons in cupboard, I think musicians are all bad, just enjoy their work! ).

Gimme Some Skin?

That, on the other hand, always seemed rather silly (in a good way, I like it...don't agree or disagree with the lyrics, they are just for effect and to show off a bit in a 'look how rude I am!" way, just like punk)...it's fun really.

23rd Express wrote:

'Gimme some skin' and 'I'm sick of you' are really unpleasant lyrically. Good music but really nasty/grotesque vox. Nasty as in "objectionable" as opposed to "cool".

= = edit = =

To answer your question Sizeable Bulge, no, I do mean the lyrics of "I'm sick of you". I think they're horrible, some quite unpleasant sentiments, albeit probably expressed in a time of great torpor/anaesthetization and pain. However the fact is that some tunes just have nasty lyrics though and one just leaves them behind if they don't float your boat. Nick Cave expressed some relevant points here about this once in an interview where he openly talked about his 'range' of songs going from love songs to hate songs.

Some of Pop's lyrics are great realist/romantic styled poetry in my opinion i.e. 'Search and Destroy', 'I Got Nothing', 'Consolation Prizes', 'Kill City' etc. Some are definitely way darker than others, but some tunes from the 71 - 74 period are lyrically plain awful and I can't listen to them anymore. I find I have become less tolerant of the cussing/sleazy tunes the older I have got as well. Impactful f'sure and of a time, but they just don't do it for me aesthetically anymore as examples of lyrics.

If you find the lyrics to "I'm Sick Of You" nasty and grotesque I think you may be into the wrong band. Certainly the Raw Power era Stooges never hid their negative/nihilistic bent, and if its milk n' cookies you're after, you won't find it here.

I always thought "There's nothing left alive, But some dark glassy eyes" was a nice lyric?!