The Idiot

I'm not the world's biggest Iggy Pop and the Stooges fan: Like everyone, I know "Lust for Life", like everyone, and for some reason, "Five Foor One". Ms. Spenser is more of a fan, although she is just in awe of his shirtless ripped snake torso. So I queued up Gimme Danger (2016) mainly for her.

It starts with director Jim Jarmusch interviewing Iggy - it looks like he is sitting on the floor leaning up against a washing machine. He is talking about the low point of the Stooges, in 1971, when drugs, bad attitude, and general malaise caused the band to break up. But let's go back to how it started.

A lot of this movie is about the early years: Jim Osterberg, later known as Iggy Pop, grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan, in a trailer with his parents. He played drums - and gives his parents all gratitude for not killing him for playing drums in a trailer. He formed a band with some locals, the Asheton brothers and James Williamson. They met with and were mentored by the Paul Butterfield Band. Iggy decided to go to Chicago where the real musicians these guys emulated were. He even played drums for a few of them. He came back and formed the Psychedelic Stooges, under the wing of the MC5. They went to New York, and hung out with the Velvet Underground and Nico. And so on. 

But here's the weird thing - this is all before 1970. The Stooges and the Grateful Dead are more or less contemporaries. In New York, they even recorded an Om-and-drone number - John Cale was producing. I lived through all of this, but had no idea. 

Through it all, Iggy is gracious, open, and articulate. If you were expecting a primitive, brutish type, you won't get it. He talks about how the MC5 pressured them to get political, and how they refused (or woudn't even engage), but continually praises them for their sound, their honesty, and their generosity to the band. He's like that with almost everyone he talks about. He has some nasty things to say about pre-fab music biz bands (singing a whiny line or two from Crosby-Stills-Nash), but that's about it. He talks about being given the Pink Fairies and says that they were just doing what "MC5 and Alice Cooper" had already done. Interesting pairing.

So, the Stooges break up. Iggy then says he met David Bowie and went to Europe. But all he says about that is, "David was cool." And then Jarmusch picks the story up in 2003, 30 years later, when the Stooges were "reunified". The last act is about the deaths of a few members, the big festivals they played, and the newer bands they influenced. Mike Watt from the Minutemen became a late bass player, and J. Macsis got some of the gang back together when writing music for The Velvet Goldmine. Which is all pretty interesting (and a little confusing, what with people coming, going, dying, etc).

My guess is 1) Jarmusch wanted the story to be about the Stooges, not just Iggy. So they just kind of skipped the solo years. This fits with Iggy's open spirit too. He acknowledges the people he works with. That may be why "Lust for Life" isn't even mentioned. But I suppose there might be some of 2) He doesn't want to talk about Bowie. It's personal.

Jarmusch doesn't have a lot of old Stooges film to work with, so he uses period-specific stock footage, TV shows, and funky animation. It's too bad, because what does exist is amazing. The Stooges weren't very technical, but had, well, Raw Power. And Iggy might not be a great singer, but he dances like a snake - writhing and twisting, bend back until his head touches the floor, all shirtless with rippling reptile abs. 

In conclusion, it's not in the movie, but I heard he was interviewed way back when. They asked him what he thought he would be doing in when he was in his 70s. He said, "singing 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'". And so it came to pass! Hail Stooges!