There’s a certain irony that the apparently drug-free versions of Iggy Pop and David Bowie are turning out albums faster than the coked-up versions of themselves. So, perhaps the drugs weren’t making them more productive after all?
Once you know Bowie’s involvement with this album his musical fingerprints are obvious, with tracks like Some Weird Sin and Tonight having a very Bowie feel to them, in his current Berlin mode. But although he has the writing credit, the pulsing beat of the opening (and title) track Lust For Life is less clearly Bowie. The exhuberent sense of breaking free is clear throughout the song’s almost shouted chorus, and a beat that comes straight out of Gene Krupa’s solo work on Benny Goodman’s version of Sing, Sing, Sing. No wonder Danny Boyle used it in the iconic opening sequence to Trainspotting. Although the track seems to musically echo the wild and chaotic nature of Renton’s life, lyrically it prefigures his ultimate attempt to free himself of the junk.
The other well-known track from this album is Passenger, also based around a repetitive beat and refrain, a jaunty three beats and a pause motif. Inspired by Jim Morrison but also evoking thoughts of Camus and Kerouac, it sees life as a road trip upon which we are merely passengers. The almost hypnotic rhythm is perhaps also inspired by Kraftwerk’s tracks about travelling.
Darker, and also thematically echoed in Trainspotting even if Boyle didn't use them, both Turn Blue and Tonight deal with heroin abuse and the cost in lives. Tonight begins with the lyric “I saw my baby, she was turning blue. Oh, I knew that soon her young life was through”, obviously echoed in the title of Turn Blue. It’s all fun and games until somebody ODs (Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Gram Parsons, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones – okay not all ODs but all involved substances at the time of death). Side note, I looked it up and Pop was 30 when he recorded this album, having avoided joining the 27-Club, and still going strong today, even if he does look these days like he’s made of old leather.
Of the Bowie/Pop output of ‘77 so far, I think this is the most polished and accomplished album, and it’s no surprise that a couple of tracks from it have lasted (even if one of them got a boost from Danny Boyle).
Choose Life.
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