WEBVTT - Iggy Pop, Part 1 0:00:15.436 --> 0:00:22.436 Pushkin. Iggy Pop is one of the craziest rock and 0:00:22.556 --> 0:00:26.036 roll frontmen to ever grace the stage. As a lead 0:00:26.076 --> 0:00:28.556 singer of The Stooges, Iggy was known for bending and 0:00:28.596 --> 0:00:32.556 contorting his sometimes blooded body while feverishly pacing the stage 0:00:32.676 --> 0:00:35.796 like a wild animal. His fifty year career has been 0:00:35.836 --> 0:00:39.356 as tumultuous as his performance style. After starting the Stooges 0:00:39.356 --> 0:00:42.916 in Michigan in sixty seven, the band released three albums, 0:00:43.036 --> 0:00:47.236 including fun House and rob Power. The band eventually disbanded 0:00:47.276 --> 0:00:50.436 in the mid seventies, and Iggy went solo, recording a 0:00:50.516 --> 0:00:53.476 series of albums, some of which were instant classics like 0:00:53.556 --> 0:00:57.276 the two recorded with David Bowie, and others more experimental 0:00:57.476 --> 0:01:01.356 actually some of my personal favorites. At seventy five years old, 0:01:01.396 --> 0:01:04.396 He's just released his newest album, produced by Andrew Watt, 0:01:04.716 --> 0:01:08.796 Every Loser. On today's episode, Iggy shares incredible stories with 0:01:08.916 --> 0:01:12.436 Very Ruben about his career. Their conversation was so great 0:01:12.596 --> 0:01:16.796 we decided to split it into two consecutive episodes. Today. 0:01:16.796 --> 0:01:19.356 In part one, will hear Iggy reminisce about recording fun 0:01:19.436 --> 0:01:21.756 House in Los Angeles and the first time he saw 0:01:21.796 --> 0:01:24.636 the ocean He also talks about the tight knit rock 0:01:24.636 --> 0:01:26.676 scene in Detroit and how it was in some ways 0:01:26.716 --> 0:01:30.596 led by a local Madman, writer, activist, and music manager 0:01:30.676 --> 0:01:33.676 named John Sinclair. And stay put at the end of 0:01:33.676 --> 0:01:37.116 this episode to hear his song off of Iggy's newest album, 0:01:40.116 --> 0:01:43.316 This is Broken Record liner notes for the Digital Age. 0:01:43.516 --> 0:01:48.116 I'm justin Richmond. Here's Rick Rubin in conversation with Iggy Pop. 0:01:48.796 --> 0:01:52.156 Rick recorded his side in parts unknown, and Iggy recorded 0:01:52.196 --> 0:01:55.276 his side of the conversation at Shanger Law in Malibu. 0:01:56.276 --> 0:02:00.076 He what's happening to me? How are you feeling? Hey, 0:02:00.116 --> 0:02:02.516 I'm alright, good. It's good to see you. Good air 0:02:02.716 --> 0:02:06.116 up here, Yeah, really really nice. Yeah, you're sitting in 0:02:06.156 --> 0:02:08.876 my usual spot. That's where I usually hang out. Oh, 0:02:09.156 --> 0:02:12.116 that's great. That's a good spot. I used to drive 0:02:12.196 --> 0:02:15.356 over here a lot when when La would get you know, 0:02:15.916 --> 0:02:18.556 too close. You know, I understood. When did you live 0:02:18.596 --> 0:02:27.356 in La? Well, I lived here around here seventy seventy three, 0:02:27.956 --> 0:02:31.356 seventy four and then a little bit into seventy five, 0:02:31.596 --> 0:02:34.316 so about two and a half years. But I would 0:02:34.316 --> 0:02:38.076 come out a lot in the eighties. You sort of 0:02:38.116 --> 0:02:40.996 had to come here to do things. You know a 0:02:41.076 --> 0:02:43.956 lot in nineties two? And when you when you left LA, 0:02:43.996 --> 0:02:46.596 did you moved to New York? When I left LA 0:02:46.996 --> 0:02:52.196 in the seventies, I hitched onto David Bowie's Station a 0:02:52.356 --> 0:02:57.676 Station tour and started writing with him as that tour 0:02:57.796 --> 0:03:07.076 progressed across America until we got busted in Rochester and 0:03:07.076 --> 0:03:13.036 then from there went to Europe. How did you guys 0:03:13.036 --> 0:03:16.156 hook up in the first place? We hooked up originally 0:03:16.836 --> 0:03:23.196 when I was staying in New York in nineteen seventy 0:03:23.236 --> 0:03:28.316 one at the loft department of a guy named Danny Fields, 0:03:28.396 --> 0:03:32.876 who was a key positive force for people like the 0:03:32.996 --> 0:03:38.116 Ramons myself. He helped out Lou Reed in a lot 0:03:38.156 --> 0:03:40.556 of ways, all sorts of all sorts of good people. 0:03:40.876 --> 0:03:44.636 Did Danny sign you to Electra? Danny was the guy 0:03:44.676 --> 0:03:50.156 who originally came to the Union Ballroom at University of 0:03:50.196 --> 0:03:53.636 Michigan to see the MC five and we were opening 0:03:54.316 --> 0:03:58.516 and he saw us, and he recommended. We spoke, and 0:03:58.636 --> 0:04:02.556 he recommended to Jack Holtzman that well, if you're going 0:04:02.636 --> 0:04:05.516 to sign the five, maybe you should sign this other 0:04:05.596 --> 0:04:09.716 band too. I thought they had something amazing. He was 0:04:09.996 --> 0:04:13.636 he was the guy. Yeah, they didn't have a functioning 0:04:13.756 --> 0:04:16.196 A and R. A lot of a lot of labels 0:04:16.236 --> 0:04:18.996 didn't at the time, so he was there publicist. But 0:04:19.076 --> 0:04:21.956 he was the kind of guy that Jack Holtzmann used 0:04:22.556 --> 0:04:26.716 as the in house hipster, you know, the guy who 0:04:26.796 --> 0:04:30.556 knew what was going on and what was cool. And 0:04:30.676 --> 0:04:33.276 apparently he had good taste, because at that time I 0:04:33.276 --> 0:04:40.356 can't imagine any other label signing those two bands well exactly, 0:04:40.636 --> 0:04:45.516 and Danny had very, very event taste. He was a 0:04:46.436 --> 0:04:52.836 very intelligent, well educated guy. He'd graduated Princeton University, and 0:04:53.636 --> 0:04:57.556 he was a kind of a low key, you know, 0:04:57.996 --> 0:05:00.956 kind of guide were a little suede or leather jacket 0:05:01.196 --> 0:05:06.396 but not too flashy, and slacks and that was about 0:05:06.876 --> 0:05:09.756 that was about as far towards straightness he would go. 0:05:10.516 --> 0:05:15.276 But he didn't. He wasn't flamboyant about anything, and he 0:05:15.516 --> 0:05:19.516 sort of fit right in with the back room crowd 0:05:19.556 --> 0:05:26.196 at Max's with Andy. Warhol would hold court with a 0:05:26.356 --> 0:05:32.276 group of sort of young eccentrics in New York. They 0:05:32.276 --> 0:05:35.476 were like people who should have been the Kennedys and 0:05:35.556 --> 0:05:42.116 they weren't. They were like intelligent, nice looking American kids 0:05:42.196 --> 0:05:48.276 gone hard left suddenly, and if you became a Warhol star, 0:05:48.636 --> 0:05:51.676 and we're willing to work in his movies. You got 0:05:51.676 --> 0:05:55.276 a little paper, a little sort of piece of paper 0:05:55.636 --> 0:05:59.396 similar to the draft cards at the time, with Andy 0:05:59.436 --> 0:06:03.716 Warrell's signature that you could present at Max's Kansas City 0:06:03.716 --> 0:06:05.396 and get all you could eat, but you had to 0:06:05.436 --> 0:06:08.836 pay for your own drinks. Wow. So yeah, that's how 0:06:08.836 --> 0:06:13.116 he paid his feel. Yeah. Yeah. It was a little 0:06:13.356 --> 0:06:17.116 oval room at the back of a steak and beer 0:06:17.196 --> 0:06:23.116 joint on Union Square, and you would have. The first 0:06:23.156 --> 0:06:26.876 time I went in there was because Danny was calling 0:06:26.876 --> 0:06:30.476 me on his phone. I was staying in his loft 0:06:30.516 --> 0:06:34.316 and I was watching mister Smith Goes to Washington on 0:06:34.436 --> 0:06:38.396 his TV. And I was just almost in tears at 0:06:38.436 --> 0:06:42.636 the sincerity of his willie just to take on the corruption, 0:06:42.756 --> 0:06:45.276 and you know, I was relating it to the music industry. 0:06:45.316 --> 0:06:49.076 I have was plenty angry at the time. And he 0:06:49.116 --> 0:06:51.156 had to call me three times. He said, there's some 0:06:51.236 --> 0:06:53.916 people down here. They really want to meet you. It's 0:06:53.996 --> 0:06:58.036 David Bowie and his group and you could do yourself 0:06:58.076 --> 0:07:02.236 a favorite, damn it. So I finally, yeah, I finally said, 0:07:02.316 --> 0:07:06.356 all right, all right, you know, okay, we'll meet these 0:07:06.396 --> 0:07:09.676 strange people, and I went down there one in the 0:07:09.756 --> 0:07:14.716 morning and Lou Lou Reid was down there, David Tony 0:07:14.836 --> 0:07:20.156 Defreese his manager who had a manager get up Big 0:07:20.196 --> 0:07:25.596 Cigar for quote, the Big Frow, you know. But also 0:07:25.716 --> 0:07:31.436 down there was an Ultra Violet and Taylor Mead, who 0:07:31.596 --> 0:07:38.036 was just a strange, very flamboyant street character. There was 0:07:38.076 --> 0:07:42.196 a wonderful guy named Donald Lyons in that group who 0:07:42.316 --> 0:07:46.996 was a professor of Greek. He could teach you, yeah, 0:07:47.076 --> 0:07:51.596 actual he spoke Greek and Latin. But it was just 0:07:51.676 --> 0:07:54.716 a cool guy, right. It's like someone it was like 0:07:55.716 --> 0:08:00.156 my dad without being judgmental, you know, yeah, you know, 0:08:00.596 --> 0:08:04.076 just somebody like you know, wow, it educated man who 0:08:04.076 --> 0:08:07.236 wears a suit and everything, but it's just like easy going, 0:08:07.356 --> 0:08:10.836 you know. And gosh, who else was down there? Baby 0:08:10.916 --> 0:08:15.076 Jane Holtz was there that night and they all just 0:08:15.116 --> 0:08:18.916 sit around and chitter chatter a lot. Had you had 0:08:18.956 --> 0:08:22.196 been aware of Bowie's music at this point in time 0:08:22.276 --> 0:08:27.356 or not? Really, I was only aware that he had. 0:08:27.956 --> 0:08:31.876 He'd mentioned the Stooges or maybe it was me in 0:08:32.316 --> 0:08:36.076 a little piece in the Melody Maker magazine as one 0:08:36.116 --> 0:08:41.756 of his favorite groups or favorite songs, and I can't remember. 0:08:41.916 --> 0:08:44.676 It was right around that time that I heard what 0:08:44.756 --> 0:08:47.876 he was what he was doing, which was the album 0:08:47.996 --> 0:08:50.996 I think it was Hunky Dory and it had Life 0:08:50.996 --> 0:08:56.036 on Mars, and I remember listen to it and I thought, well, 0:08:56.036 --> 0:09:00.996 this is not my cup of tea, but whoa, this 0:09:00.996 --> 0:09:04.356 guy can do things musically, Holy cow, you know, they're 0:09:04.516 --> 0:09:10.196 incredible grasp of melody and not only chord changes, but 0:09:10.316 --> 0:09:15.476 he would actually do harmonic shifts and uh and transpositions 0:09:15.556 --> 0:09:19.436 and well, oh, dear, dear, dear me. And he had 0:09:19.436 --> 0:09:23.396 he had the range in his voice to carry what 0:09:23.436 --> 0:09:27.436 they call lift a chorus, you know, the old lift 0:09:27.476 --> 0:09:30.636 the chorus singing the song the refrain. So that was 0:09:30.716 --> 0:09:33.076 out I think at the time, and I was listening 0:09:33.076 --> 0:09:37.276 to that and that was my That was my first impression. Bold, 0:09:38.156 --> 0:09:41.876 not any it's not at all related, like you know, 0:09:43.196 --> 0:09:48.836 tough bro rock music, but there are skills. This person 0:09:48.876 --> 0:09:52.516 has actual skills. Who were the tough bro rock music 0:09:52.636 --> 0:09:56.196 that spoke to you in those days at the time. 0:09:56.756 --> 0:10:01.076 Mitch Rider in the Detroit Wheels, for instance. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:01.116 --> 0:10:04.276 he's still alive, right, yes he is, and he's still 0:10:04.316 --> 0:10:07.756 doing us. They still do the same songs. And gigs 0:10:07.796 --> 0:10:11.996 and Johnny b who is amazing, you know, one of 0:10:12.036 --> 0:10:15.356 the finest drummers in America. Still will go out, still 0:10:15.396 --> 0:10:20.436 play with him. But Johnny also did like Stevie Nicks tours. 0:10:20.556 --> 0:10:24.316 You know, he gets he gets good work. Who else 0:10:25.316 --> 0:10:28.556 music like that. I always liked the MC five quite 0:10:28.556 --> 0:10:31.196 a bit. There were some things I liked more than others, 0:10:31.276 --> 0:10:34.316 like like with anybody else, you know, I liked. I 0:10:34.436 --> 0:10:39.116 liked very much the Stones albums where they did mostly covers, 0:10:40.276 --> 0:10:42.276 that was what I was listening to it first. I 0:10:42.356 --> 0:10:46.476 liked very, very very much the first album by the 0:10:46.556 --> 0:10:52.756 Paul Butterfield Blues band, We're Born in Chicago, and Melodon Easy. 0:10:52.916 --> 0:10:55.116 They were doing a lot of little Wallder and stuff, 0:10:55.556 --> 0:10:58.476 and they had a mixed band. Some of the guys 0:10:58.636 --> 0:11:01.956 were born into the White Side and some of the 0:11:01.996 --> 0:11:06.836 guys born into the Black tradition. And sam Ley was 0:11:06.916 --> 0:11:10.396 on drums, who was later it was nice to me 0:11:11.316 --> 0:11:14.876 and then he played on Higher sixty one. Revisited the 0:11:14.956 --> 0:11:22.116 Dylan album That's sound. Did you like Hendrix Hendrix incredibly much? Hendrix? 0:11:22.356 --> 0:11:25.156 I saw him because we were in the Midwest at 0:11:25.196 --> 0:11:30.636 the time, in the old days when the groups would 0:11:30.676 --> 0:11:33.436 come over. You had to get from the east coast 0:11:33.476 --> 0:11:36.876 to the west or vice versa. And Anne Arbor and 0:11:37.116 --> 0:11:40.356 Detroit was one of the stops. So I saw Jimmy 0:11:40.396 --> 0:11:44.436 Hendricks in ann Arbor, Michigan, in a converted bowling alley 0:11:45.276 --> 0:11:48.996 on a stage about twelve inches high. And I was 0:11:49.236 --> 0:11:52.316 right in front of that stage, and he had a 0:11:52.476 --> 0:11:58.676 single stack and Mitch Mitchell on drums and Knoll on bass, 0:11:59.156 --> 0:12:02.676 and he wore the suit with the eyes and he 0:12:02.836 --> 0:12:05.956 played the hell out of it. And the stage was 0:12:06.076 --> 0:12:09.036 right in front of the men's room at I remember 0:12:09.516 --> 0:12:12.316 before the break, see Mitch Mitchell had to go into 0:12:12.316 --> 0:12:14.516 the bedroom and come back. You know, it's a little 0:12:14.516 --> 0:12:17.916 odd things that you remember like that right right there. 0:12:18.196 --> 0:12:23.716 And in Detroit, Michigan, at the Grande Ballroom, where the 0:12:23.956 --> 0:12:27.556 Stooges played a lot, and especially with the MC five. 0:12:28.876 --> 0:12:33.396 We opened for the Who, we opened for Cream, we 0:12:33.556 --> 0:12:37.276 opened for Sly and the Family Stone. You could see 0:12:38.316 --> 0:12:42.356 Van Morrison, you know, everybody played there. And again the 0:12:43.116 --> 0:12:46.756 very close quarters kind of must have held a thousand people. 0:12:47.636 --> 0:12:53.916 One window, very hot and low procenium, so you were 0:12:53.956 --> 0:12:56.876 really right there. You could really see it, really hear 0:12:56.916 --> 0:13:01.956 it for what it was led Zeppelin also led Zeppelin 0:13:02.036 --> 0:13:05.076 didn't want to use there were these two tiny dressing 0:13:05.116 --> 0:13:08.116 rooms next to the stage. They didn't want to use that, 0:13:08.276 --> 0:13:13.036 so they used the manager's office and walked through the 0:13:13.076 --> 0:13:18.596 crowd to get on stage. But in those days, when 0:13:18.716 --> 0:13:22.636 Jimmy Page hit his guitar, the sound you heard was 0:13:22.716 --> 0:13:26.276 coming out of his amp. It was not miked through APA. 0:13:26.596 --> 0:13:30.836 In those days. At an average ballroom there, PA would 0:13:30.876 --> 0:13:33.996 be used only for the vocals and they'd usually be 0:13:34.036 --> 0:13:37.756 one mic placed under the snare drum on the battering 0:13:37.836 --> 0:13:41.196 side of the bass drum, goin to collect everything and 0:13:41.236 --> 0:13:43.036 that was about it, you know. So it was a 0:13:43.636 --> 0:13:46.796 it was a more organic sound, and it was great 0:13:46.876 --> 0:13:50.276 if you were in the right spot, you know, would 0:13:50.316 --> 0:13:52.956 you move position to get it to sound as good 0:13:52.956 --> 0:13:55.876 as he could? Like yes, next, yes, oh hell yeah, 0:13:55.956 --> 0:13:58.676 yeah that's it, you bet I did. Yeah, and you 0:13:59.436 --> 0:14:03.876 push yeah, push my way absolutely because you would have 0:14:03.956 --> 0:14:05.636 to do that, you know, if you were on the 0:14:05.676 --> 0:14:08.396 guitar side, you'd hear more of that and you wouldn't 0:14:08.396 --> 0:14:12.196 hear the bass much. Amazing. Yeah. When the who played there, 0:14:13.196 --> 0:14:18.116 Townsend had the Leslie speaker, you know, the large wooden 0:14:18.316 --> 0:14:23.836 box with the JBL twelve in speaker and then the 0:14:24.356 --> 0:14:28.156 fan going around him and want to want to do 0:14:28.196 --> 0:14:31.836 that to your guitar, And he had that up on 0:14:31.996 --> 0:14:36.596 stage and in those days it was very hard. H 0:14:37.076 --> 0:14:41.356 Sly had a B three, so they had to bring 0:14:41.356 --> 0:14:46.316 to B three. There's no B three in the Psychedelic Ballroom. 0:14:46.356 --> 0:14:48.556 They had somebody had to get that B three in 0:14:48.636 --> 0:14:51.036 there and get it out. It was a big deal. 0:14:51.076 --> 0:14:56.396 That's a huge piece of stuff, you know, So things 0:14:56.396 --> 0:15:00.796 were different. I always preferred those songs. It's a different 0:15:00.796 --> 0:15:04.876 world down and a great sound engineer can do a 0:15:04.876 --> 0:15:08.796 lot of stuff to manipulate what's coming out of the amp. Sly, 0:15:09.276 --> 0:15:13.916 But the problem is it can become sammy to my ears, 0:15:13.956 --> 0:15:17.356 in other words, to my ears, still, a drum kit 0:15:17.836 --> 0:15:22.796 sounds like a drum kit. It's very, very exciting. It's 0:15:22.796 --> 0:15:26.676 a boom when you hit the whack or didn't didn't 0:15:26.756 --> 0:15:31.676 ding whatever it is, and a bass sounds like a bass, etcetera, etcetera. 0:15:32.196 --> 0:15:38.836 And I usually prefer minimum interference. But it's it's different now. 0:15:38.916 --> 0:15:43.236 It's better to use some smaller amps, and you know, 0:15:43.476 --> 0:15:47.356 I get that, but something is lost with size. Yeah, 0:15:47.436 --> 0:15:49.956 it's hard to say what's better, though, you know, it's 0:15:50.036 --> 0:15:53.596 just I wouldn't say better, just say you know, yeah, 0:15:53.596 --> 0:15:56.316 it's just different. I just recently recorded an album with 0:15:56.396 --> 0:16:00.236 Neil Young in that room, and he had you did that? 0:16:00.316 --> 0:16:02.556 I heard the first one. It's good. Yeah, yeah, we 0:16:02.676 --> 0:16:06.276 did that there, and yeah it was all live and 0:16:06.516 --> 0:16:09.716 all of the amps were in the room and they 0:16:09.716 --> 0:16:14.996 were playing blisteringly loud, and yeah, yeah we miked it. 0:16:15.116 --> 0:16:18.036 But on every mic you can hear every instrument, you know, 0:16:18.036 --> 0:16:20.956 because it's just a barrage of sound in the space. 0:16:21.436 --> 0:16:24.796 That's I like that. Yeah, I like that a lot. 0:16:24.916 --> 0:16:29.156 That's I did a couple albums that way, especially the 0:16:29.356 --> 0:16:31.756 second moment of the Studge is called fun House, and 0:16:31.996 --> 0:16:34.956 you know that's my favorite of the studges. That's what 0:16:35.076 --> 0:16:37.876 I liked the best too. We had little we had 0:16:37.916 --> 0:16:41.996 little baffles in the room, you know, the mini baffle, 0:16:42.276 --> 0:16:45.396 like about as big as that screen you're on right now, 0:16:45.436 --> 0:16:50.836 but nothing, nothing too much to separate. The engineer on 0:16:50.916 --> 0:16:56.116 that was a young Englishman named Byron ross my Ring, 0:16:56.196 --> 0:16:59.996 and I thought I'd never seen such a dashing young englishman. 0:17:01.516 --> 0:17:03.516 If he didn't wear an ask out, he should have. 0:17:04.116 --> 0:17:08.036 And he looked like ready for yachting, you know. And 0:17:08.156 --> 0:17:11.836 apparently it was his second album and the first one 0:17:11.836 --> 0:17:15.956 he'd done over here was Barbera Streisando and he went right, yeah, 0:17:16.076 --> 0:17:20.076 right from that to us and he didn't bat an eye. 0:17:20.156 --> 0:17:24.716 There was a producer hired to do it named Don Golucci, 0:17:24.836 --> 0:17:28.676 who had played the organ on The Kingsman on Louis Louis, 0:17:29.436 --> 0:17:33.676 and Don was worried about. Well, they tried separating us 0:17:33.756 --> 0:17:36.956 the first day and we were we wanted to cry. 0:17:36.996 --> 0:17:40.476 It didn't work, so Buyer said, don't worry, it will 0:17:40.516 --> 0:17:44.916 set this something fighting. It was fine. He wasn't bothered. 0:17:45.116 --> 0:17:49.156 Where was it recorded at that killer studio? It's the 0:17:49.156 --> 0:17:55.596 Elector Studios that's right there on Lasienega Boulevard, two doors 0:17:55.836 --> 0:17:59.716 from the down the hill from Santa Monica on the 0:17:59.796 --> 0:18:03.596 east side of the street. It was a it's still 0:18:03.636 --> 0:18:06.396 a studio, I think, but it was the Elector, Yes, 0:18:06.436 --> 0:18:10.956 I believe, so Japanese architect that was designed, you know, 0:18:11.876 --> 0:18:16.596 spirit or no Gucci, very minimal architecture with a nice 0:18:16.636 --> 0:18:23.476 little Bonsai garden and just a nice place. One recording room, 0:18:23.596 --> 0:18:27.756 you know, mid size. It's all you needed. Really. It 0:18:27.836 --> 0:18:31.236 was done right there. We stayed at the Tropicana and 0:18:31.316 --> 0:18:35.436 we would all walk to the corner together with the 0:18:35.476 --> 0:18:39.156 guitars at the drop sticks and everything each day and 0:18:39.556 --> 0:18:43.556 wait at the light by the liquor store there Laziannega 0:18:43.676 --> 0:18:47.436 Lanes and then cross and walk down the hill about 0:18:47.516 --> 0:18:51.036 forty steps to the to the studio and we each 0:18:51.236 --> 0:18:53.676 each day we would do one song over and over 0:18:53.716 --> 0:18:57.996 and over until we thought we that was the take, 0:18:58.196 --> 0:19:01.476 that where everything went right. That's all we did it. 0:19:02.476 --> 0:19:04.156 We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be 0:19:04.156 --> 0:19:10.796 back with more from Rick Rubin and Aggy Pop. We're 0:19:10.796 --> 0:19:13.036 back with more from Rick Rubin and Iggy Pop, who 0:19:13.036 --> 0:19:15.836 are talking about the making of the Stooges nineteen seventy 0:19:15.836 --> 0:19:20.996 album fun House. How are those songs written? Most of 0:19:21.076 --> 0:19:26.956 that album I wrote in my bedroom in Michigan for 0:19:27.796 --> 0:19:31.356 them to play, for the band to play. I understood 0:19:31.356 --> 0:19:35.036 the strengths of the Ashton brothers. They had a special 0:19:35.116 --> 0:19:40.036 timing and especially the drummer. The drummer was Elvis Redux. 0:19:40.916 --> 0:19:44.276 It was Elvis Presley in like every town probably had 0:19:44.516 --> 0:19:47.356 and Elvis, and he was our Elvis. He was a 0:19:47.396 --> 0:19:51.836 good looking, large kid and you just looked at him, 0:19:51.916 --> 0:19:56.276 and you knew this guy had something, and he had 0:19:56.316 --> 0:19:59.476 been a teenager he dropped out of school and I 0:19:59.556 --> 0:20:02.876 was a local drummer and he kept bugging me to 0:20:03.556 --> 0:20:07.156 teach him to play drums. So finally, when I wanted 0:20:07.196 --> 0:20:10.236 to start a group, I did and he was very good, 0:20:10.636 --> 0:20:15.276 very good. And Ron had these beautiful A lot of 0:20:15.276 --> 0:20:18.916 guitar players that are good have these beautiful hands, they 0:20:18.916 --> 0:20:22.316 have the fingers. He had lovely fingers, and he was 0:20:22.476 --> 0:20:25.636 playing bass at the time, and he's sort of in 0:20:25.796 --> 0:20:32.636 a walking style, and it was a very good bassist. 0:20:32.676 --> 0:20:36.716 And at one point I tried to do guitar and 0:20:36.716 --> 0:20:40.236 I didn't have the talent. I said, Ron, you're the guitarist. 0:20:40.316 --> 0:20:43.316 Now I'm gonna front, And that's how we sort of 0:20:43.316 --> 0:20:45.236 got the group together. It was a three of us, 0:20:45.236 --> 0:20:49.036 and then their friend Dave came in later to play 0:20:49.036 --> 0:20:52.556 bass and and he did a really good job with 0:20:52.876 --> 0:20:56.476 very simple skills, and he was stayed out of the 0:20:56.516 --> 0:20:59.476 way of what else was going on and held it 0:20:59.516 --> 0:21:05.356 down well. So basically I would write up something and 0:21:05.396 --> 0:21:09.996 then go down into our rehearsal room in the farmhouse 0:21:10.076 --> 0:21:13.516 and pull teeth to get everybody together for a rehearsal 0:21:13.676 --> 0:21:17.036 is sets banded life in those days, and we rehearse 0:21:17.076 --> 0:21:19.436 it up and then we go out on the weekend 0:21:20.036 --> 0:21:24.156 and play the new song in our sets until we 0:21:24.276 --> 0:21:30.596 had a whole repertoire. And the big number that Ron 0:21:31.396 --> 0:21:33.996 red the acet which I think is my favorite number 0:21:33.996 --> 0:21:38.476 on the thing, is tv I too, And that was his. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:38.676 --> 0:21:41.396 that's the best one because he can actually play a guitar. 0:21:41.956 --> 0:21:45.636 I couldn't. But Ron had a very slow event horizon 0:21:45.876 --> 0:21:49.076 in his life. He would play like on the first 0:21:49.116 --> 0:21:51.676 record that he had, the one big one, I want 0:21:51.676 --> 0:21:54.716 to be your dog riff. Wow, what a riff, you know? 0:21:55.116 --> 0:21:58.196 And for this one he had, I just kept knocking 0:21:58.236 --> 0:22:00.876 on his door in the band house until he said, 0:22:00.916 --> 0:22:03.796 all right, all right, all write a song with you. 0:22:04.276 --> 0:22:08.156 And he started playing tv I the way it sounds 0:22:08.756 --> 0:22:12.156 about three minutes into the song where it's really he's 0:22:12.196 --> 0:22:15.756 going very furious, and I thought about it. I said, Okay, 0:22:15.756 --> 0:22:19.436 that's great, but look, if it's gonna develop work as 0:22:19.476 --> 0:22:23.636 a song, play it like started out like Hooker, like 0:22:23.756 --> 0:22:28.196 John Lee. Hooker started out single string with a droning string, 0:22:28.676 --> 0:22:32.996 and that's he. He liked Hooker too, so we started 0:22:33.156 --> 0:22:37.356 that way. Then I gave him the variation where instead 0:22:37.396 --> 0:22:40.116 of da da da da da da da da da da, 0:22:40.116 --> 0:22:45.476 where it's just dada dada that suffices as a chorus, 0:22:46.316 --> 0:22:48.756 you know, for for the way we played something that's 0:22:48.796 --> 0:22:51.956 just a little a little wrinkle, yeah, you know. And 0:22:51.996 --> 0:22:55.796 then Uh developed the part where it kind of melds 0:22:55.876 --> 0:23:02.156 into the the just the drone. When did the lyrics 0:23:02.196 --> 0:23:07.356 come there in Michigan in the farmhouse, It wasn't as 0:23:07.396 --> 0:23:11.156 hard as the first album. I remember that they just 0:23:11.276 --> 0:23:15.436 kind of came down on the street. Was originally down 0:23:15.476 --> 0:23:20.796 on the Beach and yeah, I've always liked beach culture, 0:23:21.236 --> 0:23:24.116 and I would singing about down on the beach and 0:23:24.916 --> 0:23:29.636 where the stars shine and how the open feeling at night. 0:23:29.996 --> 0:23:33.756 And then I thought, well, look, I'm in this rock 0:23:33.956 --> 0:23:40.116 culture now, maybe something more people can relate to. And 0:23:41.156 --> 0:23:44.116 at some point we took a trip to New York 0:23:45.076 --> 0:23:47.516 and I was pretty high one night and I was 0:23:47.596 --> 0:23:51.836 hanging out on Eighth Street when it was very active 0:23:52.156 --> 0:23:58.396 between like university place of sixth, and everybody was down 0:23:58.396 --> 0:24:01.196 on the street and there were so many young faces 0:24:01.756 --> 0:24:06.836 milling around that everybody seemed interesting. So I took it 0:24:06.956 --> 0:24:09.836 from there you know, and it was sort of it 0:24:10.036 --> 0:24:11.956 was sort of meant to be also a little bit 0:24:11.996 --> 0:24:15.836 about esthetics. I was just fascinated by everything in the 0:24:15.876 --> 0:24:19.116 big city, you know, whether it was it might be 0:24:19.156 --> 0:24:21.516 an attractive girl or it might be just a really 0:24:21.556 --> 0:24:26.356 interesting guy. But faces. It started from faces, you know. 0:24:26.436 --> 0:24:29.916 So that one was that was like that TV I 0:24:30.316 --> 0:24:34.156 I remember that came from We did a gig at 0:24:34.156 --> 0:24:39.556 a junior high school in ann Arbor, Forsyth Junior High 0:24:39.716 --> 0:24:44.116 and we were playing We weren't playing that number, we 0:24:44.196 --> 0:24:47.036 didn't have it yet, but there was one of the 0:24:47.116 --> 0:24:50.756 students at the junior high she was laying on her 0:24:50.796 --> 0:24:54.516 back on in the what they call the multi purpose 0:24:54.636 --> 0:24:58.076 room where you play you know, it's a gymnaisy, it's 0:24:58.076 --> 0:25:01.156 a luge shrew, it's a dance all which she was 0:25:01.236 --> 0:25:05.596 just laying there sort of taking it in on her 0:25:05.636 --> 0:25:09.116 back with her arms folded behind her. And I thought, 0:25:09.116 --> 0:25:14.396 but she's just taken this like like watching TV. And 0:25:14.476 --> 0:25:17.956 I thought about that, and then I always liked the 0:25:17.996 --> 0:25:22.556 CBS logo yeah at the time, the eye the Big Guy. 0:25:23.076 --> 0:25:27.516 So I thought TV I, well, that's interesting, you know. 0:25:27.676 --> 0:25:32.076 So that was that was where that came from. So cool. 0:25:32.356 --> 0:25:34.556 I always loved the song and never had any idea 0:25:34.596 --> 0:25:37.396 what it meant. Yeah, so it's it's cool and who 0:25:37.636 --> 0:25:40.756 It takes on its own pretty simple, She's check it out. 0:25:40.876 --> 0:25:44.116 But it still takes on its own mythical you know. 0:25:44.156 --> 0:25:46.476 I've been hearing the song my pretty much my whole life, 0:25:46.516 --> 0:25:50.476 so it takes on a mythical meaning beyond. But knowing 0:25:50.516 --> 0:25:53.556 that it actually is rooted in reality is really interesting. 0:25:54.356 --> 0:25:56.876 I tried to keep it away from the strict you know, 0:25:56.916 --> 0:26:01.436 I did it go into the carnal details or implications. 0:26:01.516 --> 0:26:04.316 I thought it was more fun to be just I 0:26:04.396 --> 0:26:08.676 just like the TV I yeah, yeah, just the sound 0:26:08.716 --> 0:26:11.476 of that. You know, it's funny. I think about it 0:26:11.476 --> 0:26:15.676 a lot lately. Where Orwell In nineteen eighty four had 0:26:15.716 --> 0:26:20.636 this idea that the televisions in England would all have 0:26:20.676 --> 0:26:22.916 an eye that could spy on you. And now, of 0:26:22.956 --> 0:26:26.796 course you know that could be done through your phone. Yeah, 0:26:27.076 --> 0:26:31.316 I'm looking at one right now. I'm looking right, looking 0:26:31.316 --> 0:26:35.596 at me, looking at you. That's how yeah right now, yep, yep. 0:26:36.276 --> 0:26:40.076 When's the first time you ever saw that the ocean here? 0:26:40.516 --> 0:26:43.476 It was when we came to make fun House and 0:26:44.556 --> 0:26:46.876 we all went out. We stayed in the Tropic Cannas, 0:26:46.876 --> 0:26:48.956 so you had to do is go straight out Santa 0:26:49.036 --> 0:26:52.516 Monica Boulevard, which at the time was a real boulevard 0:26:52.516 --> 0:26:54.916 with a grassy medium in the middle, and you'd see 0:26:54.916 --> 0:26:58.996 horses sometimes there. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And we just 0:26:59.116 --> 0:27:01.436 drove out and we went to the beach. Me and 0:27:01.476 --> 0:27:05.596 the Sacks player Steve McKay maybe I think one of 0:27:05.636 --> 0:27:09.036 the roadies, and we went to the beach right by 0:27:09.036 --> 0:27:13.316 the Santa Monica Pier and I saw it and the 0:27:13.356 --> 0:27:16.036