Loving the Bowie Voice(s), Playlist 6: Ziggy Does Iggy

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by sandraphflowers

“Some bands do Stones, some bands do Chuck Berry, I cover Iggy Pop.”
David Bowie, Diamond Club Interview, Toronto Canada, 1987

“Iggy Confidential: The Songs of David Bowie” is a 2016 BBC 6 Radio Music program compiled and narrated by Iggy Pop in tribute to his longtime friend. Describing his compilation process, Pop said, “The way I chose was from memory….I took out a piece of paper and a pen and closed my eyes and just remembered what I liked at different times.” He also said he gave preference to “things that are a little more low on the totem pole, but not obscure” (Rolling Stone).

The resulting 25-song list and Pop’s running commentary make for a fascinating glimpse of Bowie’s entire career. Still, fans of the songs Bowie co-wrote with Pop may be disappointed to find these songs missing from the Iggy Confidential list.

There are 12 such songs, but taking a cue from Bowie’s amusing comment above, I’ve limited this playlist to the five songs Bowie covered as well as co-authored. Those five are

1. “China Girl”
2. “Lust for Life”
3. “Neighborhood Threat”
4. “Sister Midnight”
5. “Tonight”

BUT FIRST, WHAT QUALIFIES AS A COVER?

Before answering that question, I want to give a shout-out and thanks to the staffs and volunteers at the music database sites I found most useful in researching this playlist. They are setlist.fm for performance histories, the Illustrated db Discography for recording histories, and coverinfo.de for explanations of the ins and outs of covering.

Returning to the question of what qualifies as a cover, then, I began this list with the assumption that I knew exactly what a cover was. My understanding was in line with coverinfo.de’s definition:  “a new version of a previously existing piece of music produced by other performers than the original version.”

That’s a pretty standard definition, but things get a bit complicated when you run into co-authors recording or performing solo versions of songs they wrote together. When that happens, I learned at coverinfo.de, a number of other questions come into play. For instance:

• Which version is considered the original one? The one that was recorded first or the one released first?
• Does a song have to be done in a sound studio to be considered a “recording,” or will a recording of a live performance do?
• Can performers “cover” themselves?

As you might imagine, the answers to those questions raise even more questions. For that reason, and because the whole issue is quite interesting, the best thing for me to do is refer you to the FAQ section of coverinfo.de.

MATTERS NOT ADDRESSED IN THIS LIST

I’ve not included details of Bowie and Pop’s relationship, how their collaborations came about, or their collaboration process. Both artists talked freely about this part of their lives, so its history is easily available on the Internet.

As part of the “Loving the Bowie Voice(s)” series, this list consists only of the Bowie versions of the songs.  This omission also avoids setting up a situation that invites pitting one artist’s version of a song against the other artist’s version with the idea is deciding which version is the “better” one.

Moving on to the music, then….

THE COVERS

China Girl

• Writers: David Bowie and Iggy Pop
• Recorded/released by Iggy Pop on his The Idiot album, 1977
• First performed by Iggy Pop in 1977 on The Idiot World Tour
• First performed by David Bowie, 1983 on the Serious Moonlight Tour

Lust for Life

• Writers: David Bowie and Iggy Pop
• Released by Iggy Pop on his Lust for Life album, 1977
• First performed by Iggy Pop in 1977 on his Lust for Life Tour
• First performed by David Bowie in 1996 at the Rockpalast Open Air Festival

Neighborhood Threat (Audio)

• Writers: David Bowie and Iggy Pop
• Released by Iggy Pop on his Lust for Life album, 1977
• First performed by Iggy Pop in 1977 on his Lust for Life Tour
• First recorded by David Bowie on his Tonight album, 1984

Sister Midnight

• Writers: David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Carlos Alomar
• Released by Iggy Pop on his The Idiot album, 1977
• First performed by Iggy Pop, 1978
• First performed by David Bowie, 1976 (The photo and link for this entry are from a June 13, 2004 Isle of Wight performance.)

Tonight (Audio)

• Writers: David Bowie and Iggy Pop
• Released by Iggy Pop on his Lust for Life album, 1977
• First performed by Iggy Pop, 1977
• Recorded and released by David Bowie on his Tonight album, 1984.

Thank you for exploring this playlist. If you’ve enjoyed it, please like and retweet it on Twitter and share and like it on Facebook. You might also enjoy my other playlists and Bowie articles in the blogs section of DavidBowieNews.com. I’m also on Twitter @revisingmyself. God bless, be safe.