IGGY POP
''I got nothin' to eat in this old house
I gotta go out and catch a mouse
I can't be wrong, so I gotta be right
It's eat or be eaten''
It's eat or be eaten''
In 1982, after Iggy's contract with Arista lapsed, he was offered the opportunity to work with Blondie mastermind Chris Stein, who not only produced Zombie Birdhouse, but originally released the album on his own short-lived Animal Records imprint, and Iggy seemed to approach the album as his opportunity to let loose with every musical and lyrical impulse that wouldn't have passed muster on the label that gave us Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston. After the perverse attempt at a dance-pop album that was Party, Zombie Birdhouse certainly seemed like the right idea; Rob DuPrey, who handled the keyboards, guitars, and programming and wrote most of the music, came up with a set of interesting pop tunes, skeletal but full of ideas and sharp angles, often suggesting a less pretentious and more emotionally direct corollary to the arty approach of the David Bowie-produced The Idiot. But sadly, Iggy himself didn't rise especially well to the occasion here; his lyrics are often a bizarre mélange of free-association without any clear focus, and one senses that Stein was a bit too awed by working with his hero to have the nerve to tell him when his vocals were wandering off-pitch (or out of tune altogether). Zombie Birdhouse was in many ways a noble experiment, and it's never less than interesting, but it also rarely works the way it's supposed to; ultimately, this album's a failure, but it's certainly one of the most interesting and ambitious failures of Iggy's career, which ought to count for something. [AMG]
''Everyone who says it's crazy is damn right, but what Iggy has always been but a crazy person in the first place? Again, everyone who says it's weird may not have heard Captain Beefheart or Henry Cow (or never have had the need to do so). It's crazy, weird and brilliant and creative. One of the few records that fully justify the existence of rock music in the '80s. "Run like a villain, let the good times roll / Run like a villain to save your soul!"
''This is a CRAZY record!''
''Bulldozer
Like a giant clam
Run that girl over
Get that poseur
Rolldozer Bulldozer
Ha ha ha ha
Son of a dog
General dozer
Bulldozer
Get that poseur
Rid that poseur
Ha ha ha ha
Bulldozer''
Like a giant clam
Run that girl over
Get that poseur
Rolldozer Bulldozer
Ha ha ha ha
Son of a dog
General dozer
Bulldozer
Get that poseur
Rid that poseur
Ha ha ha ha
Bulldozer''
''I've got some loving arms around me
Darker than the tombs of Egypt,
Dumber than the crudest fiction,
Buried in a melting coffin
Nights like this appeal to me!''
Darker than the tombs of Egypt,
Dumber than the crudest fiction,
Buried in a melting coffin
Nights like this appeal to me!''
