David Bowie’s finest attribute, according to Iggy Pop: “When it swings, it really swings”
David Bowie was always a fairly enigmatic figure within the musical realm, what with his ever-changing characters and layers of artistic invention, particularly during the drug-fueled haze of the 1970s. However, if anybody knew the real Bowie, it was his friend and confidant, Iggy Pop.
Back in the heady heights of the 1970s, a certain bond was forged between the punk pioneer and Bowie. While the latter was busy performing for adoring audiences across the globe as a Martian glam-rock revolutionary, Pop was rapidly reaching his lowest ebb.
With the demise of proto-punk forefathers The Stooges, and a rapidly deteriorating drug habit dictating much of the performer’s personal life, it is fair to say that the anti-shirt advocate was in a pretty dark place towards the mid-1970s.
From that rock bottom, though, Pop found solace in the companionship of Bowie, whose rapid rise to the peak of Britain’s musical output had come with its own addiction-based difficulties. Together, the pair embarked upon a chaotic, often destructive journey which eventually led them to the concrete industrialism of Berlin, all the while trying – unsuccessfully – to rid themselves of their drug-fueled foibles.
Along the way, the two musicians spurred each other on to create arguably their greatest works. Pop’s solo masterpieces The Idiot and Lust For Life would never have reached the airwaves without Bowie, whose own ‘Berlin period’ recordings created alongside Pop still stand out as shining diamonds within his extensive discography. Inevitably, then, the pair became incredibly close during the mid-1970s; nobody knew Bowie like Pop did, and vice versa.
With that, Pop developed an unshakable appreciation for Bowie as a songwriter during their years in Berlin. While for a lot of the songwriter’s devotees, his power lay in his ability to continuously reinvent himself and his sound, embracing countless different styles over the decades and approaching each with a similar degree of dedication and expertise. For Pop, though, it was easy to look past the eccentric stage outfits and character concepts to get to the heart of Bowie’s appeal.
During one interview in 1988, over a decade after the pair had created their Berlin-era masterpieces, Pop summarised his comrade’s material by declaring it, “Not always swinging but when it swings, it really swings.” Explaining, “Depends on which stuff you’re talking about. In other words, I prefer the song ‘Station To Station’ to the song ‘Starman’.”
“I’ve always liked him more for his lyrics than any other aspect of what he’s done,” he continued. “That’s my personal assessment.”
Within that quote, he pitched one of Bowie’s most iconic, beloved efforts in the Ziggy Stardust era, ‘Starman’ against the comparatively underrated ‘Station To Station’, which adopted a completely different sonic atmosphere.
Although the punk godfather has been known for his contrarian tendencies, the ten-minute title track of ‘Station To Station’ is inarguably a more ambitious effort than his space-race material, in terms of the songwriting. There are countless different aspects of David Bowie that one might focus on – he was an incredibly multi-faceted artist – but, at least in the mind of Iggy Pop, it was his skill as a songwriter which reigned supreme. Everything else was superfluous.
