He was the one who didn't achieve big record sales, and his songs didn't become international hits. He is still alive and his songs were better received when others sang them. The young generation doesn't know him at all. In 2006 he recorded his last album, which he announced. Called the godfather of punk, little known, living in the shadows, will turn 70 in April.
He even gave concerts in Wrocław, in the Orbit Hall, 10 years ago. You can see pictures from that period, then his band was called The Stooges. The photographs, some black and white, show the artist involved in the performance, wet from sweat, bending in and out. The artist is still performing, but only solo. His behaviour on stage was a tiring role for him, that's what he calls Iggy Pop himself in a documentary created by Jim Jarmush.
History of the team
Their first name was Psychedelic Stooges. They changed the name to The Stooges. Their music was original, sounded like a sharp blues, and during the concerts you could hear unusual musical solutions resulting from the combination of sounds produced by objects such as blender or vacuum cleaner. Pop himself was extremely inventive when it comes to stage costumes. He could go on stage and grease himself with a hamburger or dress up as a housekeeper. Their concerts sometimes ended after only two, three songs, or even one each. Cause? The guitarist, Ron Asheton, could smash and destroy a guitar in a frenzy of stage rapture. The band's guitarist died in 2009. Their first recording in the music studio took place when they had only four items in their repertoire, it was not enough to record an album. They solved the problem quickly, the subsequent issues they wrote for one night.
The band's debut took place in 1969, then underestimated, now considered groundbreaking, innovative, introducing punk rock into a new era. "Fun House" is the band's second album, released a year late. Another record that didn't break through. It's been a bad time. Elektra decided to break her contract with the musicians, at the time they were addicted to heavy drugs such as cocaine.
Drug addict
Iggy Pop tried many drugs, but in 1973, in Washington, D.C., he made a mistake and by mistake took a drug called PCP, which was a strong psychedelic. He influenced the vocalist so much that the band played for fifteen minutes without him. After that time that Pop was brought to the stage, he behaved strangely, had his cage cut, looked at the audience strangely and mumbled and made them laugh. Before that, the band was suspended for several months. 1973 was the year when the band's activities were saved by David Bowie, who became a friend of the band and helped the vocalist more than once
In 1973 the album "Raw Power" was released, which Kurt Cobain loved. In 1974, Stooges ended its business again. The reason was mainly the vocalist's person, Pop himself, who had more and more problems with drugs. The band decided to record two albums 25 years later.
Grandfather
In the aforementioned Jarmusha document you can learn a lot of interesting information not only about the vocalist himself, but also about the whole team. The drummer gave up playing because, like he said: "he was tired of looking at the buttocks of others." Iggy Pop a year ago recorded the album "Post Pop Depression", which consists of his personal experiences, which he wrote down and sent to his colleague, Josh Homm. The vocalist gives concerts alone, does not play on stage, and his behaviour is not so controversial.