‘Play It Safe’: the Iggy Pop song that featured Simple Minds
Punk godfather Iggy Pop has collaborated with many artists over the years, from his legendary work with David Bowie to his recent alliance with Lancaster duo The Lovely Eggs. However, during the 1980s, an unexpected coincidence led the Stooges frontman to record with Scottish new wave stars Simple Minds.
The recording for Iggy’s fourth solo record, Soldier, was characterised by collaboration. Longtime friend David Bowie was drafted in to help work on the album. The pair had worked together on a variety of projects up to this point, including both The Idiot and Lust for Life, arguably the best solo albums released by Pop.
Originally, Iggy had recruited his ex-Stooges bandmate James Williamson to produce the album, but the sessions were fraught with difficulties. Soon enough, a stretched-thin Williamson, often brandishing a vodka bottle, walked out of the studio after a disagreement with Bowie. In his defence, winning an argument against one of the most influential songwriters of all time is probably hard.
Elsewhere, Pop’s backing band on the record included original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and XTC’s Barry Andrews. So, it is safe to say the project was a sort of mini-supergroup of influences from throughout punk and post-punk. For the track ‘Play It Safe’, co-written by Pop and Bowie, the pair needed a chorus reminiscent of football terrace chanting, so they went searching for more members to draft in.
Recording the record in Wales’ Rockfield Studios, Iggy didn’t take long to bump into a young band named Simple Minds, who were recording their second studio album, Real to Real Cacophony. After forging a friendship with the Glasgow band, he invited them to record on ‘Play It Safe’. Speaking about the experience to Billboard, Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr recalled, “It was unimaginable to us that Iggy Pop would be in the Welsh countryside, where there’s nothing going on except sheep and hills.”
“We ran through the track a few times, and very diplomatically Bowie said, ‘Not bad, but why doesn’t everybody who doesn’t sing for a living take a few steps back from the microphone’,” Kerr continued, “Of course, that just left me sandwiched between [Bowie and Pop] at the microphone”. Kerr ended up getting credited for his performance on the album.
Soldier is by no means Pop’s best work. It is generally a forgettable record with few highlights to write about. Although it failed to capture the excitement or unpredictability of his previous work, the album is still notable for its collaborative influence and the mental image of Iggy Pop and David Bowie kidnapping Simple Minds to record the chorus of ‘Play It Safe’.
