JIM VERSUS IGGY

His new LP is personal. PHIL ALEXANDER picks 10 more moments when Mr Pop’s mask drops...

1 DUM DUM BOYS (from The Idiot, 1977)

Throughout a career than spans six decades Jim Osterberg has always wrestled with his self-created alter-ego. At times, the sensitive Osterberg has won out, a case in point being this track from Iggy’s Bowie-produced solo debut, where our protagonist surveys the wreckage of The Stooges. His opening faux conversation chronicles the deaths of bassists Zeke Zettner (“dead on Jones, man”) and Dave Alexander (“OD’d on alcohol”) before moving on to drummer Scott ‘Rock Action’ Asheton (“living with his mother”) and guitarist James Williamson (“He’s gone straight”). Only Iggy’s “best friend”, guitarist Ron Asheton, remains unscathed.

2 FALL IN LOVE WITH ME (from Lust For Life, 1977)

Iggy met 21-year-old Esther Friedmann at a fashion show party shortly after arriving in Berlin in 1976. Friedmann was still living with her surgeon boyfriend but Iggy remained undeterred, and she became his muse before the pair finally got together. Their relationship was still young when Iggy recorded this stomping track born out of a loose-limbed jam with improvised vocals and Bowie on organ. Iggy’s endless exhortation to “fall in love with me” clearly worked, as he and Friedmann embarked on a relationship that lasted seven years.

3 I’M BORED (from New Values, 1979)

The punk explosion of the previous three years meant that music had finally caught up with Iggy, and yet he appeared to find little comfort in that. The anthemic I’m Bored – clearly an influence on Mudhoney and the grunge snarks who would emerge 10 years later – reflected the uncertainty about his place in this new world. His angst is most obviously displayed in the final section of the song where he mixes self-analysis with self-loathing, spitting out a succession of telling lines: “I’m sick/I’m sick of all my kicks /I’m sick of all the stiffs/I’m sick of all the dips.”

4 EGGS ON PLATE (from Party, 1981)

Three albums into his deal with Arista Records – then run by Clive Davis – and there was still no sign of a hit record for Iggy. Party, however, was intended to be it, with Thom Panunzio – the man who’d helped Patti Smith score a hit with Because The Night – drafted in to produce. Smith’s guitarist and bassist, Ivan Kral, was also brought in to write songs. Iggy, however, was mentally in a dark place, and it showed on what was, at best, an inconsistent new wave album. Musically, Eggs On Plate is a good example of that, while Jim Osterberg appeared to look in and take issue with the idea of becoming a pop star. “I’ll put you on the hit parade/Everybody will know your name/Iggyyyyy!” he snarls, before adding: “But, man – Hey! Solomon/Who does my name belong to then?”

5 ORDINARY BUMMER (from Zombie Birdhouse, 1982)

Signed by Blondie’s Chris Stein to his Animal label and afforded a $50,000 advance, Iggy set out to make a provocative record. Zombie Birdhouse was the result, a flawed collection that nevertheless underlined Iggy’s restless spirit. The frayed Ordinary Bummer, however, was a tender moment full of reflection where Jim Osterberg admitted that he wanted to “hold out for summer days” while watching the world through “sad old eyes – the sound of a man trying to take stock of his life but afraid of what he might find.

6 SHADES (from Blah Blah Blah, 1986)

Following the commercial failure of Zombie Birdhouse, Iggy reunited with David Bowie for Blah Blah Blah, his first for his new label, A&M. Having observed Iggy’s delight at receiving a new pair of sunglasses from Suchi, his wife of two years, Bowie wrote this song for his friend, method acting his way through Pop’s emotional response. As a result, even if not all the lyrics are his, Iggy’s performance is absorbing and heartfelt on a track whose sheer poignancy cannot be ruined by its dated Linn drum sound.

7 I WON’T CRAP OUT (from Brick By Brick, 1990)

“I’m standin’ in a shadow/Hating the world…” begins a wistful, 43 year-old Iggy on a track that once again sees himself questioning his place in music following the advent of grunge. The track itself displays the odd lyrical clunk and is a little uneven musically, but the ‘no sell-out’ sentiment is beautifully carried by Pop’s voice. The result is a tune that sounds like a note-to-self on the ongoing juxtaposition of fame versus genuine mainstream success – an irony bearing in mind that Iggy’s duet with The B-52’s’ Kate Pierson on Brick By Brick ’s Candy yielded his first and only Top 40 US hit.

8 FUCKIN’ ALONE (from American Caesar, 1993)

Despite now being hailed as a genuine alternative icon, again Iggy elected to reflect on the increasingly disposable culture he saw emerging around him. His sense of alienation is evident in his lyrics that are set to a series of experimental beats and brooding, dissonant sonic textures. “I’m so fuckin’ alone!” croons Iggy on what is the nearest the track comes to a chorus, refuting his revered status before accepting, “OK, OK, this is me.” His restlessness, however, remains intact in the wake of that resolution.

9 ’TIL WRONG FEELS RIGHT (from Skull Ring, 2003)

A teenage blues aficionado, Iggy fell back in love with the genre via the music of Mississippi men R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. As he reconnected with The Stooges, he cut tracks for a tribute album to the latter, but also found himself writing this sparse tune on an acoustic guitar. Again, the lyrics see the man railing against anodyne modern music as well as then falsehoods of the industry as a whole. “They’re gonna push it/ Until wrong feels right,” he asserts, on an album that also saw him collaborating with Green Day, Sum 41 and Peaches.

10 I WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH (from Préliminaires, 2009)

Inspired by controversial French author Michel Houellebecq’s 2005 novel, The Possibility Of An Island, Iggy’s fifteenth studio album saw him delve into neo-jazz territory and throwing in a couple of standards for good measure. The escapist sentiments on this track also saw him openly confront the difference between his public persona and himself, the man laying his angst bare on the fourth verse. “You can convince the world/ That you’re some kind of superstar/When an asshole is what you are,” he sings, before adding a shrug of acceptance: “But that’s all right.”