An occasional writer's journal

Whether he be remembered as the Godfather of Punk or the Grandfather of Grunge, rock icon Iggy Pop appears to be finally growing out of his public persona of “real wild child”.

The 61-year-old’s latest album Préliminaires, due for release on May 18, will be an experiment in easy listening for an artiste who is better known for the ferocity of his stage performances with his longtime band The Stooges.

Perhaps it was the death of Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton in January that prompted Iggy to take stock of his life and begin to question his public image of half-naked rock and roll animal. He might not be ready to swap his microphone and ripped jeans for a pipe and slippers, but Préliminaires is a sign that he is looking to mellow the mood.

“It’s a quieter album, with some jazz overtones,” he says. “That’s because at one point I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars, and banging out crappy music.

“I’ve started listening to a lot of New Orleans era — Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton — type of jazz. And I’ve always loved quieter ballads as well. And there was an inspiration for this record that gave me a chance to do that, and that’s a novel by Michel Houllebecq — a great novel, a funny novel — called The Possibility of an Island. I think it’s about death, sex, the end of the human race, and some other pretty funny stuff.”

Iggy jumped at the chance to write the music for a documentary about Houllebecq and the writer’s attempts to adapt a novel that deals with mankind’s desire for immortality. Iggy drew on American jazz influences to compose his personal soundtrack, which includes songs related to one of the book’s characters, a small dog.

So inspiring was the experience, it seems, that he is now targeting Préliminaires at a French speaking audience. Apart from being titled in French, it includes Iggy’s version of the classic ballad Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves).

Iggy’s skill as a minimalist songwriter has informed generations of musicians and he is credited with founding, punk, garage rock, grunge and other forms of indie rock. Even U2’s Bono cited Iggy as a major influence when discussing the band’s new album No Line On The Horizon earlier this year.

I recall a television interview in which Iggy gave credit for his writing style to none other than the famous United States children’s TV presenter, Soupy Sales. Iggy had performed during the 1970s alongside Sales’ musician sons Hunt and Tony who also played with David Bowie and Todd Rundgren.

“Soupy was a big influence in my life when I was little,” said Iggy. “He was on children’s TV in Detroit, and he always said, ‘Send in your letters, but make them 25 words or less.’

“When I started writing songs I thought that was a great tip. So I always try to put less than 25 words in any given song. In my original songs you can count the words and there’ll never be more than 25.

“‘No fun, my babe, no fun!’ You repeat the verse and you’ve still only used up four words!”

Whether we’re songwriting, blogging or writing a marketing campaign or business presentation, Iggy makes an interesting point. Perhaps we should all refer back to children’s TV when tuning up our writing.

Having grown up in the United Kingdom, I missed the delights of Soupy’s’ daytime show for kids, but I later checked him out to discover that his guests included Hollywood’s finest, so popular was his primetime show during the 1960s.

I wonder if Sales, who died this year, might even have inspired some of Iggy’s outrageous stage antics. As an improvisational comic, Soupy had superb timing and a supple physique. Can we see the roots of Iggy’s impish rock theatre in Soupy’s trademark routine, “The Mouse”?