DIE IDIOTEN: An Iggy Covers Album

 

It's Bandcamp Friday!  One new item that caught my eye is a single from The Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Lydia Lunch.  Together, they cover "Permafrost" by Magazine and "Mass Production" by Iggy Pop.  Here was one of the final missing pieces to complete a cover album project!

The Idiot was released in March 1977 and was followed six months later by Lust For Life.  Both albums were created during Iggy and Bowie's stay in East Berlin.  From their black and white covers to the musicians who play on both records, the two LP's are close siblings. Thus the title of this covers album, Die Idioten (The Idiots). 

I couldn't find this album online (or any other covers of "Turn Blue"), so there is a live version from Iggy's US tour with Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals.  Otherwise it's all covers, in a surprising range of interpretations in various genres, including reggae (Trippynova), mento (The Jolly Boys), rockabilly (J.D. McPherson), country (Kelly Willis, having fun with Chuck Prophet and The Gourds), plus a track from Angkor Pop, the Cambodian tribute to Iggy.  The biggest surprise to me was David Hasselhoff's version of "The Passenger".  It's modern European dance music, but the Hoff doesn't go over the top.  His vocal is faithful to the original.  Best thing he's done since his Lords Of The New Church cover!

The lyrics to these songs are among the best that Iggy has written, although some of them are problematic.  Iggy's attraction to underage girls is evident on "Sixteen" and "Tiny Girls".  Check out Eugene Robinson's article Punk Rock Pedophilia for a thoughtful examination of this issue.  

Another problematic lyric is "Visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone/It's in the whites of my eyes." Of course, the China Girl tells the song's narrator to shut his mouth.  It was Ron Asheton (not Iggy) who collected Nazi memorabilia, and it was Bowie who foolishly flirted with fascism.  

There's a fascinating new book called This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich which explores this obsession among rock musicians.  Bowie, Lennon, Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Vivian Stanshall, Eric Burdon, Lemmy, Throbbing Gristle, Sid Vicious, Siouxsie, Mark E. Smith, Bernard Sumner, Richard Jobson, Spandau Ballet, Nico, Slayer, Kanye and many others are examined in music, word and deed.  

The author, Daniel Rachel, also wrote a book about 2-Tone and the Rock Against Racism movement; and in This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll he calls out RAR for being less focused on antisemitism than other forms of racism.  I would like to have read a chapter on the white supremacist and neo-Nazi connections to noise, neo-folk, and metal, but those troubling topics are explored here, here, here and here. 

Sorry for such a long and digressive post today.  If I may suggest one item to consider for purchase on this Bandcamp Friday, it's the new release from Atlanta singer-songwriter K. Michelle Dubois.  She was a founding member of Ultrababyfat, and on her excellent solo albums she collaborates with Dan Dixon and other members of Atlanta band Dropsonic.  

Dubois' new full-length, Served On The Half Shell, is a collection of originals and covers: All Tomorrow's Parties, Truth Hits Everybody, and The Culture Bunker by Teardrop Explodes!  Michelle has a compelling voice. I frequently return to her solo albums, and always try to catch her live shows (which are too rare). 

Her new record is a great introduction to her music, as it features both new originals and remixes of older ones like All Night Glamour (which really needs to be featured on the soundtrack of the next teen vampire movie.) I previously featured K. Michelle Dubois' music here on the compilation Georgia Women of Alternative Rock (GWAR).

Buy This Ain't Rock'n'Roll from Akashic Books

Buy other Daniel Rachel books from Bookshop.org 

Buy music from K. Michelle Dubois at Bandcamp