“I didn’t care about anything else”: Iggy Pop explains how he studied Bob Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’
Musical icons are not born overnight; people like James Osterberg Jr – Iggy Pop, to you and I – only arrived at stardom after years of intense musical obsession and study. Of course, Pop had always been fearlessly individualistic within the music world, fronting proto-punk outfit The Stooges and blazing a trail that many future generations would follow. Fueled by anger, disenfranchisement, and an unavoidable level of amphetamines, The Stooges changed rock forever, but their early influences were often more mellow.
The early days of Iggy Pop were quite the departure from his later sweating lunatic image. Growing up in Michigan, the future rock legend lived a fairly conventional 1950s lifestyle; it was only when he started playing the drums at age 10 that things started to go downhill. Giving a young Pop an outlet for his emotions, he began to lend his drumming skills to local garage rock groups all over Ann Arbor, Michigan, eventually leading him to form The Psychedelic Stooges in 1967.
Given the fact that The Stooges boasted such an endlessly original sound, it is difficult to imagine what their early influences would have been. Of course, the group were endlessly indebted to the DIY stylings of Michigan’s garage rock scene, but their discography is so much more varied than those garage contemporaries. Luckily, Pop has never been one to shy away from discussing his musical influences, and he has regularly highlighted Bob Dylan as being a particular influence on his songwriting.
In truth, it would be quicker to list the musicians that Dylan hasn’t influenced, than those he has. Almost single-handedly inspired the folk revival of the 1960s, Dylan typified the sound and political struggles of the era. Throughout it all, Pop was more than aware of the folk singer’s innate power. In particular, Dylan’s controversial electric period gripped a young Iggy Pop, drawn in by his fearless individuality and rebellion against traditional folk values.
Speaking on his adoration of Dylan, Pop once recalled his younger days, sharing, “I had Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan, and I didn’t care about anything else except deciphering the information that Dylan had to tell me.” Whether or not Pop ever decoded every little intricate detail within that album remains unknown, but Bringing It All Back Home remains one of Dylan’s all-time greatest efforts.
Aside from the gifted songwriting and groundbreaking compositions, the album was also notable for being the first Dylan record to feature electric instruments. Marking a bold departure from his folk-orientated early material, this was the album that marked Dylan as a pioneer in the field. It might have alienated elitist folk fans, but it provided an unavoidable indicator that Bob Dylan had arrived, and he wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon.
Upon first glance, the harrowing tones of ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ or the timeless delivery of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ might not seem like an obvious influence on Pop or, indeed, The Stooges. However, the rebellious nature of Bringing It All Back Home is just as punk rock as anything on Raw Power.
Sure, it’s missing the abrasive guitar tones and energetic delivery of Iggy Pop, but the inherent message of Dylan’s album lay in its fearless individualism and the songwriter’s willingness to try something that had never been attempted prior. In that sense, Dylan might have been more influential on Iggy Pop than first thought.
Even after the demise of his garage rock outfit, Pop continued to draw from the inspiring message at the heart of Bringing It All Back Home during his solo career, which saw him out on his own, receiving criticism from purists who believed he had sold out his earlier work. There is something Dylan can certainly relate to.
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