GOT SOUL, IF YOU WANT IT
June 20, 2009 – 4:12 amIn 2001’s forgotten Beat ‘Em Up album, Iggy Pop asked “Where is the soul?” of American pop music. Nine years later, he returns with his third album for the new millennium. And he’s telling you “what is a dog but a machine for loving.” Bow wow wow.
Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.
IGGY POP
Paris 2009 [no label, 1CD]
Live at Studio 105, Maison de la Radio, Paris, France, May 28, 2009, three days after the release of his jazz album Preliminaries.
Largely ignored by critics, Iggy Pop has released only three albums (including Preliminaires) since 2000. So with the new album, Pop has changed tact to offer songs with “jazz overtones” but as this recent show informs, he’s still a “mother” when he wants to be. Amid the croonin’ is a lot of cursing.
The radio concert arrived just three days after the new Preliminaires album was released and is one of a number of promo shows set in Europe where EMI is distributing the new album. In the U.S., Pop has had to settle for an indie release through the small Astralwerks label.
Manfully, the bare-chested Pop comes out full throttle with 5 Foot 1 then slows the tempo and sings in French a tune that inspired the jazz classic, Autumn Leaves. In between, he throws out his new mid-tempo ballads, some prime covers including I Put A Spell On You and How Insensitive, and paces the show with fast and slower songs.
It’s tough to put on a show like this when your audience expects quite another kind of show. According to wikipedia, Préliminaires is “inspired by Michel Houellebecq’s novel “La Possibilité d’une île” (The Possibility of an Island).” Pop saves the album’s weird track, the spoken word A Machine For Loving, a reading from Michel Houellebecq’s book, for the second to final song.
“Through these dogs… we pay homage to love… What is a dog but a machine for loving.”
Before you can think just what he’s trying to say, Pop drives into the show’s final number, a cover of Jr Walker & The All Stars’ Motown hit, Shotgun.
And while you’re reeling with his words, you might want to recall that Iggy Pop has said he’s “sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music”.
Throughout his career, Iggy Pop has sung “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. That’s the song found on his 1969 debut album. Now he’s back with a spoken word song using the “dog” motif again. Many bands and artists have since covered I Wanna Be Your Dog. They range from Slayer, Joan Jett, Sid Vicious, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth and many others. It is the reference number for when punk and metal melded together.
For this live reading of A Machine For Loving, the mature Iggy Pop does spoken word accompanied by a guitar and inverts the meaning of I Wanna Be Your Dog to something subtle but dark. A “dog” still means “low-life”, less than human.
There’s a lot of that going around these days. Think Gitmo, the West Bank, Mogadishu, Myanmar, Tiananman and it’s all around you. For sure, this isn’t idiot music but whether it will be noticed, only time will tell.
What’s slightly distracting is the DJ who tries to translate the onstage banter. Excellent FM stereo broadcast shared by jojolafrite. Artwork also by jojolafrite.
- The Little Chicken 
Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at [email protected] if you want to download them at a later date.
NOTE: Strong language. If you are easily offended, please do not download these tracks.
Track 01. 5 Foot 1
Track 02. Les Feuilles Mortes [Autumn Leaves]
Track 03. Nightclubbing
Track 04. I Want To Go To The Beach
Track 05. King Of The Dog
Track 06. Spanish Coast
Track 07. I Put A Spell On You
Track 08. How Insensitive
Track 09. Nice To Be Dead
Track 10. Passenger
Track 11. Willow Weep For Me
Track 12. Sweet Sixteen
Track 13. A Machine For Loving
Track 14. Shotgun
Track 15. Outro
* seven songs are from his new album Preliminaries.
Lineup [if anyone was there and can confirm, please do]
Iggy Pop - Vocals
Horn section
Iggy Pop’s jazz album is Preliminaries. The artwork is by Iranian artist Marjane (Persepolis) Satrapi. You can buy it here.
12 Responses to “GOT SOUL, IF YOU WANT IT”
My I be the first to say… unfuckingbelievable! I havent even heard it yet and I’m stunned you got this! Wasn’t it just a few days ago I requested some iggy pop under the arvo part posting and you come up with this great unheard surprise, not just some old concert.
That’s two home runs in my book within a week or so. You guys are on one hot roll. This wheel’s DEFINITELY on fire.
By LowendBill on Jun 20, 2009
this is a cool show. i like the horns.
i saw iggy pop twice here in b’ham, al. once in 99 at city stages which is an annual music festival in and around linn park downtown bham. it’s this weekend, actually. i also saw him in nov 01 at the 5 points south music hall which has since closed. both shows were good. the nov show he did like on shotgun and told people to get on stage and dance. yeah, i remember i was right up front. it was cool. i saw soul brains aka bad brains 5 months earlier. i saw frank black, the ramones, the breeders, coc, yngwie malmsteen, rev. horton heat, etc… all there. i supported it while it was open, but, like a lot of clubs here they just close and another one creeps up elsewhere.
thanks,
ed
By Ed Saad on Jun 20, 2009
Fantastic concert!
Thanks
By Rochacrimson on Jun 20, 2009
Was this show a Black Session or just a “normal” radio live show?
By the way, a few days ago I saw Marjane Satrapi’s film “Persepolis” –- highly recommended, a fantastic film. It makes you even more angry about these criminal religious fanatics that ruin the whole country and stole the election some days ago and now kill people who are against them.
The fact that Moussavi is seen by many as a reformer and maybe even a liberator shows how desperate the people in Iran are, because he’s not a real democrat. He was one of the four candidates chosen by the religious dictatorship, he is PRO “Islamic Republic”, only against dictatorship.
By walter on Jun 22, 2009
Thanks for this slice of Pop history. Also, a shout out to Walter for the “Persepolis” recommendation. A terrific film that had my 13 year old daughter hooked from start to finish. I wonder … play the movie with Iggy as the soundtrack. Could we have a new Dark Side/Wizard of Oz combo?
By Johnny Kinkdom on Jun 25, 2009
Thanks so much for this Iggy Pop material. I’ve been listening to James Osterburg for too many years!
BTW, I like this blog’s political commentaries on the Lion City.
By Lost Johnny on Jun 25, 2009
awesome stuff. And great quality for an Iggy boot, which is a plus in and of itself! thanks!
By Eric on Jul 6, 2009
Wow! I just listened to this show and… wow! I was not aware of his foray into jazz. He flips back and forth between the smooth jazz guy and the “hey you MFs” guy. What a fabulous show. Thank you very much!
By dorgunr on Jul 14, 2011
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems
as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why
waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when
you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
By checkout on Feb 13, 2013
iggy pop joe walsh patti smith new order and others…
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/joe-walsh-and-iggy-pop-to-perform-at-benefit-concert/
By darth on Jan 14, 2014
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/scott-asheton-dies/
By darth on Mar 17, 2014
I love Iggy Poop .
By Derrick on Dec 7, 2022