Why Iggy Pop is the godfather of punk, according to Iggy Pop
For the better part of 50 years now, the word “punk” has provided a tricky paradox for any artist slapped with the tag. On the one hand, acknowledging one’s punk qualities could confirm a few pretty desirable traits to a would-be fan base: rebelliousness, energy, and authenticity. Part of the supposed punk ethos, however, also includes a diametric opposition to tedious old journalistic constraints like “genre” and marketability. So, how do you thread the needle of proving yourself a punk while also thumbing your nose at the entire concept?
Well, to the great benefit of all the young punks who followed in his footsteps, Iggy Pop wrote the perfect playbook for tackling this conundrum way back in the late 1970s, right around the time he’d first earned his designation (from those aforementioned boring journalists) as the ‘Godfather of Punk’.
“I’ll tell you about punk rock,” a 30-year-old Iggy famously said in a 1977 talk show rant on Canadian television (a monologue that was later sampled on Mogwai’s 1999 song ‘Punk Rock’). “Punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it… and give everything they have to it. And it’s a term that’s based in contempt, based in fashion, style, elitism, satanism, and everything that’s rotten about rock n’ roll.”
The part of that interview you won’t hear replayed quite so often is the immediate response from the buttoned-up interviewer, CBC talk show host Peter Gzowski, who actually asks Pop a pretty fair follow-up. “What I can’t figure is whether you’re acting against that label?” he says. “ . . . You don’t like the label?”
“I don’t like to hear it come out of someone’s mouth,” Iggy responds, attempting to intimidate. “OK, where do you like to hear it come out of?” jokes Gzowski, getting a laugh from the audience and even a sly smirk from Pop.
About a year later, Iggy was once again asked about the P word in a TV interview with Dutch journalist Mick Boskamp. This time, though, the question was specifically about why he was known as the ‘Godfather of Punk’. If Iggy really did despise the terminology, this would have been a chance for him to roll his eyes or simply dismiss the question entirely. But that, of course, is not the correct punk move.
“The word was born in newspapers and sort of third-rate magazines,” a somewhat subdued Pop said with a smile. “And at the time, I was the first guy they called a punk. And they used that term for me to represent the idea of someone who wants to do something very strong and very uncompromising, that believes in or has a vision of something, but at the same time is the kind of a person who doesn’t have the skills or ability to do it. So, many funny things happen. And that’s a punk.”
By 1978, it also seems that Pop had done some personal research into this word he was constantly being asked about. “It comes from films in the ‘30s, actually,” he continued, noting that there was a “little guy” in the Humphrey Bogart film The Maltese Falcon who gets disparaged with the moniker.
At first, Iggy’s response again feels like a firm pushback against punk and even the supposedly complimentary “Godfather” title that came with it. But on closer inspection, his actual description and definition of a true punk equally paint a picture of a likeable underdog, the guy with a strong vision and drive who is only limited by not having the natural or technical skill set to succeed in the normal, mainstream way. To be the Godfather of that kind of archetype–arguably the “coolest” type of musician through a 1978 lens–would carry no shame at all. And it probably explains why, as a 77-year-old 6Music radio DJ and grizzled old shirtless wizard, Iggy still seems more than content to wear the title.
As to whether he truly is the missing link between garage rock and punk, or Exhibit A in how a punk frontman should sound and behave on stage — a few other folks certainly could make their own rightful claims to Iggy’s crown. When it comes to knowing how to talk about punk, however–simultaneously owning the word and raising a middle finger to anyone else who tries–Iggy did almost unquestionably set the standard.
