Free by Iggy Pop

I have known about Iggy Pop since the 1970s, but never had any interest in listening to his music, not even when he was associated with David Bowie who I admired a lot. I thought Iggy was a bit of a lunatic who became famous due mainly to his crazy antics on stage. However, In recent years I have grown to like him as a person, mainly due to his excellent radio show on Friday evenings on BBC 6Music. Iggy has played some great music that I would never have got to hear only for him. He also has a great voice for radio. I rate him alongside Bob Dylan as a musician who has tried his hand at radio presenting. I still do not think I would have gone so far as to buy an album by Iggy though. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine Colin who is a huge fan of Iggy Pop and has most of his work gave me a copy of Iggy’s most recent album called Free. Colin had discovered that he had accidentally bought it twice. I played it for the first-time last week when me and Curly went out for the day. I really liked it. The album is nothing like what I had expected from Iggy Pop. I have been playing it again this morning, so I thought I would tell you about it.

It is called Free because that is how Iggy wanted to feel. He was feeling drained from touring and wanted to get away from what was expected of him. As a fan of other people’s music, he wanted guitarscapes instead of riffs, and wanted space in his music. Also, he wanted to get away from the ‘effluent of his own mind’ and interpret the poetry of others. Iggy only contributes towards the composition of three tracks on this album, but it is his vocals throughout. The principal collaborators are Leron Thomas whose trumpet playing, and keyboards are a dominant sound and guitarist Sarah Lipstate whose professional name is Noveller. The title track Free opens the album with just Iggy’s great vocals accompanied by trumpet and a dreamy soundscape of guitars. Love’s Missing was written by Iggy and Leron and features bass and guitar by Aaron Nevezie and Chris Berry on drums. The next track is called Sonali. I did not know what that meant, so I looked it up and it is a Bengali girl’s name. This track is awash with piano and synthesisers by Kenny Ruby. The bass of Robin Sherman introduces James Bond, the catchiest of all these songs and the lyrics are quite humorous. It was released as a single I believe. The trumpet introduction to Dirty Sanchez gives it the feel of a spaghetti western. It is written by Leron Thomas who wrote most of these songs. Glow In The Dark features moog synthesiser and keyboards provided by Florian Pellisier. Page has a more stripped back sound of just Iggy, Aaron and Leron.

Lauren Laverne & Iggy.

The final three tracks are my favourites on this album which develops into a poetry reading with musical accompaniment. We Are The People was written by the late great Lou Reed. Iggy discovered it in a book of Lou’s poetry and related to Lou’s view of their country. It is just Iggy reciting the words, with trumpet and keys. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is arguably the most famous work of Dylan Thomas, published in 1951. Iggy’s reading of it is sublime, and the accompaniment is perfect. The last track is called The Dawn and Iggy himself wrote the words. Because of the subject matter in the lyrics, I wonder if it is his response to the Dylan Thomas poem? I do not know, but the words are great. Iggy is 74 now and this album shows that he has no intention of going gentle into that good night. I am pleased that Colin gave me this CD because I have enjoyed listening to it very much indeed and it has totally changed my view of the one and only Iggy Pop.