Iggy Pop's five wildest moments
The self-destructive legacy of the infamous Stooge
There is the extreme, there is the legendary, and then there is Iggy Pop. From his early years with the Stooges, the musician made an art of excess: self-mutilation and self-destruction. His risky theatricality required an audience to respond, participate, or run away. The sex and violence rarely stopped after the show ended. Here are five of Iggy's wildest moments, both onstage and off.
The first sighting of Iggy severing his torso (May 23, 1969)
The abuse the Stooge inflicted on his own body is legendary, but according to Ben Edmonds (later editor at Creem), his career of self-mutilation in public began on a tap at Ohio's Wesleyan University. "He grabbed a piece of a drumstick and began to pass it across his bare chest without thinking," the writer would later recall. "Apparently, the pressure increased every time because the scratches on him became more visible and from there blood began to flow that fell on his torso." Scary, but something even more disconcerting for Edmonds was that when Iggy put on a white shirt after the concert, his blood seeped through the fabric.
Iggy teaches England how to be punk (July 15, 1972)
The Iggy Pop that was first shown in the UK at the Kings Cross cinema was terrifying on another level. Here, the look he wears on the cover of the Raw Power LP debuted: silver pants, glam makeup, and smudged eyeliner. "One time, he grabbed a girl and looked her right in the face of her, almost hitting a poor wretch who dared to laugh at him," wrote critic Nick Kent after the show. “The audience was terrified with Iggy climbing over people. The administration decided that they would arrest us if we did more shows, ”recalled guitarist James Williamson. The show had a great impact on at least two of the attendees; John Lydon and Mick Jones would go on to form the Sex Pistols and The Clash, respectively.
Bowie gives Iggy cocaine in the mental hospital (1974)
With his failed attempts at a solo career and an addiction taking over, Iggy attended UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute to stay sober, or at least to keep the cops off his back for a while. Soon a famous visitor from his past arrived with a gift. “We came to the hospital with a ton of drugs for him,” Bowie told Blender in 2002. “He was not well, that was all we knew. We thought we should bring him some drugs because he probably hadn't used anything for days! " The artist's caretakers declined the gift, but the reestablished connection with Bowie would soon set the next stage in Iggy's life and career in motion.
Iggy and Bowie appear in Dinah! Originally aired April 15, 1977
"Iggy Pop is considered to be the creator of what is known as punk rock today," Dinah Shore informed viewers of her in a surprisingly wise tone. After a performance, the actress told Iggy with concern: "You cut yourself with a bottle." The audience laughed after the musician explained in a charming tone, "I've been in treatment for that kind of thing."
Iggy poses completely naked on the cover of Little Caesar (1979)
That passage on television did not mean that Iggy had become mainstream, as confirmed by the photoshoot of this underground magazine. “We are not patrons for 50 years. We are young punks like you ”, announced the writer Dennis Cooper in the first edition of his publication. For 12 editions, Little Caesar was a space where Avant-Garde poetry and punk glamor consummated their relationship. But the eighth of them had the image that would define the fanzine: a black and white photograph of Iggy as he was brought into the world. The muscular definition of his body and his confidence were so enormous that his member may not be the first thing to attract attention. The 70s were ending, but Iggy Pop had just begun.
