Lust for Live 1977

Yet another dodgy looking live album from Iggy Pop (who is presumably that rare artist who would never dream of suing anyone for copyright infringement), Lust for Life: Live 1977 was culled from Pop's live work in that year, when he was reintroducing himself to his audience after David Bowie helped facilitate his comeback by producing The Idiot and playing keyboards in Pop's road band. As audio, Lust for Life is up to the standards of an average late-'70s bootleg: the sound is thick and boomy, but without a lot of detail as various instruments float in and out of the mix, though Pop himself is audible throughout. As music, this stuff is hit and miss: Bowie plays on some of these cuts, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell which ones (especially since Bowie did little to call attention to himself), and the band is heavier on keyboards than guitars, sounding more like an amiable and polished show band than the dangerous attack squad that represented even the weakest Stooges lineup. And though Pop sounds strong on most of these tunes, one sometimes senses he was still getting used to being back on-stage after his post-Raw Power collapse. As psychodrama, though, this disc is fascinating. The songs alternate with excerpts from an interview in which Pop speaks with a combination of braggadocio and brutal honesty about his art, his life, and the persona he's created, and while he doesn't fully tip his hand, he does touch on the drug problems that dogged him during the Stooges latter days, his working relationship with Bowie, the influence of Jim Morrison on his work, and the difficult tug of war between art and commerce that informed his music of this period. The music isn't prime Pop, but he's engaged and opinionated during these shows, frequently talking about his demons, his pet peeves, and the damage he's wreaked upon himself (not too many artists would fill out an instrumental break with a story about OD'ing on Quaaludes after being released from a mental hospital). As music, Lust for Life: Live 1977 is no better than most of the other Iggy Pop live discs that are cluttering the marketplace, but it does offer a deeper look into the psyche of The World's Forgotten Boy than the vast majority of his semi-authorized work, and longtime fans will find it fascinating.