Transcript |
Out of an acrid haze danced Iggy
Pop, a 30 year-old nan with the body
of an 18 year-old god. Clad only in
tight, torn jeans and a soon-discarded fishnet shirt, the spiritual father of punk-rock attacked the Armadillo on the first.
3y the way, he won.
Iggy has always been a unique
performer, and frorA his days with
the Stooges (the first punk band)
until today, his music has always be-
been unclassifiable.
No longer does he slash himself
with broken bottles and roll in crushed glass, although the scars are
still there, faint reminders of the
days of drugs and self-destruction.
No longer does he leap into the audience, though he stays near the edge
of the stage, always threatening to
plunge atop us. No, Iggy Pop has grown
up.
SWEATING, POUNDING
No performer maintains such constant rapport with his audience as
-jell as Iggy. I was at the very edge
of the stage and wasn't ignored, as
fans usually are by musicians. Iggy
involved each of us and I guess it's
at this point that the reviewers always fail in trying to describe an
Iggy Pop concert.
Unless you're there, sweating
with him, being pounded by the same
electric music, being frightened by
the suggestions of the old anarchic
violence and it frightens him
too you can't imagine at all, at
2.11, what his performance is like.
He says that watching aim in concert is really "witnessing my presence." He's right; there's no other
way to describe it.
I've been to a hell of a lot of
rock concerts, but he sweat on me,
HARD AND FAST
Despite charges that his association with David Bowie has emasculated his music, the new band rocks
hard and fast. The music isn't punk
but it's not rock either it's just
Iggy Pod music, some of the best music put out this year.
Starting with "Sixteen"—
Sweet sixteen
In leather boots
Body and soul
I go crazy
Baby. I'm hungry
Sweet sixteen
the band played most of the new album,
interspersed with a few songs from
the bad/good days.
Briefly, the songs played were:
"Lust for Life" ('Well I'm just a modern guy/And of course I've had it
in the ear before'), "Neighborhood
Threat," "Pall In Love with Me," "I
Got a Right," "The Passenger,"
"Some Weird Sin" ('Things get too
straight/I can't bear it/...That's
when I want/Some weird sin. Get it?'1,
"ITightclubhing," "Raw Power," and
"I Wanna 3e Your Dog."
Iggy is sexual, there's no doubt
about it. But homo-? heter-o-? It doesn't seem to matter. He's there and
he likes being touched. By everybody.
spit on me, let me touch him, and
stepped on my hand. God! It was a
the greatest concert I've ever been
Despite the fact that Iggy Pop
nelped found punk-rock, he doesn't
ulay it anymore.
The Sex Pistols do, though; in
fact, for many, they define it.
SEX PISTOLS^ LATEST
Their first album/NEVER MIND TEE
BOLLOCKS HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS,
has just been released and it is
everything Pistols fans hoped for.
Included are the A-Sides of all
four singles (including the banned
"Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save
the Queen") plus eight other original songs.
To someone unacquainted with punk,
all the songs have a samey sound about them. But remember Mom and Dad
saying that about rock? Or Grampa
saying that about jazz?
On closer listening, the songs
are clearly distinct. Johnny Rotten's
snarl of a voice unfortunately renders many of the 'lyrics unintelligible, but the ones which do get through to American ears are surprisingly complex, filled with anger and
political discontent. "Holidays in
the Sun," the new single from the album, begins, 'A cheap holiday in
other people's misery ' and goes
on to deliver an articulate attack
on insensitive and escapist tourism.
Hardly the usual subject matter
for punk-rock, but then the Sex Pistols aren't the Ramones. Their music
is superficially similar, but there
is a message in the music, a step up
from the blind rage, sex, or violence.
When punk-rock breaks in America,
the Sex Pistols are going to be at
the "ew-Wave's crest. Buy the album
now: it's the best introduction to
the music of the Eighties now on the
market. Buy the album. Buy the
album.
Disco is dead.
Long live punk I
Recommended new releases:
lust for Life, Iggy Pop
Reeket to Russia, Ramones
"ever Mind the 3ollocks...
Sex Pistols
Blank Generation, Richard Hell
& the Voidoids
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