Customer Reviews

Nude & Rude: Best of Iggy Pop

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Want to set the record straight as to why some of the obvious hits were left off of this collection. According to an interview given a few years ago, Pop stated that the omissions were due to restrictions the various record companies for which he has recorded placed on Virgin Records: Elektra allowed two songs off of either The Stooges or Fun House but not both; Columbia allowed two songs from Raw Power as long as it wasn't Search & Destroy AND Raw Power (by the way, the versions of Search & Destroy and Gimme Danger on Nude & Rude were taken from the original Bowie-produced Raw Power which I believe is now out of print [Update 4/13/10: Sony Legacy has since re-released the original Bowie mix on a 2-CD Deluxe Raw Power]); Arista would not participate whatsoever so anything from New Values, Soldier and Party was off limits; and Bomp! chipped in with the essential I'm Sick Of You and Kill City. Given all the handcuffing, I think Virgin did a good job with this CD, and wrapping things up with Wild America is a nice touch as the Ig comes full circle to the kind of music he started out with. This is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with Pop's work. If you like what you hear here, proceed directly to Fun House.

This is a great compilation, and an excellent introduction to Iggy's music both solo and with the Stooges. Most of his solo ventures were incoherent and major letdowns. What this C.D. does is collects the best tracks off of those albums and includes a couple of the Stooges more memorable songs. I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun, Search & Destroy, Gimme Danger, NightClubbing, China Girl, and of course ForLife are just some of the standouts. Overall, if you ever wanted to know what the hype was all about, or if your a fan, buy it. P.S.- One problem though, Iggy has always done well by himself, but all of his fans know his best stuff was with the Stooges. So why then don't they throw out some of the weaker songs here ( there's a couple ) and include some more of the gems off 'FunHouse' and 'Raw Power'. They could easily fit three more tracks here and sustitute two of the worst solo songs with some Stooges stuff. Better yet, screw that, have a 'Best of the Stooges' album put out. Better yet, screw that even, have a 'Stooges' box set. You could include all three studio albums and include the great 'Rough Power'. Ahhh, if only I ran a record company.

Iggy Pop remains one of the most influential performers in rock from the past 30 years. Iggy, taking inspiration from the likes of Jim Morrison, was one of the great innovators of shock theatrics in rock music (he did this using bloody displays of gusto such as slashing his chest with glass or simply rolling over many shards on the stage floor). "Nude And Rude" is, to be honest, just a taste of Iggy's best work. But a good showcasing it is and anyone interested in getting a start on the man who along with his original band, The Stooges, set the stage for the Punk movement should check it out. The opening, "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is gritty, dirty rock with some deliciously suggestive lyrics and guitar work that seems like a precursor to Metallica or Nirvana. The next track, "No Fun" (later covered by the Sex Pistols), is a perfect pre-Punk expression of boredom and simply having no one around. "Search and Destroy" is an exhilarating anthem of chaos and street poetics. "Gimme Danger" is haunting in a Punk-poetry sense, it actually has some depth and imagery that stick. "I'm Sick Of You" sounds like psychedelic sadness. There isn't much to "Nightclubbing," it does sound like interesting cabaret though. Surprise, surprise, "China Girl," for those of you unaquainted with your popular music history, was NOT a David Bowie original, he made it into a hit but Iggy Pop was indeed the first to record it (under Bowie's production). "Lust For Life" remains a popular Iggy tune (you'll hear it in commercials here and there), it has a cool swing feel that gives a fun energy. "The Passenger" is one of Iggy Pop's all-time great recordings. This is a hypnotic, stylish and lyrically enrapturing song with a Doors-like feel in it's dreamy tone (the late Michael Hutchence also recorded a great version). Iggy here invites us on a ride through "the city's ripped-back sides." From here the album takes a more late 70's-like feel as in the almost bluesy "Kill City" with it's images almost out of Burroughs. To be honest, "Real Wild Child" isn't that great, it doesn't have the energetic insanity or poetic grittyness of Iggy's best work, in fact, it feels simply like a silly moment. "Cold Metal" is a driving tune with Iggy delivering a rough vocal. The closing, "Wild America" is a cool, modern Iggy track where he presents a portrait of America that's sinister but kinda fun. Any Iggy devotee will tell you there are some great songs missing here, such as the insane "T.V. Eye" and "1969," but the point of most of these collections is to get you to look for the entire body of work. As a taste of Iggy Pop, this a good CD to get, but once you've heard it, you'll want to really get into the good stuff.

Want to set the record straight as to why some of the obvious hits were left off of this collection. According to an interview given a few years ago, Pop stated that the omissions were due to restrictions the various record companies for which he has recorded placed on Virgin Records: Elektra allowed two songs off of either The Stooges or Fun House but not both; Columbia allowed two songs from Raw Power as long as it wasn't Search & Destroy AND Raw Power (by the way, the versions of Search & Destroy and Gimme Danger on Nude & Rude were taken from the original Bowie-produced Raw Power which I believe is now out of print); Arista would not participate whatsoever so anything from New Values, Soldier and Party was off limits. Given all the handcuffing, I think Virgin did a good job with this CD. Having Bomp! chip in with I'm Sick Of You and Kill City was a major coup, and wrapping things up with Wild America (excellent song) is a nice touch as the Ig comes full circle to the kind of music he started out with. This is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with Pop's work. If you like what you hear here, proceed directly to Fun House.

Granted, you would need a double-disc to thoroughly cover both the Stooges AND Iggy's solo career, and that's probably the approach Virgin should have taken for this project if they weren't so cheap. Instead, they tried to cram twenty years of output onto a single disc, which is a shame considering Iggy's influence on modern music. I agree with the above reviewer who criticized the complete neglect of Iggy's Arista recordings, particularly NEW VALUES, an album of particular importance due to the fact that it not only included some of Iggy's best tunes ("New Values", "Five Foot One", "I'm Bored"), but it also featured Stooges' guitarist James Williamson both playing and producing. The inclusion of a few key tracks from these sessions would have been nice here, especially since they are STILL out-of-print domestically and only available as German imports (West German, to show you their age) Also, nothing from ZOMBIE BIRDHOUSE. So basically, Virgin dropped the ball on this one. I suppose it's sufficient if you want the hits and not necessarily the good songs.

Get down on your knees and kiss Iggy's feet!

This is the first Iggy Pop cd I've ever bought, and I love all of the songs on it. I've bought many more of his cds since then and I've gotta say that there could've been a better song selection. We all probably know that this should've been a 2 disk set and it should've featured at least ONE song from each of his cds. Since that wasn't fullfilled, I'm suprised they can give this cd the title "The Best Of Iggy Pop" and get away with it.

All the Iggy songs that get stuck in your head in one place. The possibility of scaring your coworkers with your music is a definite bonus.

I couldn't get tix to the rare show in Chapel Hill. But, as a 40-year old Detroit native, I still got to say, Iggy is genius. I saw Iggy many times in Detroit, Royal Oak, and East Lansing. One show sucked, the others were sublime. I probably could have filled up another 2 or 3 cd's of what I consider the great stuff from the subpar stuff for this collection, but, the record company probably had smart marketing ideas in fun. Buy it, enjoy!!

No single disc compilation could really do for Iggy but I'm amazed at how close this comes. Leaving the Stooges monolithic masterpiece "Fun House" to it's Nuclear self, this catches the cream of the other Stooges albums and the often thin Iggy solo albums. I used to play this all the time in the store I worked at and my co-workers all became converts to Iggy. This scared me badly but I think I'll survive. While no Iggy could be perfect without the Live ranting that enliven "Mettalic KO & 2KO" this is a great place to start, or finish.