The David Bowie song that helped Iggy Pop get married
The friendship and songwriting partnership between the two rock icons of David Bowie and Iggy Pop has led to some of music history’s most interesting tales. From ram-raiding the car of a Berlin drug dealer to going cold turkey in a French mansion, the shared life of the pair would make for a pretty incredible sitcom.
However, it wasn’t all sex, drugs and rock and roll when it came to Pop and Bowie; there were elements of wholesome romanticism, too. In fact, one joint venture was so impactful that it eventually led to Pop’s marriage with the Japanese writer Suchi Asano in 1984. Bowie and Pop had been collaborating for years prior after the Brixton-born songwriter had become infatuated with Pop’s proto-punk group The Stooges.
Beginning their collaboration in 1973, when Bowie was brought on board to produce The Stooges’ seminal third album, Raw Power, the pair stuck together through thick and thin. As Pop’s substance abuse became more and more reckless, he destroyed many of his close relationships – but he could not shake off Bowie. Later, Pop would share, “The friendship was basically that this guy salvaged me from certain professional and maybe personal annihilation – simple as that.”
In 1976, the duo embarked upon one of their most successful joint-songwriting efforts. First released on Pop’s debut solo album, The Idiot, ‘China Girl’ was based upon an affair that Pop had had with a Vietnamese woman. A tale of unrequited love, ‘China Girl’ became much more successful when re-recorded by Bowie during the sessions for 1983’s Let’s Dance. Earning Bowie a number two single in the UK and a top ten in the US, the track brought a healthy level of success for both parties.
The success of ‘China Girl’ was not merely financial for the pair. In a 1986 interview with Interview Magazine, the punk godfather revealed how the track had led to his marriage with Asano. “We looked at each other suspiciously and said, ‘I’m gonna marry you?’” he recalled. “But we figured, let’s try it, so we went down to City Hall – I think it was October”.
The prior summer had seen ‘China Girl’ rise up the singles charts, as Pop explains, “I saw a little daylight coming in the summer of ’83,” Remembering, “David’s recording of ‘China Girl’ was going up the charts and there would be a little income from that for me as the writer. And my own albums had sold consistently, so there was a little money coming in, and I thought this was a good time to get off the merry-go-round.”
So, it seems the success of ‘China Girl’ finally mellowed out the sweating lunatic Iggy Pop. His marriage to Suchi Asano lasted for 14 years before the pair eventually divorced in 1999. Now residing in the sunshine of a Miami mansion, Pop has been married to longtime partner Nina Alu since 2008.
