Looking through transcripts for background on a recent project, I rediscovered this interview with Charles Francis of Pixies. He had many insight on Iggy and his music. Here he talks about his two favourite Iggy albums.
‘What I think is the ultimate way to start off with Iggy is the re-packaging of Lust For Life with The Idiot. I don’t know if it’s the greatest moment of Iggy’s career creatively, but arguably it is. It’s a graduation from the physical. It’s where he really steps into the more art side of his personality. I mean every artist has their actual art that they make and then there’s their persona and their image or whatever, which in someone like Iggy’s case can be at times part of the art. And then you have, of course, their real personality; who they really are when they’re not on stage or recording themselves in a studio – Jim in his backyard. I don’t know the real Jim, but I suspect there’s a lot of the real Jim in the persona as well as the art.
“The Idiot, which is a little more orchestrated, a little less rock band and more synthesizer symphony, is actually slightly harder and more aggressive in its tone. It’s more industrial. But both of those records, which were recorded very close to each other, really catch him when his poetry is really strong and a lot of it is improvised, or seems improvised anyway. Of course the most classic track from both records would be ‘The Passenger’. Which is a kind of mantra study on Berlin: I’m riding the train and the lights. It’s boiled down real pure. He still keeps it primal even though he’s trying to get to the art and try to get more into his poetry. He’s just singing about the night, the sky, glass, leather, the song about the girl who’s died presumably from some drug overdose and her face has turned blue. It’s like really simple language and it’s very effective. That’s how I got into Iggy through those two records and I listened to them in the dark over and over and over again. That was my introduction to Iggy Pop.
“On those records there was that sort of intensity that you get on a Frank Sinatra record. It’s just, ‘Here I am. Here’s my voice. I’m right in front of you.’ I really liked the resonance of his voice. The mix. There’s a little bit of shouting and stuff, but it’s still very… the tougher moments on the record are not the shouting moments. It’s real creaky and kind of soulful.”