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Iggy Pop: Mad Artistry, Mental Wards, and Gaping Chest Wounds · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: iggy Pop are insane. He bloodied himself in public, taunted
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: dangerous bikers into a violent beatdown, committed himself to live
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: acts of sex, sickness, and rumored suicide on stage. He
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: was addicted, arrested, and committed to an insane asylum. He
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: terrified and enthralled audiences, accidentally invented punk rock, post punk,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and of course was the originator of the stage dive.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop pushed rock and roll further over the line
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: than anyone before him and ushered in a new era
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of musical nihilism that was perfectly suited for the cynical
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: malaise of the nineteen seventies. And Iggy Pop made great music,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: some of the great music ever made it as a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: matter of fact. And that music I played you at
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the top of the show. That wasn't great music. That
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called Mellow Submarine
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: slog BK one. I played you that loop because I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to thank you for letting me
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: be myself again by Sly and the Family Stone. And
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: why would I play you that specific slice of Coke
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: sold Cheese?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Could I afford it?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: February twenty first, nineteen seventy, and that was the day
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop played New York City for the first time,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: announcing in earnest to the world the arrival of a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: new kind of rock star, one who would push it
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: further than any other musician before him, both on and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: off stage. On this episode, Submarine slogs coke sold Cheese,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop and pushing it over the line, I'm Jake Brennan.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: In this disgrace, la.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop was bleeding again, and this time it was bad.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: He looked down at his chest.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: The image of the blood torrenting out clanged against the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: many hyperreal images rapidly firing throughout his brain so fast
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: it was hard to tell if he was awake or dreaming.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Iggy was in his temporary room. The walls weren't rubber,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: but they were institutional green, drab enough to make you
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: want to kill yourself, but just the same. Iggy Pop,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: known to his close friends as Jim and to authorities
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: as James Austerberg, was not wearing a straight jack. He
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: was dressed the same way he dressed before checking into
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the mental institution. No shirt, no shoes, low slung pants,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: pajama bottoms. It wasn't the woman's dress he was wearing
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: when the pigs picked him up, wandering down sunset, looking
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like one of Charlie's girl's blotto in the midst of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a dark drug psychosis. But it was still typical Iggy,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: his skin like leather, his chest impossibly cut, his hair long,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: dirty perfect. He sat crosslegged on his unmade bed, his
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: veiny hand fingering the space between his first two toes,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: sleepily shaking off the cobwebs of another night of tough
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: heroin detox, and the dreams hit him hard, so hard
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that waking was a restless, confusing endeavor, filled with fear,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: paranoia in the dreadful sense that this this was going
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to be the day when he would finally slip over
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the line and never come back. Reality was tenuous at
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: best and played tricks on and whenever it could, Particularly
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in the minutes after he awoke from a fevered dream,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Iggy blinked his eyes open. He could see out beyond
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the doors, iron bars that kept him rock and roll animal,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that he was caged His eyes scanned down the long,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: fifteen foot wide card its linoleum, bleaming in parts, cracked
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and neglected in others. He leaned back on his bed,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: more of a cot. Really, he'd slept in smaller rooms.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: How the trailer he grew up in with his parents
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: back in ann Arbor, Michigan, was tighter than this place.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: He opened his eyes. He was in the funhouse now,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the grimy single family turned drug down that Iggy and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: his bandmates lived and rehearsed in at two six sixty
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: six Packard Road in ann Arber.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: He could tell from the blood on the ceiling.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Jackson pollocked across the room from dirty syringes post heroine
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: shots splattered onto the cheap acoustical ceiling. The blood was dried, browned, caked,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: gro not going anywhere, just like he and his bandmates.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: The Stooges.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: For a minute, there was promise, a record deal, real excitement,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: more than a couple great songs and performances that were
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: immediately the stuff of legend. Plus they sounded new and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: were onto something that up to that point no other
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: group of musicians had locked into. They were too experimental
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to be considered pop, too rocking, to be considered our
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: beat and too raw to be called rock and roll.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: They had it going on, but now there was just squalor, grime,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: junk and disillusion. His bandmates, bassist Dave Alexander and the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: brothers Ashton Ron and Scotty on guitar and drums, respectively,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: were survivors, tough like the steel frames that clang together
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: on the assembly line and the Ford Motor Company plant.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: They'd grown up around in nearby Dearborn, Michigan. Ron and Scotty,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the dumb dumb boys, there were something else.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Sicky thought.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Their playing was the essence of raw power, pommeling drums
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and slinky proto punk riffage. They came off sounding more
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: like the big bad roar of the sixty nine Mustang
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Boss fresh off the line, and they did their Detroit
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: contemporaries in the MC five or the Silver Bullet Band.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: The Ashtons were greasy, grassy mills, stunt doubles, rock and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: roll Hansen brothers, too dumb to be anything else and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: too smart to care, And as much as he didn't
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: care to admit it, Iggy needed them. The Stooges on
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: stage anyway, helped it down while Iggy the front man
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: did anything but as a performer, Iggy Pop was an
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: untangled mess of spontaneous self expression. Live performances were a
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: physical manifestation of boundary bending madness.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Nobody took their lives show further.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop confronted the audience unlike any perform of the Forum.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: His bony body and undeniable good looks writhed and undulated
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: across stages in a way that made even the hard.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Midwest Hillbillies question their sexuality.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: He confronted audience members with self mutilation, nudity, public intoxication,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and just about anything he could think of, anything that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: would bring him closer to the edge to the line.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: For some, it was an edge of artistic expression, for others,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the edge of madness. Iggy would cut himself on stage.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Iggy would vomit on stage. Iggy would pass out on stage.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Iggy would leave the stage, enter the audience, have his
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: clothes ripped off, and willingly allow audience members to flate him.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: During the Stooges sets, nothing it seemed, was over the line.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: As mad as he was and as crazed as his
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: band seemed, Iggy and the Stooges were moved by serious music,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: even if attempting the greatness of their heroes Miles Davis Son,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: rob Bo Diddley among them, met playing beyond their ability.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: The Stooges would live out on that fragile limb of
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: risk or die trying. So by the time nineteen sixty
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: nine rolled around, it was clear that the Stooges were
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: an aberration, the first musical love child of the failed
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: hippie experiment. The Stooges were the result of a broken promise,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: almost like a kid born to divorced parents who, while
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: coming apart, got together for one last fuck in oops.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Nine months later, a little baby that no one wanted
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to shows up, and he's pissed and he's looking for attention.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So he grows up to be a delinquent, a fuck up,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a stooge. The Holy Union of Peace and Love peaked
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: two years earlier, during the Summer of Love, but peace
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and Love didn't last. It was all bullshit. The revolution
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was over, the bum's lost, the squares won in America
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: was now being ushered out of the once promising decade
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: into the darkness of the seventies. By Charles Manson altamont
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: In Vietnam, and if you really wanted to know what
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: all that sounded like, this new burgeoning era of nihilism
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and anarchy, all you had to do was put on
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a Stooges record, Peace and love. Fuck that more like
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: no Fun. Jim Osterberg aka Iggy Pop knew what time
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it was time to push the limits, limits of your music,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: tease madness, to make great art. The trick was not
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: getting caught on the wrong side of that line, and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: all of it took its toll. Heroin and lsdlay, speed
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and cocaine and pills and of course weed and alcohol
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and anything and everything else he could get his hands
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: on to come down after a show. Years of hardcore
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: drug use turned into a serious heroin and cocaine addiction
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: before his band broke up just after two records won
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: great third as a solo artist fronting of Frankenstein's Stooges lineup,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: A batter reputation and police mandated stint in a mental
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: institution was all Iggy Pop had the show for it.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: That and scar tissue. He looked down at his chest.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: The bleeding had ceased, the scar tissue snapped him back.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: He remembered Max's Kansas City, nineteen seventy three. It was
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: supposed to be Iggy in the Stooge's Triumphant returned to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: New York after recording their latest album, Rob Power in London.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: What it was instead was a bloody mess. The sound
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: of Scotty Snare big like a shotgun or a rifle,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a twenty two like Chris Burden's twenty two, and boy
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: howdy did it ever, and the cut on stage from
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the glass was intended to be like the cut from
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the bullet Burden it fired at himself and as much
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: talked about nineteen seventy one performance art piece Shoot, the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: one where he filmed a friend shooting a twenty two
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: at him from just fifteen feet away. Imagine that, having
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a gun fired at you on purpose and taking a
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: bullet in the name of art. The piece was meant
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: to protest the absurdity of America's obsession with guns in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the Vietnam War, and it worked. Shoot was all the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: smart set could talk about. Iggy was obsessed with it,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and here he was on stage at Maxis, Kansas City,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the epicenter of downtown cool, the venue that set the
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: bar for the rest of the world on what was
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: happening in front of set smart set. Iggy had burdened
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: on the brain. He'd show the audience. It would be
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: just a flesh wound, just like a shoot, but it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: would be raw, powerful and unlike anything to happen before
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and rock and roll. Iggy was pushing himself closer and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: closer over the line. He could see them now, all
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: in their seats. There in front of him, beb and Todd,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Nico and Fran, Andy, Lou, Alice and Danny. The band
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: now with master Dark Arts glam Satan himself on lead guitar.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: James Williamson kicked.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Into Search and Destroyed, and Iggy laid into the first lyric,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: possibly the greatest opening line in the history of long
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: playing rock and roll records.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: The crowd was wrapped instantly.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Scotty tore the ass of the beat ron, recently demoted
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: to bass but still holding it down on stage, wearing
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: his Nazi SS choker, ran rough over the crowd with
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: his low slung gild. James ate up all of the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: sonic space, utilizing every square inch of his worn out
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: les Paul's neck. Iggy reminded them all of who he
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: was the one who searches and destroys, and they kicked
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: it up a notch pushed themselves further toward the line.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Iggy headed into the crowd, stood on the tables in
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: front of the stage space, walked his way over low tops,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: stomped on downtown glitterati, horrified and excited every last one
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: of them along the way, James hit the solo. Iggy
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: dove back onto the stage and landed on a mess
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of broken.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Beer bottle glass.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: The cut didn't feel like anything special, just another shard
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of glass penetrating his tough Midwestern skin. But when he
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: looked down at the blood, he knew he was in trouble.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: This was no Gray's twenty two Chris Burden flesh wound.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: This was penetration. Iggy stretched himself out and pumped his
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: right arm to test the pain, and when he did,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: blood spurted out on his wound and into the audience like.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: A squirt gun. He was too good to be true.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Iggy pumped his arm again, more blood shrieks from the audience.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Not one to be outdone, James made his guitar squeal
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: with feedback like a stuck pig. Booze smack and adrenaline
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: mass of the pain. The blood from Iggy's chest gushed out.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: The audience freaked out. Aggy kept pushing, the band kept chugging.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: The staff feared the worst, imminent death by one of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: their performers.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Iggy Pop feared nothing.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper rose out of his seat in the audience
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and rushed at the stage.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Iggy collapsed.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: The band stopped stagehand dragged the bloodied singer off stage.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Alice called for an ambulance for his old Detroit buddy,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Jim Ron dropped his bass and pulled his friend out
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of the melee. Iggy could hear them all chattering. He
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: could hear the audience squeal of the feedback and the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: siren from the ambulance. It was soundtracked now to the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: eerie melody for Miles Davis as Miles runs the Voodoo down.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Iggy loved that song. His subconscious would call upon it often.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It was so unlike Miles, but then again, Miles was Miles.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: He never knew what he was going to do. Miles
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: was backstage with Iggy now, but they were no longer
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: at Max's. They're at in Gano's sight of the Stooge's
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: very first New York show Miles was in on the blow,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Iggy and Ron were hoovering up before they're set wild
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Man Miles Davis he liked the band, vibed on their spirit.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: He'd recommend them the next day to whoever would listen.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Iggy was sure of it. More likely than not, though
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Miles Davis would forget all about the Stooge as soon
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: as his hangover passed. Giggy could hear his horn. Iggy
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: could hear the shot from Chris Burdens twenty two. Iggy
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: could hear that voodoo running down. Iggy could hear the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: feedback from the Less Paul and Jiggy could hear that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: heavy clanging from the dearborn line. It was all there,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: along with the sound of a familiar laugh and paranoid
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: whispers from a cocaine tongue, the sound of a friend,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Iggy's friend, Jim's friend, actor Dennis Hopper up in Iggy's dream,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: high as a bird on cocaine. In the dream, Hopper
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was playing the role of Jack Nicholson's Randall Patrick McMurphy
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: for one flew over the cuckoo's nest and shuffling through
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this same mental institution that Iggy was now locked up
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: in Hopper made a better McMurphy. By Iggy's estimation, he
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: was more paranoid and as such better suited to maneuver
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: around the wicked ways of Nurse Ratchet. But Iggy's nurse
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was no burly serge. She was slight and sexier than
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: any astronaut's wife. That nurse's uniform hugged tight in all
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the right places, her hair red and gestapo like authoritarian
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: vibe pushed all of Iggy's buttons at once, and the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: feedback and his head swirled. The institutional green walls split
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: into psychedelic waves of rich, burdened beauty. Popper McMurphy's cocaine
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: tongue snaked its way around Iggy's waist and extended itself
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to ginger Nurse Ratchet, coiling them together. Iggy's cock pulsed
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: up against their uniform. He could feel himself swelling inside
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the rush. The line was in sight, about to be crossed.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: The deafening clang of American steel, the crowd chanting, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: then a familiar whisper in his ear, calming. The voice
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: was that of another friend. It sounded supportive. Superior English, Safe,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: deep and knowing. Iggy felt the fevered dream breaking, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the familiar voice gave him the confidence to come out
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: of the dream, to open his eyes, to jump back
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: in reality. So he did, and now, once emerged from
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the dream and safe inside the drab green walls of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: his insane asylum bedroom, Jim Austerbury aka Eggy Pop could
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: see that he had company in real life. Hopper McMurphy
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: had gone full. Dennis Hopper, the actual Dennis Hopper, Iggy's
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: old friend in the flesh, sitting in front of him,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: along with Ginger Nurse Ratchet sitting at his side. And
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Ginger Nurse Ratchet had gone full. Thin white duke right
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: there in Aggy's room, seated next to Dennis Hopper Ginger
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Nurse Ratchet, the thin white duke was none other than
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Davy Jones aka the Man who fell to Earth to
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: save Iggy Pop aka David Bowie. Bowie opened his mouth
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and said, well, Jim, how about a line and we
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: blast out of here.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word word word.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Bowie had no cocaine, which was an oddity the show
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: at the Rochester War Memorial in upstate New York earlier.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: That evening was great.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Bowie and his band were on fire, perhaps buoyed by
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the touring presence and competitive spirit of David's new friend
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: and co conspirator, Iggy Pop, or as he called them, Jim.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: The two met back in nineteen seventy one in New
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: York at Max's Before All the Blood. Bowie was keen
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: on producing a record for this uniquely American artist who
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: represented what Bowie could never be. Raw, uncalculating, exciting, in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: a manner that eluded Ziggy's stardust. Ziggy could never be Iggy,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: but he could at least help Iggy, and Bowie, of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: course represented something Iggy could never be. Refined, creatively, disciplined, driven,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: business minded. Despite their differences, their genius was obvious to
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: one another. They had an easy going dynamic and almost
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: instantly formed a real bond. David Bowie was steadfast in
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: his supportive Iggy Pop in his flailing career at a
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: time when his own career was exploding and making him
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest stars on the planet. At first,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Bowie secured a management deal for Iggy Busch led to
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: a record deal which led to the recording of Raw Power,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: an album that Bowie mixed, and soon the two were
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: nearly inseparable, which was why Iggy was on the road
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: with Bowie in nineteen seventy six. What else was he
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: going to do. The Stooges were broken up again, so
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the plan was to hang with Bowie and steal time
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: on the road to work on new material that Bowie
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: would eventually produce. Iggy needed Bowie and Bowie needed Iggy,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and right now they both needed cocaine. But the after
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: party wasn't panning out. Rochester wasn't Manhattan. Drugs the powdery
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: kind anyway, did not flow as freely here as they
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: did in the city, and there was something weird about
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the company the women they'd picked up at the show.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Two of them Bowie had signaled to from the stage
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and was keen on meeting afterward. But there were two others,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: pretty athletic but kind of square looking, who were off
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and they were super concerned with scoring, more specifically with
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: scoring cocaine from David Bowie himself, which was of course
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: seen as being ghosh. Still, there was the matter of
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the lack of drugs. Grass and wine alone wasn't going
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to cut it. Bowie did a lap through the suite
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: at the Americana, Rochester. The Four Seasons December nineteen sixty three,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Oh What a Night, crackled through the cheap bedside clock radio.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: The vibe was low key, iggy pop, sat quiet spectacles
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: resting atop his nose, casually perusing the local newspaper, absent
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: mindedly hitting joints as they were passed his way. The
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: walls of the American were thin and as mellow as
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the party was, it was anything but quiet. The two
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: plain closed cops on the other side of the suite's
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: wall were listening intently. There were no bugs, no mics
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: or anything approaching a high tech listening device, just two
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: donut eaters with cheap hotel tumblers pressed between the wall
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and their ears, desperately listening for drug lingo to hopefully
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: slip from the lips of the rock stars and their
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: groupies partying On the other side of the wall, where
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: David Bowie stood bored and annoyed, but too polite and
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: aloof to let it show. One of the square girls
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: had him buttonholed talking about nothing, such a bore. Finally,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: he politely interrupted, I'm sorry, isn't there anyone you know
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: in this town who you could trouble for some cocaine
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And with that the handcuffs came out. That was all
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the Square Girls slash undercover cop needed to ask. David Bowie,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: along with e Pop, were both cuffed and they in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the suite were searched, whereupon no cocaine was found, but
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a half pound of marijuana was. The two, along with
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: all the other people in the suite, were arrested and
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: hauled off to jail for the night. It was small
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: time stuff, small town stuff. Bowie had everyone bailed out,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: including the partiers he didn't know, and Iggy Pop was
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: excited he could now buy a suit for court. Bolways
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: high paid, high powered lawyers eventually got the case thrown out,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and after finishing his station to station tour, he and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Iggy split for Europe Berlin to be precise, to get
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: down to the business of making an Iggy Pop record.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: The apartment was not befitting of an international pop star
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and his wild front man collaborator. It was small, bleak
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and sat above an autoparts store, and there was little
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to do during the day, which was great. It meant
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: time for making music. Nighttime on the other hand, and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Berlin in the mid seventies was another story entirely. The
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: post war party had never burnt out in this city,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and the bars never closed, and the women never got old,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and the drugs were never in short supply, and the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: conversation was always stimulating, and the sex was always all
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: over the place but never stale, and the party rolled
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: on and on and on, night after night, except on
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Thursday nights. Thursday Night for Iggy Pop and David Bowie
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: was TV night. It's when they hunkered down in their
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: apartment and watched their stories, took a night off.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Iggy fried German sausages.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: They stunk up the place, something awful, but they hit
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the spot. He and David sat on the floor waiting
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: for the US Armed Forces Network to air Starsky and Hutch.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: The Buddy Cop Cereal was where it was at as
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: far as Iggy Pop and David Bowie were concerned. Most
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: televisions sucked, especially German television, but not Starsky and Hutch.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: High speed chases, tight corduroys, cable knit sweaters in the summer,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and I mean, come on, Hoggy Bear. While they waited
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: for the broadcast, Bowie stretched out on his back on
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the floor reading a dog eared copy of Dostoevskis Idiot.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Figgy sat cross legged on the floor fingering his cheap
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: ukulele when the TV set snapped from white noise and
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: static snow to technicolor and the sounds of the familiar
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: morse code like call signal that the American Military Network
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: began every broadcast. With rhythm of the call signal coming
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: from the television reminded Iggy of Detroit the Supremes You
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Can't Harry Love. Iggy started plucking out a little riff
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: on his yuke to the call signal. Bowie perked up
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: began tapping his foot on the creaky floor, which rattled
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the near empty plate of German sausage and silverware resting
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: on the floorboards.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Iggy began strumming his yuke.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Bowie approximated a kick and snare sound using his other
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: foot in his thigh body drumming. The call signal had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: morphed into a full on Benny Benjamin beat. Iggy strummed
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: his way into a core progression. Bowie swung like a motherfucker.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Iggy was now standing up, pacing pounding on the yuke.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Bowie was yelling Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Jimmy. Two were rocking
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: out now pard Iggy was banging on the yuke and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: started improvising lyrics on the spot. Here comes Johnny Yen again,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: liquor in the drugs and that's like hit the passage.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Pickens. Well, I'm just a modern guy. Of course, I've
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: had it in my ear before. I'm the lust for life,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: the lust the Life.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: They knew immediately that they were onto something. The next
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: day they were in the studio recording what would become
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop's most recognizable song, lust for Life, a song
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: who is infectious totally swinging rhythm is owed as much
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to the US Armed Forces Network as it is to
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Hunt and Tony Sales. The rhythm section in Iggy's new band,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: another pair of dumb dumb boys whose mad cap energy
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: rivaled the delinquent doom of the Ashton's from Iggy's previous band.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Hunt and Tony were the sons of Iggy's childhood TV
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: hero comedian Soupy Sales, and their behavior was just as
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: insane as their dad's. But when they got to their instruments,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the fucking around ceased, as can be heard in the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: rhythm to Lust for Life. It is serious business. Real
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: rock and roll clowns need not apply Lust for Life.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Let off Eggy's second soul low effort that David Bowie produced,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: long Player of the same name, and the album was great,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: making it two creatively solid record releases in a row
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: by the famously inconsistent Aggy Pop after the release of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the Dostavski inspired album The Idiot, released earlier that year.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven, Berlin was paying off. Iggy and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Bowie were on a roll creatively, if not commercially. Iggy's
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: records were received well critically, but compared to Bowie's record sales,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: they were flops, which was ironic given that at that
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: exact same moment in time, there's a revolution happening in music.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: In New York and in London. A young wave of
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: nihilistic rockers were pummeling growing audiences with fast, jagged stooges
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: like riffs and grabbing headlines with behavior nick directly from
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the Iggy Pop playbook. The Ramone, Sex Pistols, Heartbreakers, the Clash,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Generation X and others were all making noise with a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: new type of music called punk and they sounded and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: a lot like the original nihilist, The free spinning Detroit
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Wheel pulled up in Berlin, singing loudly and proudly about
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: his newfound lust for life. Some punk saw Iggy as
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the musical godfather he was, but others thought he was
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: over the past fatigue. After taking in the opening show
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to mark the release of The Idiot Heartbreaker, Johnny Thunders,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the ex New York doll, disappointingly proclaimed that Iggy had
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: gone cabaret. However, Iggy Pop wasn't the past. He wasn't
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: out of time, he wasn't too old for punk. He
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: was just too busy inventing post punk once again ahead
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: of his time. The Idiot and Lust for Life, despite
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: their critical failings, would go on to heavily influence the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: next wave of punk artists to follow Susie and the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Banshee's Joy Division and of course Public Image Limited. But
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop didn't know or care about any of that
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: at the time. He was preoccupied, per usual, with David Bowie,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: who was on an epic cocaine tear at the moment,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: uncharacteristically angry behind the wheel of his Mercedes and ramming
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: it maniacally into the rear end of a German Economy
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that Bowie believed belonged to a local drug dealer who
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: had ripped him off. And Bowie kept ramming the gas, violently,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: surging the car ahead and into the dealer's car, pushing
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: it up against the parking lot wall again and again
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and again. Bowie's vengeance was inspired, and the dealer's car
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't going anywhere.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Soon enough, after he'd slowly turned.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The crooked dealer's car into an accordion, Bowie lost interest
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: through his Mercedes and reverse, its front end nearly totaled,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and took off for the apartment. Vengeance, no matter how
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: inspired at first, is always a dead end, kind of
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: like Berlin, Iggy and Bowie bounced. Iggy Pop's relationship with
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: David Bowie was and always would be solid, But by
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the early eighties, Bowie was off again and on his own,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: selling out stadiums, collaborating with Queen, working with Sheikhs, Nile Rogers,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and writing and releasing Stone Cold Hits, Let's Dance, Modern
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Love and the Iggy Pop Pen China Girl. Bowie was
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: embracing his pop side, and there was no room in
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: this phase of his career for his old friend Iggy,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: who accidentally invented punk. Iggy's career was dead. A string
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of albums, New Values, Soldier and Party flopped. He was
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: uninspired with Blondie's Chris Stein. He produced the album Zombie Birdhouse,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: an unfocused, drony stab at post punk world music mania.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Imagine Paul Simon's Graceland, produced by John Zorn and peppered
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: with out of tune vocals. That's kind of what Zombie
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Birdhouse is. But despite its obvious failings, it is compelling.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: It's the sound of Iggy pop getting closer to that line,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: that demarcation that separates madness in ordinary life that so
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: many other artists van Go Beethoven, Sylvia Plath crossed and
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: never came back from. Who was Iggy kidding He could
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: never be like David Bowie and produced great art while
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: simultaneously maneuvering through the straight world ambition focus. Iggy did
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: not understand these things. For him, it was madness or
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: nothing at all. You can hear that on Zombie Birdhouse,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and perhaps sensing it himself, after the album was recorded,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Iggy decided to double down on the insanity of that record.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Sounds and seek out that line, maybe even cross it,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and see what true madness could do for one's creative spirit. So,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: in search of inspiration, Iggy Pop headed to Haiti, the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: land of the real zombies. Baby Doc d Vallier, Haiti's
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: brutal dictator and his murder is on. Tommy Coots didn't
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: go in for all that voodoo jive. Baby Doc's regime
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: outlawed the ancient practice, made it punishable by death, so naturally,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop needed to get in on that action. The
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Porter Prince Bar was dark, the music unrecognizable, but then again,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: most things for Iggy Pop and Haiti were unrecognizable. He
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: was blotto nearly the entire time, taking full advantage of
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the permissive drug culture, living off of a two dollars
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: a day opium tincture from the local pharmacy that he
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: would mix into his pina coladas. The jukebox blasted. It
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: reminded him of Miles Runs the Voodoo Down. The melody
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: was always there, always swirling around his head. Miles's horn
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: went sell low and took the shape of another familiar melody,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Iggy's own, the Passenger. Iggy was out of the bar now,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: in the back seat of an unrecognizable shipbox, riding through
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: the city's backside, seeing the stars come out of the sky,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: something about some cash to some local girls to bring
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: him to see the priest, and the shipbox slowed to
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: a stop. There was a small fire, a gaggle of
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: locals eerily quiet. Iggy and his guide joined the larger
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: group under suspicious eyes. Then the drums started pounding, pounding.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: The men in the group stood. Women from the shadows emerged,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: most wearing little to no clothing. The drums broke into
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a warp speed rhythm, and the women began their dance,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and the men began chanting. Iggy Pop could not resist.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: He sprung up and joined in. Shirtless, long hair Tezoso
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Idiot whispered in Creole along with the other whispers, growing
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: louder louder louder a chorus backtracking the Ceremoni's rhythm, Iggy vibed,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: miles ran that voodoo down opium and creole Coco stirred
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: him closer to that line, that damned line. Was it
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: madness on the other side? But once in his life
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: it occurred to Iggy that maybe it was something else.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't madness. Maybe it was mystical, another dimension,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: not death, rebirth. The syncopated drumming grew more intense. A
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: woman fell to the ground, gyrating, convulsing. The whispers grew louder.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: A priest was suddenly present, giant headdress, bone necklace, big
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: big eyes, and even bigger mouth. He stepped to the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: convulsing woman, raised his fist to his face, opened his palm,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and blew the dust in his hand onto the woman.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Her body stopped moving dead. Iggy Pop had found the line.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: The priest hung goan was the conduit. The guy, Iggy,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the passenger, and the woman lay still, and the music
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: picked up. The dancing intensified, the fire roared. Iggy stopped dancing,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: entranced by the priest, who held.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: His gaze eye to eye all menace.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: The priest raised his other hand, his fist gripped tight
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: around the neck, and the chicken hit the Iggy watched
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the priest raise his other hand the gleam of the blade.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: The chicken screamed as it was pierced just below its neck.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: The blade split it right down the middle of its chest.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Blood torrented out, and the chicken flapped its right wing incessantly,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and the blood splitted out all over the priest's audience
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: as they danced, enraptured, held now with sacrifice. They were
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: connected to the other side, to the spirits, to the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: mystic world, and there was no madness, there was no curse.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: There was union, connection, inspiration, and that voodoo had been
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: run down, and for Iggy Pop that line had been
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: crossed finally and the result rebirth.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Upon returning from.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Haiti, Iggy's old friend David Bowie would record five more
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: of their co written songs from their Berlin days, resulting
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: finally in financial security for Iggy the artists who had
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: contributed so much culturally but seen so little for his efforts.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Iggy would then SASA via his musical contributions to various
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: films and through collaborations with Lou Reed and the sex
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: pistol Steve Jones. In the nineties, Iggy scored a legit
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: hit with his song Candy and appeared alongside Johnny Depp
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and John Waters film Cry Baby and Jim Jarmush's Dead Man. Eventually,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop would successfully reunite and tour with both Stooges lineups,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and in two thousand and nine, the band was inducted
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At long last,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop had become a cultural icon and recognized the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: world over as the great contributor and artist that he was.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: And this is something that really happens an artist who
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: pushes it harder and further than anyone else, who gets
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to live.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: To tell, to enjoy his spoils.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Iggy Pop crossed the line and when he did, he
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: emerged reborn.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: For him. Somehow, the madness did not consume.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Him like it did van Go Beethoven her Plath, and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the music didn't drive into it too soon grave like
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: it did to his brother's Ron and Scottie, his hero Miles,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: and his friend David Bowie. Iggy Pop is still standing,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm Jake Brennan in This is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
• 36:32
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• 36:35
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• 36:38
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• 36:41
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• 37:06
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• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Rock a roller, He's
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: A bad down man.