I feel I’m getting to grips with this period now, a major turning point – for the worse – in Iggy’s career. One insight I gained from this interview was how dreadful the music industry was in the late ’70s. Everyone thinks of it as the era of punk, but when Levison took on the job of steering Arista in all territories except the US in the spring of 1978, his major acts were Barry Manilow, Showaddywaddy and the Bay City Rollers. It was Levison who was responsible for pairing Iggy with Tommy Boyce, the producer and songwriter best known for penning Last Train to Clarksville. But it turns out that Boyce came to Levison’s attention via his production work for a doo wop band called Darts. I can just about remember how the glam movement somehow resulted in fifties rehashes by bands like Mud and Showaddywaddy. I’d forgotten how gurning revivalists like Darts were notching up hits with pretty much the same dreck in the supposed heyday of punk. It’s a wonderful thing about the human memory, that one can airbrush such horrors out of one’s recollections.

 

Levison was quite honest about his involvement in Iggy’s later Arista albums, generally poor works which, with record company interference, were rendered absolutely pitiful. I’ve already done a lot of interviews covering Iggy Pop’s great works - and I must admit to much glee at uncovering what went on behind the scenes for the disastrous ones, too.