The Idiot og Lust for Life, Iggy Pop’s to Berlin-plader fra 1977, ‘komponeret’, produceret og i den grad sat i scene af David Bowie, er et must i enhver relevant pladesamling. Her fortæller The Smiths’ Johnny Marr websitet The Quietus om sit forhold til førstnævnte…

As I already had Raw Power and knew what The Stooges were about, it was big news that Iggy Pop was putting out his first solo record under his own name. The generation before me who were forming bands – people like Siouxsie and Lydon – had all been Iggy freaks from hearing about him via David Bowie’s patronage. As was the case in the 70s, David Bowie was the provider of all the cultural information that moulded the decade. You found out about Burroughs through Bowie, you found out about Kraftwerk through Bowie and it was the same with Iggy Pop.

There were rumours in the music press that David Bowie had been working on this record and when it came out it was a big deal. And it was amazing. Nothing sounded like it before and I don’t think anything has quite managed to sound like it since.

There is so much written about the Berlin period that there is no point in me going on about it, but I think of all the records of that time, this is the one that is most Berlin-like to me. I now know Berlin and have spent time there before it changed, and The Idiot does convey the atmosphere of being on the Berlin streets at 3.30 in the morning having been to various insalubrious establishments and looking for more action. Songs like ‘Baby’, ‘Nightclubbing’ and ‘Dum Dum Boys’ really capture that drunken, woozy, underground European atmosphere. It’s a perfect record.

Og Marr har ret; The Idiot lyder ikke som meget andet. Den er tæt, late night-mørk, grim, depraveret, mekanisk kantet og…lokkende. Meget anderledes end Lust for Life-albummet, der blev indspillet kort tid efter, og som kommer med en helt anden – pardon my french! – joie de vivre  i  in-your-face-vestberlinsk Hansa-lyd, hedonistisk swagger og livssøgende Iggy-rocknroll. To meget forskellige, men lige vilde plader.