Revenge Records 1990

Recorded live during the Lust For Life tour at “l’hippodrome” Paris, France – September 23, 1977

That’s enough nicey, nicey little soundtrack albums. It’s time to get loud and annoying. It's time to delve into the world of Iggy Pop. The thing with Iggy is that his career has been so long, varied and volatile, each piece of vinyl, video, CD or DVD adds another small glimpse into a portion of his life. That’s not to say that you’ll get to know James Osterberg (for the uninitiated Iggy’s real name) by listening to his music, but I’d suggest that you’ll build up a pretty accurate portrait of his alter-ego Iggy Pop.

By this stage of his career, Iggy was doing a lot of drugs, and may have even been locked away a few times for insanity. With the help of a few friends (which included David Bowie) he ‘sort of’ came through to the other side. (Sort of: I think in the early 80’s he placed himself into a self imposed exile in order to get his shit together again).

Coinciding with the rise of punk in Britain, he launched into a European tour. During the early part of the tour, Bowie even played keyboard for him. But by the time of this concert Bowie had moved on. If you’ve seen any video footage from this era, this is when he wore a horses tail on stage. Anyway, that brings us to the Paris leg of the tour and this live album.

The line up included: Iggy Pop – Vocals, Stacey Heydon – Guitar, Scott Thurston – Keyboards & Guitar, Tony Sales – Bass, Hunt Sales – Drums.

Although the liner notes say that this album is released with the authorisation of Iggy Pop, I don’t believe this show was planned to be released as a live album. It sounds like a bootleg to me. The sound is very ‘tinney’ and the bass is almost absent (or certainly well down in the mix). So the sound quality on this recording is not too flash hot. If that’s what you look for on an album, then steer clear of this release. But if you’re a fan of Iggy going off – swearing, ranting, raving and misbehaving, then this may be your cup of cocoa. Rather than being an album of popular tunes, it is more like a documentary.

It starts off with a brutal quartet of songs: Sixteen, Lust For Life, The Passenger, and I Got A Right. For most people that should be enough, bring your ears to total aural cataclysm level, but added to that, interspersed between the songs are Iggy’s rants.

The album slows down a bit in the middle with Neighbourhood Threat, Success, and Fall In Love With Me, but then hammers home towards the end with Raw Power, and CC Rider/Jenny Take A Ride.

The concert and album wind up with I Wanna Be Your Dog, and by that time, you’ll be exhausted from just listening to the CD.

Because of the sound quality, this album could never be considered easy listening, but then again Iggy at his best, never could! I wouldn’t consider this a ‘core’ Iggy album, and if you’re just discovering Iggy, I wouldn’t put this high on your ‘must have’ list. But it is an interesting piece of the Iggy Pop jigsaw puzzle. For fans looking to flesh out their knowledge on the man and his music, this album is a good time capsule of this stage of his life.

Labels: Artist: Iggy Pop