Iggy Pop picks his favourite Bob Dylan track: “A killer song”
Iggy Pop always believed in the power of destruction in music. For all of the great acts coming out in the late 1960s telling everyone that life was a utopia and there were no problems in the world, The Stooges’ debut record may as well have been a hit of bad acid straight to the temple, especially when songs like ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ hit the airwaves. Everything was still calculated, though, and Pop remembered that even back then, Bob Dylan was writing his personal creed on ‘It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding’.
Compared to the other rock acts coming out when he debuted, Dylan was the reigning punk of his time. He did have more than a few sappy tunes in his catalogue every now and again, but many of his greatest moments came from when he was sticking it to the establishment, who wanted the younger generation just to shut up and move on with their lives.
Dylan was there to speak for his people, and Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited was the sound of him pivoting into heavier territory. For all of the power he had with an acoustic guitar in his hand, just imagine what he could accomplish if he hopped on the rock and roll train and stole a few moves from The Beatles to get what he needed out of his audience.
Some fans were sceptical of Dylan embracing this new sound, but Pop remembered being absolutely enthralled by what he heard, telling Rolling Stone, “I always liked ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’. that’s really beautiful. My favourite, though, is ‘Darkness at the break of noon, shadows even the silver spoon’ That one, ‘It’s Alright, Ma’, is a killer song.”
There are even a few turns of phrase in Stooges songs that actually call back to that kind of rebellious attitude Dylan talked about. Compared to Dylan talking about shadows arriving at the break of noon, Pop was framing himself as the world’s forgotten son with a heart of napalm looking to bring some light back into the equation.
Then again, Pop might have taken Dylan’s lines a bit too seriously, considering his antics. While Dylan’s bleeding was meant to be metaphorical, Pop never refrained from getting his hands dirty to prove his point, whether that meant cutting himself open in front of the crowd or launching himself into the audience and walking on people’s hands like a modern-day hard-rock messiah.
The ‘Godfather of Punk’ also fell over when he realised that Dylan admired what he was doing, saying, “Bob was a good guy. I haven’t heard it myself, but I heard on a ‘dog’-themed segment on his radio show he actually played ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. [Imitating Dylan] ‘Here’s one of the best dog songs ever written.’ That made my life, dude.”
Even though Dylan and Pop seemed to be coming from two different worlds, they’re actually one in the same when you break them down. Pop had a far more savage approach, but both of them sought to break down the norm and pave the way for what the next generation had to say.
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