The Idiot (album)

The Idiot is the debut solo album by American musician Iggy Pop, released on March 18, 1977 by RCA Records. It was the first of two albums that Pop wrote and recorded in collaboration with David Bowie, who is credited as producer. The sessions for the album began before the recording of Bowie's 1977 album Low; as a result, The Idiot has been called the unofficial beginning of Bowie's Berlin period.[6]

The Idiot
Studio album by Iggy Pop
Released	March 18, 1977 (1977-03-18)
Recorded	July – August 1976
Studio	Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville Musicland, Munich Hansa Studio 1, Berlin
Genre	Art rock[1][2] gothic rock[3] industrial rock[4] post-punk[5]
Length	38:49
Label	RCA
Producer	David Bowie
Iggy Pop chronology
The Idiot (1977) Lust for Life (1977)
Singles from The Idiot
"Sister Midnight" / "Baby" Released: February 1977 "China Girl" / "Baby" Released: May 1977

Described by Pop as "a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk," The Idiot marked a departure from the guitar-based proto-punk of his former band the Stooges, and has been compared with Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" of albums in its electronic sounds and introspective atmosphere.[7][8] Its title was taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same title, three of the participants in the recording — Bowie, Pop, and Tony Visconti — being familiar with the book.[9]

The Idiot received critical acclaim upon its release, and is regarded by many as one of Pop's best works; however, it is not generally considered representative of his output. It was accompanied by the singles "Sister Midnight" and "China Girl," Bowie issuing his own version of the latter as a single in 1983. The album has been characterized as a major influence on subsequent post-punk, industrial, and gothic artists.[10][11]

Production

The album's opening track, "Sister Midnight", was written by Bowie, Pop and guitarist Carlos Alomar, and performed live on the Station to Station tour in early 1976. In July that year, following the end of the tour, Bowie and Pop holed up in Château d'Hérouville, the same locale where Bowie recorded Pin Ups (1973) and would soon record much of Low, and began putting together the rest of the songs that later became The Idiot. At the Château they were augmented by Laurent Thibault on bass and Michel Santangeli on drums, who were required, with minimal guidance, to add to rough music tracks already taped by Bowie, their first takes often becoming part of the final mix.[9]

Recording continued in August at Musicland in Munich, Germany with guitarist Phil Palmer, who found the creative collaboration with Pop and Bowie stimulating but disquieting, never seeing them around during the day ("Vampiric would be the perfect word", he said later).[9] Overdubs by Bowie's regular rhythm section of Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray, plus a final mix by Tony Visconti, took place in Berlin at Hansa Studio 1 (not, as is often incorrectly reported, the bigger Studio 2 by the Berlin Wall).[9] Given the almost demo quality of the tapes, the post-production work was, in Visconti's words, "more of a salvage job than a creative mixing".[12]

Because of its ambiguous and in some cases non-existent credits, misconceptions have arisen over the years as to who contributed what to the album. Although the common belief that Pop wrote the lyrics while Bowie composed the music is generally accurate, their approach occasionally saw the positions change, with some music (such as "Dum Dum Boys") being Pop's and some lyrics (including the first verse to "Sister Midnight") being Bowie's.[6] The album's cover photo - which is a flopped image - was inspired by Erich Heckel's Roquairol. It is often assumed to be by Bowie but was in fact taken by Andy Kent.[12][13] No instrumental credits were included on the sleeve, causing some speculation as to the musicians involved;[7] however, recent works by Hugo Wilcken, Paul Trynka and Nicholas Pegg have provided a generally agreed list of the personnel involved.[6][9][13]

Style and themes

At the time of its release, Pop described The Idiot as a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk.[10] Bowie biographer David Buckley has called it "a funky, robotic Hellhole of an album".[12] The funk influence was most pronounced on "Sister Midnight", based on a riff by Carlos Alomar and laced with Pop's oedipal dream imagery. Its lack of overtly electronic instrumentation belied what critic Dave Thompson has described as a "defiantly futuristic ambience".[14]

Pop, speaking of Bowie, described the Krautrock-influenced "Nightclubbing" as "my comment on what it was like hanging out with him every night". The track was recorded one night after the other musicians had left, Bowie playing the melody on piano with an old rhythm machine for backing. When Pop pronounced himself happy with the result, Bowie protested that they needed real drums to finish it off. Pop insisted on keeping the rhythm machine, saying "it kicks ass, it's better than a drummer". Pop largely wrote the lyrics on the spot "in ten minutes", Bowie suggesting that he write about "walking through the night like ghosts".[15] The riff has been described as a mischievous quote of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll".[9]

"China Girl", originally called "Borderline", was a tale of unrequited love inspired by Kuelan Nguyen, partner of French actor-singer Jacques Higelin, who was also recording at Château d'Hérouville at the time. The protagonist's "Shhh..." was a direct quote from Nguyen after Pop confessed his feelings for her one night.[9] Production-wise it was raw and unpolished compared to Bowie's hit remake in 1983.[13] Other songs included "Funtime", a proto-gothic number that Bowie advised Pop to sing "like Mae West";[6] "Dum Dum Boys", a tribute/lament for Pop's former Stooges bandmates (the spoken intro references Zeke Zettner, Dave Alexander, Scott Asheton and James Williamson) and "Mass Production", a harsh, grinding piece of early industrial electronica.[6]

Release

Original edition

Although the bulk of The Idiot was recorded before Low, the initial installment of the "Berlin Trilogy", Bowie's album was released first in January 1977, while Pop's was held over until March. Laurent Thibault opined that "David didn't want people to think he'd been inspired by Iggy's album, when in fact it was all the same thing".[6] In 1981, NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray suggested that The Idiot's electronic sound had been "pioneered" on Low,[7] whereas by 2000, Nicholas Pegg would describe it as "a stepping stone between Station to Station and Low.[13]

"Sister Midnight" and "China Girl" were released as singles in February and May 1977, respectively, both with the same B-side "Baby".[16]

2020 Deluxe edition

On April 10, 2020, Pop released an alternate mix of his hit song "China Girl" as part of the forthcoming release on May 29 of The Bowie Years, a new seven-disc Deluxe box set due to feature expanded remastered versions of his David Bowie-produced albums The Idiot and Lust for Life, both originally released in 1977. The box set is due to include remastered versions of both 1977 studio projects along with outtakes, alternate mixes and a 40-page book. As well, the two original albums are due to be paired with an additional album of live material to create separate stand-alone two-disc Deluxe editions.[17]

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Blender	[18]
Chicago Tribune	[19]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[20]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[21]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[22]
Q	[23]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[24]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	7/10[25]
Tom Hull	A–[26]

Biographer Paul Trynka wrote that The Idiot "would remain an album that was more respected than loved, the reviews mostly neutral", but that it "prefigured the soul of post-punk".[9] In a contemporary review of the album, Rolling Stone termed it "the most savage indictment of rock posturing ever recorded" and "a necrophiliac's delight".[27]

Charts

The Idiot peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, and also reached number 30 on the UK Albums Chart, marking the first time an Iggy Pop album had cracked the top 40.

Legacy

While the album has become highly praised in its own right over the years, fans of Iggy Pop have criticized the work as unrepresentative of his repertoire and as evidence of his being "co-opted" by Bowie for the latter's own ends.[12][28] Bowie himself later admitted:

Poor Jim, in a way, became a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with sound. I didn't have the material at the time, and I didn't feel like writing at all. I felt much more like laying back and getting behind someone else's work, so that album was opportune, creatively.[29]

Bowie later re-worked "Sister Midnight" with new lyrics as "Red Money" on his 1979 album Lodger, while his version of "China Girl" on 1983's Let's Dance became a major hit.

Pop has called The Idiot his "album of freedom".[28] Siouxsie Sioux described it as "re-affirmation that our suspicions were true – the man was a genius and what a voice!"[28] and she performed "Nightclubbing" with her second band the Creatures at the Glastonbury festival in 1999.[30] The album has been cited as a major influence on a number of acts, including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and Joy Division - the lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis, committed suicide in 1980 with the record still playing on his turntable.[13] Killing Joke's Youth also described The Idiot as one of his favorite albums.[31]

In 1981, Grace Jones covered the song "Nightclubbing" as the title track to her album of the same name. Pop's version of "Nightclubbing" provided the kick drum sound for Nine Inch Nails' 1994 song "Closer". The drum loop of "Nightclubbing" was also duplicated by Oasis for the song "Force of Nature" on their 2002 album Heathen Chemistry. "Nightclubbing" was also sampled in the song "Small Town Witch" by the British band Sneaker Pimps on their 2002 album Bloodsport.

Live performances

"Nightclubbing" and "Funtime" appeared on the 1978 live set TV Eye, recorded during Pop's 1977 tour, the UK and portions of the US leg of which featured Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.

Most of the album was performed alongside Lust for Life material during the 2016 spring tour by Pop and his new band featuring Josh Homme, Dean Fertita and Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age and Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys, as part of the promotion for Post Pop Depression, an album self-referential to Pop's Berlin period. Tracks such as "Mass Production" and "Baby" were performed live in some cases for the first time since they were released.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie, except "Sister Midnight", co-written by Carlos Alomar.

Side one

1. "Sister Midnight" – 4:19
2. "Nightclubbing" – 4:14
3. "Funtime" – 2:54
4. "Baby" – 3:24
5. "China Girl" – 5:08

Side two

1. "Dum Dum Boys" – 7:12
2. "Tiny Girls" – 2:59
3. "Mass Production" – 8:24

Personnel

• Iggy Pop — vocals
• David Bowie — keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, piano, saxophone, xylophone, backing vocals, production
• Carlos Alomar — guitar
• Dennis Davis — drums
• George Murray — bass guitar
• Phil Palmer — guitar
• Michel Santangeli — drums
• Laurent Thibault — bass
• Tony Visconti — additional mixing

References

1. Deming, Mark. "Iggy Pop – Blah-Blah-Blah review". AllMusic. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
2. Little, Michael H. "Iggy Pop, The Idiot". The Vinyl District. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
3. Thompson, Dave (2002). The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock: In the Reptile House with the Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and the Cure. Helter Skelter.
4. "GIG HIGHLIGHT: IGGY POP". Totally Stockholm. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
5. Reynolds, Simon. "Between 'Fun House' & 'Funtime': Iggy Pop in the Seventies". Tidal Magazine. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
6. Wilcken, Hugo (2005). Low. pp. 37–58.
7. Carr, Roy; Murray, Charles Shaar (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record. p. 118.
8. Deming, Mark. "The Idiot – Iggy Pop | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
9. Paul Trynka (2007). Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed. pp. 242–250.
10. Arber, Amanda (16 March 2012). "Classic Albums: Iggy Pop – The Idiot | Features | Clash Music". Clash. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
11. Freeman, Phil. "Iggy Pop Albums From Worst To Best". Stereogum. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
12. Buckley, David (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. pp. 298, 315–318.
13. Pegg 2000, pp. 382–383.
14. Thompson, Dave. "Sister Midnight – Iggy Pop | Listen, Appearances, Song Review | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
15. Pegg 2000, pp. 152–153.
16. Strong, Martin C. (2002). The Great Rock Discography (6th ed.). pp. 815–816.
17. Ultimate Classic Rock > Iggy Pop Box Set to Focus on First Two David Bowie-Produced LPs (by Nick Deriso, April 10, 2020)
18. Smith, RJ (September 2004). "Iggy Pop: The Idiot". Blender. Archived from the original on June 30, 2006. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
19. Kot, Greg (July 22, 1990). "Pop On Pop: Iggy Rates His Own Music (and So Do We)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
20. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Iggy Pop: The Idiot". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the '70s. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
21. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
22. Geffen, Sasha (June 6, 2020). "Iggy Pop: The Idiot". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
23. "Iggy Pop: The Idiot". Q (402): 106. September 2019.
24. Coleman, Mark; Kemp, Rob (2004). "Iggy Pop". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 645–46. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
25. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 378. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
26. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Rock (1970s)". tomhull.com. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
27. Swenson, John (5 May 1977). "[The Idiot review]". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
28. Ambrose, Joe (2004). Gimme Danger: The Story of Iggy Pop. pp. 175–178.
29. Kurt Loder & David Bowie (1989). Sound + Vision: CD liner notes
30. "Siouxsie / The Creatures Glastonbury". Youtube. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
31. "The Quietus | Features | Baker's Dozen | Killing Joke's Youth on His 13 Favourite Records". The Quietus. 29 March 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2014.

Sources

• Pegg, Nicholas (2000). The Complete David Bowie.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• The Idiot at Discogs (list of releases)
• Iggy Pop's "The Idiot"