POP ROCKS!

Author: Bruce Jenkins  Date Posted:13 August 2021 

POP ROCKS!

There are a thousand Iggy Pop stories and most of them are true.

The early, wild Stooges concerts where blood was spilt, the addictions, the procession of relationships, the obsession with physical fitness, the attitude, the Bowie collaborations that saved his career… Sufficient lurid material for half a dozen books, even without the music. Which is just as well, as a dozen have been written.

Born James Newell Osterberg Jr. in Michigan, USA, the one-time drummer and all-in singer took his stage name from an early band for whom he drummed, The Iguanas. But his stage persona, the wild child Iggy Pop, was hugely influenced by young Osterberg seeing The Doors in 1967. Jim Morrison, all brooding sensuality and don’t-give-a-fuck aggression, was the foundation on which the incendiary performance style of Iggy was built.

With The Stooges (three albums) then solo, Pop has had a fifty year career driven, in no small part, by his energetic live concerts. Of course there was also his legendary appearance on Australian television where Molly Meldrum tried to interview him live on Countdown, with all the success of a man trying to bottle a tornado, but we’ll let you search that out while we move on to Iggy Pop Live At The Channel Boston, M.A. 1988.

This double LP, released on glorious splatter vinyl—one yellow with snot-green splats, the other pink with blood spots—is a live concert recorded in July 1988 for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, a syndicated American radio show. One of the first things that leaps out is the clean nature of the recording; the guitars sound great, the bass jumps and the vocals are way forward. (The drums, however, are low in the mix). The second thing is how Iggy leaps out of the speakers at you.

This album is an excellent demonstration of the energy—the, ahem, raw power—that Iggy Pop brings to his rock and roll. There is a reason he is sometimes referred to as the Godfather of Punk; you can hear it clearly on this set as he charges through a set list covering most Pop bases. The Stooges self-titled debut is represented by three songs, their third album Raw Power by another three. As this concert was part of the tour promoting Pop’s new album Instinct (released a month previously) we get six songs from his latest LP. The remaining titles of this fifteen song set are a mixture of album tracks and a couple of rarities that, in total, add up to a frantic, sweaty, expletive-littered evening with one of the genuine survivors of rock.

If you are an Iggy Pop fan, you’ll love this addition to his catalogue of live recordings. Just don’t expect a soulful rendition of "China Girl". Live At The Channel is what Iggy does best: working himself and the audience into a lather. As he says to the audience, "We’re gonna try to work real hard for ya and rock it straight, no bullshit". "Penetration", "Search and Destroy", "No Fun"; these tell the story. Except for the misnomer of that last title… this album is plenty fun.

© Bruce Jenkins 2021


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