Customer Reviews
The Idiot shows Iggy Pop's genius - By: Mr. S. Bailey, 22 Nov 2008 
Written & recorded with friend David Bowie, Iggy Pop's debut solo album is a brilliant, but gloomy affair that differs markedly from his last (official) release - 1973's Raw Power. The crash, bang & wallop which characterised The Stooges exhilarating hard rock is displaced by a variety of effects & textures that include industrial noise (`Mass Production'), electronica (`Sister Midnight' & `Nightclubbing') & saxophone-driven, jazzy atmospherics (`Tiny Girls'). Also, Pop's brooding, nuanced vocal performances on the likes of `Baby' & `China Girl' owe as much to Frank Sinatra's sublime singing on In The Wee Small Hours & Only The Lonely as they do to his rock roots.
Apparently, Siouxsie Sioux once remarked of The Idiot that it was a "reaffirmation that our suspicions were true - the man was a genius & what a voice". Her conclusion is correct. That can be seenin the way that its songs have, over the years, been appropriated by a range of artists, to varying degrees of success: from Grace Jones' fairly faithful rendering of `Nightclubbing' (1981) to Boy George's mauling of `Funtime' (1995).
"Oh Jimmy, just you shut your mouth!" - By: New Gold Dreamer, 10 Dec 2007 
Rating: 8/10
Best tracks: "China Girl", "Nightclubbing", "Funtime", "Baby".
Iggy Pop's solo debut is a far cry from the raucous, thrilling rock of his music with The Stooges; here, Germanic cabaret & electronica are the key influences, & the result is a unique, exciting & powerful work; this was one of four albums David Bowie played a rolein (the other three are his own Low & "Heroes" & Pop's Lust for Life) & they all contributed to marking 1977 as Bowie's most creatively fruitful year. Yet despite Bowie's unmistakable contributions, this is very much Pop's show, & his reinvention as jaded, mechanised, resigned onlooker is one of the 1970's greatest turns of character, very much Bowie-esque,in fact. Brian Eno famously commented that The Idiot was like "having your head encasedin concrete" , before adding that this was indeed meant as a compliment. In his own unusual way, Eno's utterly right. The full-on, abrasive, dense sound, at once loud & ugly, yet also melodic & beautiful, makes for a style that Pop nailed so perfectly here that it's probably unsurprising he didn't make another album like it. Even the album he made directly after it (in the same year) is relatively conventional, closer to a classic rock sound. The Idiot is to Iggy as Low is to Bowie; these are the descents, the confronting of the demons, while Lust for Life & "Heroes" are the ascents, the euphoria. It's also famously known as the last album Joy Division singer Ian Curtis listened to before committing suicide; this might suggest that it's an unremittingly bleak experience. It's definitely a foreboding trip, but it sometimes soars, though only on the relatively normal first side, which is almost perfect.
The repetitive opener "Sister Midnight", later reworked as "Red Money" on Bowie's Lodger, makes for a good start to the album, but The Idiot really takes off with "Nightclubbing", which is this album's signature tune, just as much as "Lust for Life" was on Pop's next album. Slightly drunken, woozy synthesisers, Pop's drowsy vocals, the discordant guitars that spiral through the red street lights conjure a sleazy world of moving from town to town, club to club, drink after drink...it's a gem. The ghoulish, campy "Funtime" was appropriately usedin Bowie's 1983 vampire horror The Hunger, & this one's fantastic, with some chilling, thrilling vocal & synth touches. "Baby" is a delightfully dreamy, weird & offbeat, & "China Girl" is a stunner, memorably covered by Bowie on his Let's Dance album of 1983. Bowie's version is a classic pop rush, but the original is equally (okay, even more) fantastic for different reasons. While the Bowie version is a joy (despite the unchanged, dark lyrics), Pop's version is all cathartic, end-of-the-world emotion; by the end you'll be left utterly shaken. It's absolutely beautiful, & by far & away the best solo Iggy Pop song.
Side two is far more experimental & challenging; "Dum Dum Boys" is a lament to those of Pop's friends who have crashed, burned, survived or died over the last few years. Working from a constant, slurred beat, it'll either bore you for seven minutes flat or mesmerise you for the same amount of time. "Tiny Girls" has a beautifully melancholic saxophone refrain & works as a calming respite in-between the album's two more epic songs. "Mass Production" is as experimental as anything on Low or "Heroes"; like "Dum Dum Boys", there's a huge, repetitive beat that mimics the movement of machineryin the way that Kraftwerk's most famous works mimicked the speed of cars or the shuffle of trains. Personally, I prefer the first side to the second, but the likes of "Dum Dum Boys" & "Mass Production" are what gives this album its character, & are essential elements of what is one of the most striking albums of the 1970s.
Welcome back �Mr Pop��(corrected version) - By: Milt Ingarfield, 26 Jan 2005 When David Bowie left L.A.in 1976 along with his luggage he brought with him James Jewel Osterberg a.k.a. as Iggy Pop, who had just got out of hospital with Bowie's help, they both went to Berlin to try & clean up both their collective acts.
After appearing on the seminal Bowie album "Low" (Iggy is singingin the backing chorus of the song "Whatin the World").
David & Iggy decided to work on what would be the first solo album for Iggy, to record the album "The Idiot" Bowie involved the same personal that made up the Low sessions that's Dennis Davis on drums with George Murray on bass Ricky Gardener on guitar & long standing Bowie sideman Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar, & everything else from saxophone, guitar & strange devices, & backing vocals was David Bowie, all that plus the production of the album as well, mixing duties where by Bowies producer Tony Visconti.
Bowie even took the black & white photograph that appears on the front cover.
The album begins with a song that Bowie had performed on his 1976 "Station to Station" tour;in fact the music of the track "Sister Midnight" would later appear on the 1979 Bowie album "Lodger" as the song "Red Money" (same music but different lyrics), the second song of the album "Nightclubbing" was used by Grace Jones for her 1981 release of the same name, her version is very similar to Iggy's deadpan delivery but without the menace that the throbbing drums & bass create & her vocals are more like talkingin pitch, than Iggy's growl set against guitar.
The track "Fun time" has Bowie shouting the word fun in-between verses giving the song a chant like quality.
This album is full of key moments for both artists' for Iggy "China Girl" which would later appear on the 1983 Bowie album "Lets Dance" album all be it with a different arrangement courtesy of that albums producer Nile Rodgers, the Bowie version would make more income for Iggy than all his released recorded work put together at that point of his career, on the original vinyl release that was the end of side 1.
Side 2 had only 3 tracks starting with the sinister sounding "Dum Dum Boys" whichin the world of Iggy sounds like blues that is even more desperate & bleak than normal.
The key moment for Bowie is his outstanding saxophone playing on the song "Tiny Girls" which for me is one of his best performances on that instrumentin his recorded workin my option, a real hair on the back of the neck tingling performance.
The sad thing to report is that the pressing that Virgin America releasedin 1990 has not been re-mastered & so tracks like "Mass Production" which have quite introductions suffer from the curse of C.D., background hiss, so please somebody get the master tapes of this album & get them to "Abbey Road" studios at the double, an album of this significance deserves better than the present state of affairs...
The Greatest Downer; but a great recording. - By: , 20 Jul 2004 I recall first hearing thisin a "listening booth"in a record shopin Bristol. I was stunned by it, & it became an oft-played record during my spead-freek youth.
I haven't bought the CD version, as I cannot decide if I want to re-visit those days,in memory form. I cannot decide if this is the all-time, most depressing album, or Lou Reed's "Berlin."
It's strongest elements are on what was originally side two.
"Mass Production" is a monumental song.
For many years, I thought that "Low" the record found on the late Ian Curtis's turntable; but,no,it was this one.
It is amusing that "China Girl" (co-written by Bowie) was totally ruined by him. Iggy Pop's is the definitive version. I recall some totally misguided person slating the song on Radio 4; disparaging Bowie's version as a piece of sexist exoticism. It's plainly about heroin! The fact that Osterburg released the almost-as-good "Lust For Life " within the same year is quite an impressive achievement. He never topped this, with perhaps "American Caesar" being a close contender. But "The Idiot" is his EUROPEAN album. 1977 was a year that saw many classics released. This one ; "Marquee Moon"; "Low "; "Talking Heads 77." This one is timeless.
Iggy's Low - By: Ted Maul, 04 Feb 2004 This LP, produced & co-written by David Bowie, is Iggy's equivalent of Low. i think Brian Eno described it as like 'having your head encasedin concrete'. he meant it as a compliment, & weirdly, he's right. It is an aloof, enigmatic record which is still full of wondeful, unforgettable songs like Sister Midnight & the original & best version of China Girl.
