Reissues

Iggy Pop

Iggy & the Stooges

Iggy Pop’s live output should be accompanied by an asterisk – a reminder of the extreme distress of his confrontational stage presence. He’s the original hot mess, with a primal magnetism and human pinball routine as traceable in the scars on his torso as by the countless bootlegs that followed suit. The 4-CD Roadkill Rising scans the canonical vault of Iggy’s solo career, opening in the wake of his Berlin makeover for The Idiot and closing in a Paris radio station with an exquisite five-song suite of the French jazz-noir on 2009’s Préliminaires. The 1977 selections rank the highest, fashioning Stooges staples (“I Need Somebody,” “Search and Destroy”) in a glam-rock mold featuring producer David Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals, though you wouldn’t know it from the near-nonexistent liner notes. Over the four decades sequenced chronologically, Iggy morphs through myriad phases, and Roadkill Rising missteps in granting each equal footing, with the soapbox shock of 1993’s American Caesar (“Fucking Alone”) and 2001’s Beat Em Up (“Howl”) dragging down the last two discs. An emphasis on eclecticism (no song repeats among the 66 tracks) also prevents Roadkill Rising from ever reaching the velocity of the Stooges’ live “Georgia Peaches” concert accompanying the recent expanded reissue of Raw Power. That error’s corrected in part by Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans, a blistering reprise of the band’s 1973 proto-punk classic at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in September 2010. Lacking the spectacular second set – I was there – the full album retread serves as a modern Metallic K.O., an appropriately hazardous testament to Iggy Pop’s timeless shake appeal.

(Roadkill Rising)

(Raw Power Live)

This article appears in July 29 • 2011.