The best advice Debbie Harry ever got from Iggy Pop: “He has standards”
While Iggy Pop regularly crossed the line between innovation and recklessness, there is quite simply no denying that he fully understood the importance of live performance.
Never did Iggy take for granted the privilege of performing his music to a live audience, and so never did he stand on stage and give less than 100%. Whether it was either puking on audience members or threatening to cut himself on stage, he ensured that The Stooges’ live performances epitomised the punk attitude.
As those two aforementioned examples of pure debauchery highlight, Iggy’s on-stage style often trod close to the line of all-out chaos. But that was representative of the time in the late 1970s, especially in New York City. Before the Big Apple became the epicentre of glitz and glamour, it was the home of the depraved, who were ousted from society. Subsequently, it became fertile ground for the raucous foundations of punk to thrive, and Iggy just became a custodian of that.
Chaotic as it may have been, Iggy inspired a generation of musicians dwelling in the gutters of New York at that time, musicians who in the years that followed would transform the scene into an exciting hotbed of new-wave. One of those artists was Debbie Harry, who was later invited on tour with Iggy Pop and David Bowie, where she got to continue watching the pioneers of musical performance from the side of the stage.
“There was a certain amount of improvisation in their performances,” Harry explained, adding, “It wasn’t robotic, and the passion was there. Mr Pop is passionate. It’s pretty obvious he’s kind of a wild guy, but he has standards; he has a controlled madness, and this is what it’s really all about.”
It’s the sort of insight only artists waiting in the wings can truly understand, being privy to the on-and-off-stage distinction of an artist like Iggy. And while Harry cites Iggy as an inspiration in how to craft her own performance style, his admission of his very own north star would continue to prove that, as reckless as it may have seemed, Iggy’s style was as calculated as the rest.
Recalling how James Brown influenced his on-stage style, Iggy explained, “The big thing I got from him was, don’t just stand there and look at your shoe. Fuck that. It had to be like something’s going on here. He always sounds like he’s breaking loose”.
Adding, “Once you’ve made the decision to go out in front of people and start moving around, it frees up so many things. You’re now creating movement in a society that’s based on order. And within yourself, you feel different. That motion makes you make decisions as a vocalist, decisions that free you from the stilted stuff.”
That concluding thought was ultimately the quintessence of Iggy’s performance style and punk as a whole. It was the vehicle through which oppressed and disillusioned people could lose themselves, escaping the desperately oppressive shackles of normal society. It may have seemed jarring at first, but as Harry proved, once you joined Iggy in his pursuit to be free, it all made sense.
