Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXIII--The Teddybears featuring Iggy Pop: Punkrocker

This week's tune has a bit of the bittersweet to it, as it was introduced to me by my nephew Josh, who we lost last July to the ravages of ALS at the all too young age of 34.  Rest in peace, Josh--and thanks for the tune...

The Teddybears hail from Stockholm, Sweden, and originally formed in 1991.  They started out as a hardcore punk band (as Teddybears STHLM) but over the years have incorporated electronica, hip-hop, rock, and reggae into their music (and are now just the plain old Teddybears).  Over the course of their career they have released 7 albums, 5 EPs, and 18 singles--which must have done quite well in their native Sweden but have done fuck-all here in the States for all the information I could find on their chart success.  Since 2006 the band members have begun donning bear masks for all of their tours and album artwork...I suppose because they can.

Fun Fact:  Because so many Norwegian and Swedish hardcore metal bands (don't know why but it seems a bit odd that such bands hail from Scandinavia, too) have dark and macabre sounding names, the Teddybears went for something soft and cuddly...just to be a wee bit different.

"Punkrocker" was originally released in 2000 on the album Rock 'n' Roll Highschool (no relation to the Ramones soundtrack of the same name, near as I can tell).  It was re-released in 2006, this time with vocals featuring Iggy Pop on their album Soft Machine, which is the version we're celebrating this week.  The Wikipedia entry for "Punkrocker" said it was a minor hit here in America, but I could find no proof of it ever charting so no shout out for Billboard magazine this week.  The song did have a run as the background music for a Cadillac commercial...because the first thing I think of when I think of Cadillac is punk rock....

For those who sit around and wonder, like me, just how important vocals are in rock and roll, one only has to compare the original version of "Punkrocker" to know the answer.  I gave it a listen and it's a nice little pop tune that had I heard back when it was first released, I probably would have liked.  But I tell you what, give the lead vocals to Iggy Pop, and the song soars from nice little pop tune into the realms of great pop singles.  There's a desperation to his vocals that ties in perfectly with the mood of the song, and it takes quite a vocalist to make nihilism sound cool, but Iggy pull that off, too.  The Teddybears liven it up with some scrumptious drumming that really drives the song and some subtle guitar and even a bit of synthesizer that carries it to Catchy As All Hell Heaven.  I defy you to listen to the chorus and not have it swimming in your head happily for the next week.  In a testament to its high quality, it's the kind of song that will almost make you forgive Sweden for ABBA....

Lyric Sheet:  "See me die on Bleecker Street/I'm bored with being good/See me sneering in my car/I'm driving to my star...

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump.
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XCI--Iggy Pop: Lust for Life

Fun fact #1:  The music for this week's featured song was written by David Bowie on a ukulele.  How a tune written on a ukulele turned into a classic rock anthem is another in a long line of reminders that show us why David Bowie was a musical genius.

Fun fact #2:  The two men behind the driving rhythm of the song--and let's face it, what makes the song the classic that it is--were Hunt and Tony Sales, whose other claim to fame is that they are the sons of the late comedian, Soupy Sales who had his heyday in the sixties and seventies.

Born James Osterberg, Jr. in 1947 in Muskegon, Michigan (been there, not worth the trip), Iggy Pop got his start in music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where in the late sixties he was a founding member of the seminal band The Stooges (punk and alternative pioneers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees).   Outside of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, there aren't many artists who were more influential on the punk and alternative scenes than Iggy Pop and the Stooges.   During his time with the Stooges, Pop developed a reputation for bizarre and outrageous behavior in his stage shows, as well as an overwhelming heroin addiction.  Due in large part to said addiction, the Stooges went their separate ways in the seventies (though they'd reunite in 2003 and still perform together occasionally to this day), at which point Pop hooked up with David Bowie, who produced a couple of Pop's albums, as well as writing a few great tunes together (including Bowie's hit, "China Girl").  Though Pop has never had a great deal of commercial success (he never put an album or a song anywhere near the top ten on the Billboard charts), he has still managed to tour and continue releasing LPs for the better part of nearly fifty years, and happily was able to overcome his heroin addiction in the eighties.

Released in 1977 on the appropriately titled LP, Lust for Life, "Lust for Life" (lyrics by Iggy Pop) has been considered both a paean to heroin and a paean to surviving it (I lean toward the latter, but, hey, I'm a glass half-broken kind of guy).  While not a hit in the U.S. in its initial release, the song was given a new life in the nineties when it was included in the (great) movie, Trainspotting, replete with a music video (back in the day when music TV stations actually played music videos) which featured Iggy dancing happily throughout.  It also came in at #149 on Rolling Stone's list of the five hundred greatest songs of all-time.

"Lust for Life" opens with sixty seconds of one of the most powerful drum and bass riffs (the rhythm was actually borrowed from the Morse code inspired call signal of the Armed Forces Network) in the history of pop music before Iggy Pop so much as sings a single word.  And it never lets up  throughout the song, helping drive Pop's vocals as well as its celebratory nature.  Pop never lets up either--and by the end of the song you're left convinced he really does have a lust for life and wishing you had one, too.  In the end, it's a testament to the power of rock and roll, and its ability to squeeze both the best and worst of this world into a few minutes of pop music heaven.

Rap sheet:  "Oh love love love/That's like hypnotizing chickens...."

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee