The Idiot – Berlin Trilogy Part 1
Infamous for the being the soundtrack to Ian Curtis’ death [Joy Division], Iggy Pop’s debut solo record ‘The Idiot’ is often marked as the unofficial beginning to Bowie’s Berlin Period.
‘Low’ – Bowies first installment was released before the record but however songs for ‘The Idiot’ were recorded before ‘Low’ was so therefore i will begin with this record. My view on it is that ‘The Idiot’ is Bowies stepping stone from the funky ‘Station To Station’ to the electronic ‘Low’ as this emerges the two together. Pop has been noted for saying its Kraftwerk meets James Brown.
The album starts of with the funky ‘Sister Midnight’ [which would later be the music to Bowies 'Red Money' on the last album from the Berlin period]. The track is just so groovy its bound to get stuck in your head for how simple the lick is but it works well with Iggys low vocal, almost sounding like the bouncing bass which compliments it.
Above is a interesting piece of footage of Bowie playing the song, it really shows you how funky the bass line is in the song as this rehearsal footage shows.
Half way through the album, is the famous Pop/Bowie song ‘China Girl’ which Bowie would re-make later in his career for the ‘Let’s Dance’ LP to help Pop make some money as he was facing bankruptcy. [The thought of endorsing insurance probably wasn’t around then for Pop]. The song is a much rougher, basic and morbid approach in comparison to Bowies version. I prefer Pop’s because it’s stripped down approach.
My favourite track in the album is the last, ‘Mass Production’. After the one minute of electronic synth’s creating an uneasy atmosphere, a low shaky voice meets the audience before blasting into song. The bass is loud in the mix and is overwhelmed by layering of odd synth sounds until eventually near the end of the song we hear what sounds like a melting liquid splurge of synth mashed on top of each other and spat back out. It is that half a minute which is my favourite part of the whole album – simply just for its experimental value. The song slowly comes to a end finishing of the album with the weird floating siren sound.
One aspect Bowie fans will love this I feel is because you can hear Bowies unique voice in with the tracks but in a new atmosphere out with his Bowie persona. This is also seen on Lou Reeds, Transformer album as well. Try playing the albums to people that don’t know Bowies involvements with them and see how long it takes them to spot the Bowie.
The album is great, very oddly whilst listening to this question yourself that Ian Curtis did die to this. It doesn’t sound that unnatural as the album just has that kind of depressing atmosphere around it which really works for me.
Iggy and Ziggy
