The Idiot (album)

From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Iggy Pop was the frontman of the proto-punk band the Stooges. He became known for his wild on-stage behavior and helped garner a cult following for the band. During their tenure, the band had little commercial success and all members, including Pop, suffered from drug addictions.[2][3] In 1971, Pop met musician David Bowie and the two became friends. Bowie was hired to mix the band's 1973 album Raw Power. Soon after its release, the band broke up in 1974 because of infighting, lack of major label support, and Pop's drug addiction,[4][5][6] causing Pop and Bowie to stop collaborating.[7] After the break-up, Pop recorded tracks with fellow Stooges member James Williamson, but these were not released until 1977 (as Kill City, credited jointly to Pop and Williamson).[8] Pop tried to establish himself as a solo artist and auditioned to join other bands such as the Doors and Kiss, but these ventures were unsuccessful. Realizing his heroin addiction was destroying him, Pop checked himself into the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles for help to get sober; Bowie was one of Pop's few visitors during his stay.[4][6] Pop recalled: "Nobody else came ... not even my so-called friends in LA. But David came."[9] Pop and Bowie reunited in mid-1975 and attempted to record a few tracks, but both men were deep into their drug addictions, so the sessions were mostly unproductive. Regarding the collapse of the sessions, Bowie commented, "He'll never make it to the recording studios in time. Iggy's doomed."[10][11]

Pop's stints in rehab in 1974 and 1976 were unsuccessful, and Bowie's biographer, Thomas Jerome Seabrook, described Pop as reaching his "lowest point" in 1976. Knowing he had to become sober, Pop accepted an invitation to join Bowie on his 1976 Isolar Tour. By this point, Bowie also wanted to rid himself of his drug addiction.[6] During the tour, Pop was impressed with Bowie's work ethic, later stating that he learned all of his self-help techniques through Bowie on the tour. There were further talks of Pop recording a solo album with Bowie as producer. Bowie and guitarist Carlos Alomar had written a new song, titled "Sister Midnight", and offered it to Pop; Bowie occasionally performed it live on the tour.[6][7] Towards the end of the tour, both Bowie and Pop knew they wanted to avoid the drug culture of Los Angeles, and decided to move to Europe. At its conclusion, Bowie was initially keen to produce "Sister Midnight" in Munich, Germany, for release as a single. After visiting the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, the same place Bowie recorded his 1973 album Pin Ups, he instead decided to produce an entire album for Pop there.[6][7] Bowie booked two months of studio time at the château for later in the summer of 1976.[6]

Bowie and Pop arrived at Château d'Hérouville in June 1976 to record an album. Bowie bonded with the studio's new owner, Laurent Thibault, the former bassist of the French band Magma, and asked him to play bass and act as engineer; Thibault hired Frenchman Michel Santangeli to play drums.[6][7] Bowie began composing tracks that ended up on The Idiot on keyboard and guitar. After Santangeli's arrival, Bowie played the tracks for him using a Baldwin electric piano.[6] For two days, with minimal guidance, Santangeli played to the rough tracks (which he assumed were demos), the first takes often becoming part of the final mix.[12] Bowie dismissed Santangeli at the end of the second day, leading him to believe his playing was inadequate, and he would not appear on the album;[6] Santangeli later expressed regret over the final drum sound.[7] Subsequently, Bowie began adding guitar parts. Overall, Bowie contributed guitar, electric piano, synthesizer, saxophone, and backing vocals to the album.[6]

After the backing tracks were composited with guitar, keyboards, and drums, Bowie had Thibault add bass to them with little guidance.[6] In July 1976, Bowie brought in his own rhythm section consisting of bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis to provide overdubs on a few tracks,[13] including "Sister Midnight" and "Mass Production".[6] While Bowie composed much of the music for The Idiot, Pop wrote most of the lyrics on the studio floor,[13] often in response to the music Bowie was composing. Pop was also keen to improvise some of his lyrics while standing next to the microphone, something that fascinated Bowie, who later used this method when recording "Heroes" (1977).[6]

Recording continued in August 1976 at Musicland Studios in Munich, which was owned by Bowie's future collaborator and electronic dance music producer Giorgio Moroder.[13] Here, Pop recorded most of his vocals, along with additional guitar overdubs provided by guitarist Phil Palmer who, like Santangeli and Thibault, re-recorded some of Bowie's guitar parts with little guidance.[6] Palmer described the creative collaboration with Pop and Bowie as "vampiric" because he never saw the artists during the daytime and the collaboration was stimulating but disquieting.[12] Bowie's original choice for guitarist was former King Crimson member Robert Fripp,[6] who would later work with him on "Heroes".[14] The last track recorded for The Idiot was "Nightclubbing" with Bowie playing the melody on piano using an old drum machine for backing. When Pop pronounced himself happy with the result, Bowie protested they needed real drums to finish it. Pop insisted on keeping the drum machine, saying "it kicks ass, it's better than a drummer".[7][15]

When recording was completed,[6] Bowie and Pop traveled to Berlin to mix the album at Hansa Studio 1 (not, as is often incorrectly reported, the bigger Studio 2 by the Berlin Wall).[12] Because his former producer Tony Visconti was already in line to co-produce Bowie's next album, Bowie called upon him to help mix the record, so as to familiarize him with Bowie's new way of working.[6] Given the almost demo quality of the tapes, the post-production work was, in Visconti's words, "more of a salvage job than a creative mixing".[16][17]

The Idiot marks a drastic departure for Pop from the aggressive proto-punk sound of the Stooges, reflecting a more subdued, inward-looking sound featuring elements such as "fragmented guitar figures, ominous basslines, and discordant, high-relief keyboard parts" as well as his "world-weary baritone."[18] At the time of its release, Pop described The Idiot as "a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk".[1] Retrospectively, commentators have categorized The Idiot primarily as art rock,[19] but have also noted the presence of gothic rock,[20] industrial rock, with the album described as "totally out of step" with the punk sound birthed by the Stooges[21] and credited with having "invented" post-punk.[22] In 1981, NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray suggested that The Idiot's electronic sound had been "pioneered" on Bowie's Low (1977),[23] whereas in 2016, Nicholas Pegg described it as "a stepping stone between Bowie's Station to Station and Low".[13] According to critic Simon Reynolds of Tidal Magazine, the album's "mechanistic grooves, brittle drums and harsh guitar textures" anticipated Bowie's Berlin Trilogy and allowed Bowie to explore his fascination with German electronic sounds inspired by Neu! and Cluster.[22] Wesley Strick of Circus magazine described the music as "mechanized", similar to Bowie's "Fame", but "with rhythms keyed off a quickened pulse",[24] while Richard Riegel of Creem called it "professional studio metal, with occasional German-electronic overtones".[25] NME's Nick Kent described the music as "totally rivetted and fettered to a thoroughly unhealthy aroma of evil and twilight zone zombie-time unease".[26] Bowie biographer David Buckley called The Idiot "a funky, robotic Hellhole of an album".[16]

The title of The Idiot was taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name which Bowie, Pop, and Visconti were all familiar with.[7][12] In a 1985 interview, Pop said Bowie was the one who titled it. Pop knew it was a reference to the novel but also felt his friend was simply insulting him.[37] Erich Heckel's painting Roquairol inspired the album's cover photo. It is a black-and-white flopped image photograph taken by photographer Andy Kent, it depicts Pop striking what Pegg calls a "tortured, stiff-limbed pose" based on the figure in the painting.[13] Bowie would later use the same painting as inspiration for the cover artwork for "Heroes".[38]

Although Pop completed The Idiot by August 1976, Bowie wanted to be sure he had his own album in stores before the release.[6] Thibault opined that "[Bowie] didn't want people to think he'd been inspired by Iggy's album, when in fact it was all the same thing".[32] Bowie recorded Low between September and October,[7] and released through RCA Records in January 1977.[39] Because Low had a sound similar to The Idiot,[23] the label feared it would not sell well.[40] Nevertheless, the former and its first single "Sound and Vision" were commercial successes.[41] The success of "Sound and Vision" allowed Bowie to persuade RCA to release The Idiot,[42] which they did on March 18, 1977.[18] The Idiot peaked at number 72 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, spending 13 weeks on the chart.[43] It also spent three weeks on the UK Albums Chart, reaching number 30,[44] marking Pop's first top 40 album.[13] It also peaked at number 88 on the Kent Music Report in Australia.[45] RCA released the singles "Sister Midnight" and "China Girl" in February and May 1977, respectively; both had the same B-side—"Baby",[46][47] and failed to chart.[48]

Although RCA was hoping he would tour to support Low, Bowie opted instead to further support Pop on his own tour. With Bowie playing keyboards, he assembled a band that included Ricky Gardiner on guitar, with brothers and future Tin Machine bandmates Tony Fox and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, respectively. Rehearsals for The Idiot tour began in mid-February 1977 and, according to Gardiner, went very well. He said Bowie was fine with restricting his involvement, not appearing to "undermine" Pop at all.[49] The tour, Pop's first since the demise of the Stooges, began on March 1.[50] The opening act was American rock band Blondie, who Bowie and Pop invited after the pair heard the band's 1976 debut album.[51][52] Songs played included popular Stooges numbers, a couple of tracks from The Idiot, and songs that would appear on Pop's follow-up Lust for Life (1977). Bowie was adamant about not taking the spotlight away from Pop, often staying behind his keyboard and not addressing the audience;[50] Giovanni Dadomo of Sounds reported, "If you wanted David, you also got the band."[53] Pop's stage presence was praised, although some, including Nick Kent, believed that Bowie was still in charge.[54] The tour lasted until April 16, 1977.[50] The Idiot and his subsequent tour earned Pop greater fame and success than he had ever achieved with the Stooges. However, during interviews, he was often asked about Bowie more than his own work. As a result, Pop took a more direct approach when making Lust for Life, resulting in a sound more reminiscent of his earlier work.[55][56]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[18]
Chicago Tribune	[57]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[58]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[59]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[60]
Q	[61]
Record Mirror	[62]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[63]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	7/10[64]

Critical reception to The Idiot was largely positive, although it did confuse a number of reviewers.[65] Doggett writes that listeners' perceptions of Pop generally influenced their views on the record.[10] In a contemporary review of the album, John Swenson of Rolling Stone termed it "the most savage indictment of rock posturing ever recorded" and "a necrophiliac's delight".[66] In Melody Maker, Allan Jones praised the record as a "disturbingly pertinent expression of modern music".[65] Strick positively compared The Idiot to Pop's prior work with the Stooges, noting the difference in his vocal performance: "[He] doesn't sound alive ... he sounds automated." He further complimented Pop's lyricism, stating, "Iggy's got the tainted charisma of a dead poet."[24] Like Strick, Riegel noted the difference in The Idiot and Raw Power, writing: "Where Raw Power represented the final apotheosis of the Detroit-metal rock band, The Idiot puts Iggy right out in front as a kind of rarefied, continent-seasoned singer-songwriter."[25] Billboard magazine noted the "less frantic" pace of Pop's earlier efforts and found Bowie's parts make the record more "commercially palatable".[67]

Similar to other reviewers, Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine was perplexed upon hearing The Idiot for the first time, noting the major difference between it and Pop's work with the Stooges. Calling it "a very strange, morbid, obscure and unsettling [album]", Needs praised the record, stating he listened to it on repeat for hours at a time, and it "chill[ed] [him] to the marrow".[30] John Rockwell of The New York Times called it "a powerful record", describing Pop's vocals as a blend of Morrison and Lou Reed and Bowie's music as "Germano‐British progressivisms".[68] Meanwhile, Record Mirror's Jim Evans found "little emotion" in Pop's vocal performances but considered the music innovative and compulsive, particularly on side two, which he deemed borderline heavy metal.[62] In a more mixed review, Stephen Demorest of Phonograph Record said he enjoyed the record, due to its "completely schizophrenic" nature. He called "China Girl" the highlight of the album, but felt other tracks were not among Pop's finest: "It's a mixture of bluff ... and beauty."[31]

Retrospective reviews have been largely positive, with many noting Pop's artistic evolution. Mark Deming of AllMusic praised the record, writing that The Idiot showcased a different side of Pop that had yet to be seen, and if fans at the time were expecting Raw Power 2.0, it "made it clear" that Pop had evolved: "it's a flawed but powerful and emotionally absorbing work."[18] Biographer Paul Trynka writes that over time, The Idiot would be classified as an album that was "more respected than loved", but acknowledged its influence on the "soul" of post-punk.[12] Writing for Clash magazine on the record's 35th anniversary, Amanda Arber stated: "The Idiot stands as a dark, dense and desolate display of an artist confronting his demons head-on, and growing up in the process. It was bleakly revolutionary then, and it is now."[1] Reviewing the album as part of the 2020 box set The Bowie Years, Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork praised it, stating: "The Idiot may lack fury, but it compensates with sardonic humor and perfectly tuned melodrama – both tools that would become wildly popular across all artistic media in the 1980s."[60]

Although reviewers consider The Idiot good in its own right,[13][6] Pop's fans have criticized the album as unrepresentative of his repertoire and as evidence of his being "co-opted" by Bowie for the latter's own ends.[70][69] In his contemporary review of the record, Riegel comments, "As the star of The Idiot ... Iggy Pop seems more under David Bowie's manipulative thumb than ever before, a condition that can be taken as positive or negative."[25] Furthermore, Jones described it as his "second favorite David Bowie album".[65] When reviewing Lust for Life, Pete Makowski of Sounds magazine felt The Idiot suffered from "being a part of Bowie's come down," calling it "a Low disco platter".[71] O'Leary considers The Idiot a Bowie album just as much as a Pop one. Although Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" is said to consist of Low, "Heroes", and Lodger (1979), O'Leary argues the true "Berlin Trilogy" consists of The Idiot, Low, and "Heroes", with Lust for Life a "supplement" and Lodger an "epilogue".[7] Bowie himself later admitted:

Poor [Iggy], in a way, became a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with sound. I didn't have the material at the time, and I didn't feel like writing at all. I felt much more like laying back and getting behind someone else's work, so that album was opportune, creatively.[72]

Pop performed songs from The Idiot during the Lust for Life tour in late 1977.[73]

Bowie later re-worked "Sister Midnight" with new lyrics as "Red Money" on Lodger,[7][74] while his version of "China Girl" on 1983's Let's Dance became a major hit.[75]

Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees described The Idiot as a "re-affirmation that our suspicions were true – the man was a genius and what a voice! The sound and production is so direct and uncompromised."[69] The album has been cited as a major influence on post-punk, industrial, and gothic rock artists, including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and Joy Division.[1] uDiscoverMusic's Tim Peacock later argued The Idiot invented post-punk.[76] The album particularly influenced Joy Division, who formed in the months between the releases of Low and The Idiot.[27] Their debut album Unknown Pleasures (1979) drew heavily on the "industrial soundscapes" and "relentless percussion" of tracks like "Nightclubbing" and "Mass Production", also noting that The Idiot was still playing on the turntable of the band's singer Ian Curtis when he was found having committed suicide in 1980.[13]

In addition, Seabrook cites "Mass Production" as an influence on modern alternative rock acts like the Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead.[27] In 2011, Killing Joke's Youth described The Idiot as one of his 13 favorite albums.[77] Pitchfork later ranked The Idiot number 96 in its list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1970s in 2004.[78] The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[79]

According to Thomas Jerome Seabrook:[27]

• Iggy Pop – vocals
• David Bowie – keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, piano, saxophone, xylophone, backing vocals, production
• Carlos Alomar – guitar
• Phil Palmer – guitar
• Laurent Thibault – bass guitar
• George Murray – bass guitar
• Michel Santangeli – drums
• Dennis Davis – drums
• Tony Visconti – additional mixing

• The Idiot at Discogs (list of releases)