In 1976,
the Stooges had been gone for two years, and
Iggy Pop had developed a notorious reputation as one of rock & roll's most spectacular waste cases. After a self-imposed stay in a mental hospital, a significantly more functional
Iggy was desperate to prove he could hold down a career in music, and he was given another chance by his longtime ally,
David Bowie.
Bowie co-wrote a batch of new songs with
Iggy, put together a band, and produced
The Idiot, which took
Iggy in a new direction decidedly different from the guitar-fueled proto-punk of
the Stooges. Musically,
The Idiot is of a piece with the impressionistic music of
Bowie's "Berlin Period" (such as
Heroes and Low), with it's fragmented guitar figures, ominous basslines, and discordant, high-relief keyboard parts.
Iggy's new music was cerebral and inward-looking, where his early work had been a glorious call to the id, and
Iggy was in more subdued form than with
the Stooges, with his voice sinking into a world-weary baritone that was a decided contrast to the harsh, defiant cry heard on "Search and Destroy."
Iggy was exploring new territory as a lyricist, and his songs on
The Idiot are self-referential and poetic in a way that his work had rarely been in the past; for the most part the results are impressive, especially "Dum Dum Boys," a paean to the glory days of his former band, and "Nightclubbing," a call to the joys of decadence.
The Idiot introduced the world to a very different
Iggy Pop, and if the results surprised anyone expecting a replay of the assault of
Raw Power, it also made it clear that
Iggy was older, wiser, and still had plenty to say; it's a flawed but powerful and emotionally absorbing work. [The album was reissued in conjunction with a larger box set, The Bowie Years. The CD set featured a second disc with a 15-song live set recorded at London's Rainbow Theatre in July of 1977.] ~ Mark Deming