david-bowie

Anyone who’s seen the movie Trainspotting is familiar with the Iggy Pop 1977 classic “Lust for Life” and has probably danced along like a hypnotized chicken. As catchy as the title track is on the Lust for Life Album, “Some Weird Sin” should have been recorded in 2006 instead of 1977, sounding like the Strokes meets the Queens of the Stoned Age. 

Collaborations are when two or more people show off for each other, raising the ante for success. David Bowie wrote most of the music for this tune and Iggy Pop was no slouch in the lyrics department, spewing forth boredom, isolation,  and honest discontent. Add in the Sales brothers, Tony and Hunt, on bass and drums respectively, with Scotsman Ricky Gardiner and longtime Bowie collaborator Carlos Alomar on dueling lead guitars, and you have a recipe for danger that you could dance to.

Bowie treated the country of West Germany like his own private rehab facility, since hard drugs were strictly verboten and hard to come by, even for someone on his level of influence. And like a kid whose parents said they can take a buddy on a trip to the shore, David chose Iggy, who was floundering with his addiction to various substances. Germany was the birthplace of Sennheiser, Neumann, and Gefell microphones and always had a reputation for sound excellence with shows like Beat Club, Germany’s answer to The Midnight Special. Hansa Studio’s in Berlin was a perfect storm for anyone looking to achieve sonic perfection while avoiding pesky overdoses.

But why Iggy? Why would the slim white duke abandon his own music career to play backup for a self destructive hasbeen with a thick midwestern accent and an allergy to wearing shirts? David Bowie singing backup is like having the Rock as your personal trainer. Here, Bowie explains that while he writes songs with this (pointing at his own head) Iggy writes songs with this (pointing to his stomach and crotch.) Fair enough, Mr. Bowie, fair enough.

About 6:25 in. 

Iggy really delivered with these lyrics with couplets like “I’m trying to break in, Oh, I know it’s not for me”, “With my head on the ledge, that’s what you get out on the edge.” and my favorite, “Some weird sin, just to relax with.” For fucks sake people, just let Iggy Pop relax! The man has been literally rolling though broken glass for you.  

The rhythm section grooved the song like only brothers can do. The Sales brother’s father was none other than 1950’s comedian Soupy Sales, which I’m sure helped them pay for bass strings and drumheads. 

Hunt Sales earned his place in the upper echelon of drumming with his driving beat on “Lust for Life” featuring a wide open, un-muffed bass drum that would be more at home in the jazz age and his judicious use of cowbell at the end of the chorus earned them a spot on www.ultimatecowbell.com. Insert your own Christopher Walken joke here.

Besides playing with his brother in Tin Machine with Bowie, and Todd Rungruen, Tony Fox Sales also played in a band called Chequered Past that included members of Blondie and the Sex pistols and The Cheap Dates, which included actor Harry Dean Stanon, Skunk Baxter from Steely Dan\The Dobbie brothers, and Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats who also appeared in Slim Jim beef jerky commercials (“Bite me!”)

As a guitarist, Carlos Alomar is the real deal. Being part of the house band at the notoriously uncharitable Apollo in NYC, that backed James Brown, Luther Vandross, and Chuck Berry, is a covetous musical laurel. Besides Bowie, Almomar also worked with heavy hitters Sir Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and a host of others. Ricky Gardiner had previously played on David Bowie’s Low album and for a group called Beggars Opera. 

Of course, none of this would matter if no one ever committed the song to tape. After sharpening his claws producing Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy albums, Colin Thurston became a pop recording icon, producing and engineering the Human League and Duran Duran, using these Bowie/Pop sessions as a stepping stone. 

While no major band has covered the song to my knowledge, the Some Weird Sin Club in London is a really cool underground club playing live rock and/or roll in true Iggy fashion. 

Despite releasing “Some Weird Sin” as a 7-inch single, the tune was overshadowed by “Lust for Life” and “The Passenger”, two of Iggy Pop’s biggest songs from this post Stooges career. However the influence on musicians who listen to entire albums is still heard today.

Here actress and musician Juliet Lewis breaks down why she’d rather be in the Stooges than the Rolling Stones. I couldn’t have said it any better (or hotter) myself.