The Stooges song Iggy Pop called a “masterpiece”
No artist sits down with the intent of writing a masterpiece. As much as they might think that a song has the potential to be a hit, the classic tunes often come down to being at the right place at the right time whenever they are strumming their guitar or sitting at the piano while a classic melody comes to life. Although Iggy Pop was hellbent on musical destruction, he admitted that one of his pieces was worthy enough to be called his masterpiece.
At the very beginning of his career, Pop’s mentality was to tear down everything precious about rock and roll. Forming The Stooges out of Detroit, Pop intended to make heavier art that could be more ramshackle than anything coming out of England at the time. Even though the Rolling Stones may have given fans a blueprint for hard rock, Pop dared to dream even bigger.
Across the band’s debut album, the rudimentary guitar playing and heavy reliance on swagger and aggression would pave the way for punk many years later, with Pop staking his claim as one of the wildest frontmen ever. Taking cues from Little Richard, many of Pop’s greatest achievements revolved around him waging war on the audience and himself whenever he stepped onstage.
Although the group would get the chance to make something even more raucous on the album Fun House, Pop wanted a song that made a much greater impact than any standard protest track. Getting ideas from reading Time magazine constantly, Pop had the idea of making a piece revolving around a boy who got left behind by society and turned to violence to suit his needs.
Featuring some of James Williamson’s greatest lead playing, ‘Search and Destroy’ would become the band’s unintended anthem, with Pop prowling around the stage whenever he performed the song live. Although many fans may have been too intimidated to get too close to the stage, Pop knew what he was doing would have an impact, eventually paving the way for other art-rock acts like David Bowie to flex their muscles onstage.
While Pop said that ‘Search and Destroy’ might not have been his favourite track, he couldn’t argue that it was the defining moment for The Stooges, telling Uncut when discussing the album Raw Power, “‘Search And Destroy’ is the record’s masterpiece. I knew it when we did it. I felt a sense of relief that it made me artistically secure. But I knew I was still socially fucked.”
Despite the band’s fantastic momentum, they would end up concaving in on themselves going into the 1970s, transforming Pop into a solo star on albums like The Idiot. The damage had already been done, though, with everyone from art rock darlings like Lou Reed to punk aficionados counting Pop among one of the first to push the boundaries for unsophisticated rock music.
Pop didn’t intend to slow down, either, showing his penchant for dishevelled rock and roll on songs like ‘Lust For Life’. After years of being known as one of the most dangerous men to ever strut his stuff across the stage, Pop was still waging war with his audience and being just as rowdy as ever.
