Lust for Life (album)

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Lust for Life

Studio album by Iggy Pop
Released	September 9, 1977
Recorded	Hansa Studios, Berlin 1977
Genre	Post-punk, Detroit rock
Length	41:53
Label	RCA
Producer(s)	Bewlay Bros.
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A) link
Iggy Pop chronology
The Idiot (1977)	Lust For Life (1977)	TV Eye Live 1977 (1978)

Lust for Life is a 1977 album by Iggy Pop, his second collaboration with David Bowie following The Idiot, released earlier in the year. As well as being a critical success, it was Pop's most commercially popular album to date. The title track gained further exposure two decades later when it was featured on the soundtrack of the film Trainspotting (1996).

The album is generally considered to be more of an Iggy Pop record than the Bowie-dominated The Idiot, being less experimental musically and having more of a rock and roll flavour. However some of its themes were similarly dark, as in "The Passenger", long regarded one of Pop’s most haunting tracks, and "Tonight" and "Turn Blue", both of which dealt with heroin abuse. Balanced against this were more optimistic songs like "Success" and "Lust for Life", the latter promising “No more beating my brains / With the liquor and drugs”. The cover photo, featuring the singer's maniacal grin, was taken by Alan Kent, who also shot the cover for The Idiot.

David Bowie, Iggy Pop and engineer Colin Thurston produced the album under the pseudonym "Bewlay Bros." (name via the final track on Bowie’s Hunky Dory). Recording took place at Hansa Studios in Berlin and featured Ricky Gardiner and Carlos Alomar on guitars with Hunt and Tony Sales on drums and bass, respectively. Trivia buffs have noted that, with Bowie’s presence on keyboards and backing vocals, the band included three-quarters of the future Tin Machine line-up, missing only Reeves Gabrels; in fact it was the Sales brothers’ hard-rocking contribution to this album that led Bowie to invite them to join Tin Machine twelve years later ("Check out Lust For Life," Bowie told Gabrels, "I’ve found the rhythm section!").

Lust for Life reached #28 in the UK charts. "Success" b/w "The Passenger" was released as a single in October 1977. A number of tracks appeared the following year on the live set TV Eye. Bowie covered "Tonight" (minus the opening lines referencing drugs) with Tina Turner, as well as "Neighborhood Threat", on his 1984 release Tonight. "The Passenger" has been performed by Nick Cave, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Michael Hutchence (on the Batman Forever soundtrack) and R.E.M., amongst others. Duran Duran covered "Success" on the faves collection Thank You. "Lust For Life" has been played by many artists including Yo La Tengo, The Damned, Tom Jones and The Pretenders, and David Bowie live, and is used as bumper music on The Jim Rome Show. It is also used as the theme music for the ongoing advertising campaign for Royal Caribbean International. Its distinctive riff is commonly cited as a key inspiration for Jet’s 2003 hit single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?".

[edit] Track listing

"Lust for Life" – 5:13 (lyrics: Iggy Pop, music: David Bowie)
"Sixteen" – 2:26 (Pop)
"Some Weird Sin" – 3:42 (lyrics: Pop, music: Bowie)
"The Passenger" – 4:44 (lyrics: Pop, music: Ricky Gardiner)
"Tonight" – 3:39 (lyrics: Pop, music: Bowie)
"Success" – 4:25 (lyrics: Pop, music: Bowie / Gardiner)
"Turn Blue" – 6:56 (lyrics: Pop / Walter Lacey, music: Bowie / Warren Peace)
"Neighborhood Threat" – 3:25 (lyrics: Pop, music: Bowie / Gardiner)
"Fall in Love with Me" – 6:30 (lyrics: Pop, music: Bowie / Hunt Sales / Tony Sales)