role models?

The last time I remember seeing Iggy talking about his favourite bands in an interview it was people like RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. He always seems to like the blues.

well, he started out as a blues drummer...

don't really know much about those blues artists either, and just how much they meant to the others, but the melancholy blues sensibility is often evident in Iggy. I really think this 'blues' melancholy permeates the whole of the first album, but, as the style of the music wasn't generally recognisable AS 'blues', it got taken up as something entirely 'new' in music - the sullen, apathetic attitude of bored, disaffected youth etc

of course a 'melancholy' sensibility needn't always be equated with the blues, but the blues were a major influence on Iggy

ok, time for me to stop rambling (or maybe to cross over to the blues thread)

but of course there were so many other elements too, generally speaking the band were so open-minded, experimental, receptive to different kinds of influence and sound...and inadvertently ended up helping to invent punk. Peculiar fate, really.

interesting is that the punk movement helped Iggy a lot.....to get back into the picture after '77.
He was staying in Berlin with Bowie when the punk movement spread his influence in European musicbusiness. Iggy and Bowie stayed in the periphery. With The Idiot..there was not much of a connection with punk music.
Than the punk movement helped Iggy to be called 'The Godfather of Punk' and with that title and 'credibility' he got the attention on his side again.

Iggy's blues base is a bit ignored after this 'Godfather' title unfortunately.

cant believe you guys havent heard of them, buddy guys a personal favourite there, and junior kimbrough! didnt konw iggy liked him, thanks for the info zin/donald

ill have to check rl burnside, never heard of him

StrawberryFields360 wrote:

I heard Jim Morrison was a major influence in more than one way, not just stage presence and all that but song writing. In some interview with Iggy, he mentioned that the song "The Passenger" is based on a Jim Morrison poem about life as a car trip across country...beautiful idea. ...

wonder what the original Morrison poem was like
I've always thought 'The Passenger' a tad pretentious...guess that's why, haha

homesickjameswilliamson wrote:

cant believe you guys havent heard of them,
ill have to check rl burnside, never heard of him

oh well, there's someone YOU haven't heard of!

Quote :

I've always thought 'The Passenger' a tad pretentious...guess that's why, haha

WHAT?! oh my god, nadja, thats unbelievable, the passengers one of the best songs ever, let alone of iggys catalogue

plus i cant really agree with morrison being pretentious, i can see how ppl could think that, but i cant agree

anyway, yeh i'd like to know which poem it iwas as well, i had that lost paris tapes thing, but never listened to it

just don't like some of the lyrics is all, I'm not saying it's a bad song

but the lyrics are the song, yes it has a great 'riff' (esp powerful on the hippodrome show) but the lyrics are the best part of the song

I'll have to disagree with you Nadja (one of few times I have buddy ) but I think Iggy's lyrics for "The Passenger" are nothing short of genius. Its basically a few lines repeated with slightly modified lyrics that reach a manical peak, "LET'S TAKE A RIDE AND SEE WHATS MINE!". I think that line alone is one of Iggy's best ever vocals. Its a very catchy, very dark song.

I cannot see how it is pretentious (I also dislike Jim Morrison's "poetic" ramblings but I see no similarity to them and this), its got a simple riff with a chorus which is just the word "La" sung over and over again. How is that pretentious?

But I have a very soft spot for "The Passenger" it introduced me to Iggy therefore to The Stooges.

yep me too..being introduced with first...eh...after Lust for Life
and yes it's an absolute masterpiece of a song!!



singin lalalalalalalala...

G, F#, E wrote:

But I have a very soft spot for "The Passenger" it introduced me to Iggy therefore to The Stooges.

well, The Passenger also introduced me to Iggy, not to The Stooges tho.
.
also, I wasn't talking about riffs, in relation to this song. And I don't dislike ALL the lyrics by any means.

Quote :

And I don't dislike ALL the lyrics by any means.

which in particular? im not trying to be clever or anything, i just would like to know what oyu dont like about the song

- it is a great line G, another one i love

"i'm worth a million in prizes"

lust for life is laden with amazing lines

I should never have started this.
I hate the reference to the 'city's ripped backside', very sorry hjw but it gives me a queasy feeling.There's nothing else really I suppose, but it's the way that the song's been taken up by critics in some books I've read...maybe it was really academic pretentiousness I was griping about...
Special message to GF#E: I'll recant, the song itself is really not pretentious after all... you see I can't bear disagreeing with ya G . And you're right about how it builds up, that cumulative effect

well Nadja yeah...it's not easy to ventilate a different opinion on a forum if you know that a lot of the people will not agree with ya.. but it's definitely interesting to my opinion ... + keeping the ideas a bit fresh and goin.

ZinZin wrote:

well Nadja yeah...it's not easy to ventilate a different opinion on a forum if you know that a lot of the people will not agree with ya.. but it's definitely interesting to my opinion ... + keeping the ideas a bit fresh and goin.

ok, I'll take that as a sort of compliment, I guess

of coarse it's a compliment...
also to anybody with a different opinion ventilating it here!

What doesn't mean that you won't be slaughtered
... kiddin

yeh, yeh, dont take it as an insult, or in any offence nadja, i just love the song soo much it might feel like im 'asking you into liking it' lol or something like that, but as zin said, its great to hear other views on songs, just talkin about the lyrics in that other thread ive listened to some of those songs again, and my love just increases for them, so its always good to hear a different opinion

Nadja wrote:

Special message to GF#E: I'll recant, the song itself is really not pretentious after all... you see I can't bear disagreeing with ya G . And you're right about how it builds up, that cumulative effect

Aw shucks.