Iggypop– Thepassenger

TG takes a tour of the strummed chords in this proto-punk ode to the nomadic rock ’n’ roll lifestyle

In 1974, punk forerunners The Stooges called it a day after revolutionising the rock ’n’ roll landscape, cutting three killer albums and producing some of the most exhilarating and crazed live shows the world had ever seen.

Come 1977, explosive frontman Iggy Pop was recording his sophomore solo album Lust For Life, aided and abetted by close friend David Bowie on production duties, and Edinburgh‑born guitarist Ricky Gardiner, who would pen the song’s cyclic four-chord progression, complete with alternating endings on G and E.

Those chords are easy to play, but, as Gardiner related to TG in issue 230, “It becomes a kind of torture because there’s no variation and there’s no middle eight. It just goes on doing that, and that alternating has to keep going... I’m not sure it’s completely correct on the record. I haven’t checked, but Iggy never looked for refinement anyway.”

Read on as we take you through all you need to know to strum along. And, as Ricky says, don’t worry too much about refinement.