Nowadays Iggy Pop is honored as the godfather of punk and a touchstone for metallic rock, but very few people heard his greatest albums at the time of their release. He wasn’t just edgy; he was beyond the edge. The CD remastering of Iggy’s great 1977 album Kill City is a reminder that his classic recordings remain light-years ahead of most of the albums from bands that acknowledge his influence today.
Collaborating with guitarist James Williamson, Iggy sang in a muscular yet supple voice of social decay and passions beyond the boundary of reason and good sense. The rhythms snapped and crackled with a confidence suggesting Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts beneath Williamson’s searing, hissing guitar. Never just a garage rocker, Iggy embraced jazz influences through saxophonist John Harden, echoes of North African tribal music and even ballads. “I Got Nothin’” would sound great in a radio set after Dylan’s “Knockin’on Heaven’s Door.”
