Albums of My Life - The Idiot

Look, before this series of Albums of my life goes any further I'm going to cue you in on a little secret. 90% of what I listen to is at least 20 years old. And 90% of that 90% is from the 70's. Like a good shirt that you find a the thrift store, if it's new to you... it's pretty exciting.

The Idiot was Iggy Pop's debut solo album produced by David Bowie. I believe that when these two gentlemen recorded this album, they were completely out of their minds. In turn, the album sounds like a coked-up robot factory in Berlin having a bad day.

I bought this album around ten years ago after reading Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. I was very into Lou Reed and Patti Smith, but a little wary of this peanut butter smearing, shiny pants wearing fellow they called Iggy Pop. But it was love at first listen. The combination of David Bowie and Iggy was a seductive one.

In fact, there was a time in my life when I was listening to this album and playing legend of Zelda so much, that I can't hear Dum Dum Boys or Nightclubbing without seeing that 8-bit screen.

A few years ago, I found a copy of The Idiot on vinyl at a yard sale as I flipped through the endless permutations of So..., A Star is Born (Kristofferson/Streisand edition), Thriller, Tapestry, Framptn Comes Alive, and Dave Brubeck blah blah.

The record comes out when I'm working in the studio occasionally, and when it does, I play Dum Dum boys at least three times. Wanting to listen to the Idiot is like being in the mood for a rainy day. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it is to be savored.