Classic Album: Iggy Pop and James Williamson – Kill City
admin on Jan 28th 2009
Iggy Pop and James Williamson – Kill City
Recorded in the aftermath of The Stooges’ collapse, Kill Ciy captures Iggy Pop in a rare moment of vulnerability and offers a glimpse of the front man at his most heartfelt.
Raw Power guitarist James Williamson supplanted the visceral bombast of the Stooges with a blend of tender ballads and gritty, Stones-like riffs in a last-ditch bid to focus Iggy’s flagging career.
The front man’s washed-out vocals, recorded while on day release from a psychiatric hospital, sound so fraught with despair here that they darken the album’s pop sensibilities, lending the soulful backup harmonies a poignancy that would not have been there otherwise.
Despite the murky production and the presence of John Harden’s wailing sax, Kill City is a consistently hard-hitting album with a commercial potential that was never realised. Instead an unsatisfied Williamson locked the tapes away for two years before cashing in on the material once Iggy’s stock had finally risen. Iggy, meanwhile, disowned the album, bewildered by its cult popularity and eager to distance himself from its deeply personal back story.
Nevertheless, few can argue that in terms of the quality of material and the strength of his voice, this is an overlooked achievement in a career that has seen few since.
Further listening:
The Stooges – Raw Power (Columbia/Legacy, 1973)
Iggy Pop – Lust for Life (Virgin, 1977)
The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street (Rolling Stones/Atlantic, 1972)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Filed in Classic Albums
Just bought this album from Amoeba in SF. There’s a powerful image conjured up here of sweating in the heat of Hollywood summer, coked up house parties up in the hills, and sticky vinyl benches in a smokey dive bar.
Well, not really…but in my mind that’s sort of the narrative that must’ve been going on in the background while the band was trudging out to the studio to set up mics, tune guitars, wait for backup singers to arrive, etc.
My favorite song so far is I Got Nothing.