The two musicians Iggy Pop called “perfect” for getting through the dark times
“Music is life itself,” Louis Armstrong said. There alongside the highs and lows of living, he believed that music isn’t just a soundtrack, but is a hand that holds us through, a friend for every occasion, a constant that can be there for anything. It’s a shared belief that crosses genre lines, from the jazz legend to the punk rock icon, Iggy Pop.
“Discovering new music opens my mind and the element of surprise keeps me connected. I feel like I’m mining for diamonds,” Iggy Pop wrote for The Guardian about how he genuinely believes that staying hungry for new music and staying engaged with the sounds keeps him young.
Keeping the passion alive keeps him in tune not just with the industry or his career, but the world itself and himself as a person.
It reminds him of the old days when he was just a kid back in Michigan, before the machine of the music world swept him up, when he was simply a young boy and a fan. Like the rest of us, he was, and still is, looking for community in this crazy world – he’s looking for someone to relate to and to accompany him through the rough patches. And he, like so many others music lovers, found that in his record collection.
The first one was always there, are he grew up with one voice in particular. “Frank Sinatra was one of my aunt’s favourite singers when I was little. She lived in the trailer next to ours, she was ill, and my Mom cared for her. And her only comfort in life was to sit next to her old, gigantic record-player and to listen to Frank’s music,” he reminisced to Vinyl Writers about tender memories of his family.
Sinatra soundtracked good times, but with the emotion of his lyrics and the power of his voice, Iggy Pop always found him to be especially poignant in the darker moments. “This record completely hits the mark for me emotionally,” he said of 1958’s Only The Lonely, picking out tracks like ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)’.
“Frank shows his vulnerability,” he said, adding, “Generally, this is a loneliness-record,” as he’s found it a comfort in times when he’s felt alone.
Another artist meets them there too in those moments of sombreness. “This album has also accompanied me through dark times- ‘carried’ would be the wrong word maybe,” he said, adding another artist to the pack when he declared, “Sinatra and Miles Davis are both perfect for that.”
The jazz artist is another one that he reaches for in the sadder times, either looking for comfort or looking to have his emotions validated through music that reflects it back beautifully. “Both have this distinctive, warm voice, a voice always searching for something. It never resonates contentment,” he said, comforted by the way that neither of these artists ever seemed to have everything figured out.
It makes them perfect companions for moments of emotional confusion, and Iggy Pop has sat with them during many.
